7 Star Wars Outlaws Tips You’ll Wish You Knew Before Playing

I'm wandering through a shady bar, questioning my life choices after a stranger just called me "desperate, but cute." This might not be such an unusual experience, except that stranger was a Mon Calamari, one of the iconic fishy-looking aliens from a galaxy far, far away. This is Star Wars Outlaws, the new Ubisoft video game that my colleagues tried out last week at Gamescom, and I got the chance to play it before its release on Friday, Aug. 30.

YES, STAR WARS OUTLAWS IS AN OPEN-WORLD GAME

There are countless hidden gems (both literal and otherwise) scattered throughout the open world, and the game allows you to explore them at your own pace. However, this freedom can sometimes make locations hard to find if you don't have your directions memorized. While pressing Up on the D-pad helps you ping your objective and activates your "Nix sense" (which highlights interactive elements around you), there are no highlighted paths to follow for quests or objectives. You have to rely on your map and the compass HUD to find your way. This can be tricky if you get turned around easily in games. There were several missions where I ended up biking hundreds of meters in the wrong direction until I checked my map again.

BEWARE OF AREAS THAT AREN’T READY FOR INTERACTION

You can also stumble into areas that aren't ready for interaction. For example, on Toshara — the second of four planets you can visit — there are some treasures hidden behind objects you can't destroy until you get upgrades later in the main quest line. Just trust that if you don't have an ability yet, it's because you don't need it yet. Keep following the story, and you'll get there.

MINIGAMES GALORE

If you like minigames, you're in luck. Star Wars Outlaws offers plenty of them. Lock-picking tests your rhythm, while slicing (hacking) is like Wordle in space. There are many Sabacc tables where you can win and lose credits, as well as sports betting. You'll find arcade cabinets in mechanic shops and hidden alcoves. Within my fifth hour of playing, I even encountered a quirky but fun food minigame where Kay and Nix eat space corn. Much like Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, these minigames offer a break from the action and provide some insight into the story. Most of them are optional.

NO NEED TO WORRY ABOUT YOUR SPEEDER BIKE

Your speeder bike won't always appear on your map, but if you're in an open area, you can call it to your side by holding right on the D-pad. I didn't realize this until after several frustrating stealth missions on foot in the grass plains of Toshara. I'd dismount to shoot some bandits, only to find that I'd lost my bike somewhere in the tall grass. Occasionally, the map will allow you to fast-travel directly to your bike, but it's inconsistent. Again, I'm still only on the second planet, so maybe I'll get to call a bantha in the future too.

YOU CAN PET THE DOG AND MUCH MORE

Nix, Kay's merqaal companion — imagine if Disney's Stitch was part axolotl — is available for cuddles 24/7 when he's not stealing things and opening faraway doors. You can also give many free-roaming critters a good scratch behind the ears. Unless they're naturally aggressive, in which case, it's best to run. You can also collect cute accessories for Nix, like a tiny Chewbacca-style bandolier.

STEALTH IS CRUCIAL, NO MATTER WHICH SIDE YOU CHOOSE

There are many crime factions in Outlaws, with the main gangs being Crimson Dawn, the Pyke Syndicate (the catfish guys from The Clone Wars and most recently seen in The Book of Boba Fett), and the notorious Hutt Cartel. As you'd expect, while you can work for multiple crime families, building a strong relationship with one over another has its pros and cons.

USE THE GAMEPLAY ACCESSIBILITY OPTIONS

Take advantage of the gameplay accessibility options. While writing this review, I tried to play on Normal mode but switched back to Story mode since I'm not great at stealth missions. I appreciated that the game offers a high-contrast mode to make it easier to find interactive objects, though it was disappointing that during many non-cutscene interactions, Kay and the nonplayer characters appeared as blue creatures like the kids in the '90s Capri-Sun commercials. I later found out you can adjust the opacity of these filters so it's not as jarring.

TURN OFF BLACK BARS FOR FULLSCREEN MODE

Speaking of display options, here's how to turn off black bars in Star Wars Outlaws. One of the best features of Star Wars Outlaws is its stunning art style and breathtaking vistas inspired by the original trilogy. This is emphasized by the game displaying in Cinematic Mode (21:9) by default, which adds black bars at the top and bottom of the screen, along with a grainy film filter to emulate that classic '70s movie look. If you prefer fullscreen mode, you can change this in the Display and Graphics menu in the settings. Just toggle Fill screen in the Cinematic display mode options. Don't worry, you can still keep the film grain effect toggled on (or off if you want a clearer view).

That's all for the tips as you get ready to dive into the game, which comes out in just a few days. Even though I've personally built a lightsaber at Savi's Workshop in Disneyland and have a cat named after the rebel droid Chopper, this is my first time playing a Star Wars game. I can't compare it to games like Jedi Survivor or Knights of the Old Republic, but in terms of "run around, punch people, and steal things" games, Outlaws reminds me most of Red Dead Redemption 2 and The Outer Worlds, but with less romance and fly fishing than the former (so far, anyway). There's plenty of exploration on and off worlds, morally gray decisions to make, fascinating bits of background dialogue to overhear, lots of laser guns and ship blasters to fire, and enough Star Wars lore to excite even the most scruffy-looking nerfherders.