Key Takeaways
- Star Wars Outlaws avoids common pitfalls of open-world games through intentional and diverse world design.
- Many large open-world games resort to copy-and-paste design, leading to burnout for players.
- Star Wars Outlaws' open world is filled with unique and hand-crafted locations, offering a refreshing take on the genre.
Open-world games are a tough nut to crack, especially the larger they become. If an open world is too small, it might be seen as a missed opportunity or a misuse of the label; if it is too large, its contents need to account for its size without bloating the map with far too many activities and collectibles. Fortunately, Star Wars Outlaws does many things right with its open world, improving Ubisoft's worn-down model with one that favors curiosity-driven exploration above all else. As players explore each planet in Star Wars Outlaws, many who have become bitter toward the burned-out formula of modern open-world games will likely be pleasantly surprised by what Massive Entertainment’s Star Wars adventure offers.
Open-world games tend to encounter a lot of issues, and that generally rings doubly true of those as sizable as Star Wars Outlaws. The larger an open world is, the more opportunity there is for its developers to be less intentional about its content. Star Wars Outlaws, on the other hand, avoids this common pitfall of the genre by observing a stricter set of design principles to produce a much more diverse, kitchen-sink open world that has become rare over the last decade.
Related
Star Wars Outlaws’ Nix Is the Game’s Breakout Star
Nix has managed to crawl his way to the top of the list of best characters in Star Wars Outlaws, with his adorable personality and usefulness.
Star Wars Outlaws' Open World Shirks Cookie-Cutter Design Trends
Many Large Open-World Games Have a Copy-and-Paste Design Philosophy
When an open world as sizable as Star Wars Outlaws' or even larger, finding creative ways to fill it is likely a time-consuming and expensive process, so many developers choose to forego creativity altogether in favor of a copy-and-paste design philosophy. With this approach, open-world games can then be filled to the brim with more than enough different locations for players to visit, activities for them to complete, and collectibles for them to find. Unfortunately, this method can also lead to players experiencing burnout in a game more quickly, potentially even discouraging them from ever completing the game.
Recent games that have fallen victim to copy-and-paste worlds include Final Fantasy 7: Rebirth, Ghost of Tsushima, and Elden Ring, with its catacombs that are essentially the same thing over and over. While only two out of three of these are open-world games, they all still show how easy it is for developers to give into the temptation of taking a less creative approach to designing a game's world, since it is ultimately a much more viable option.
Fortunately, Star Wars Outlaws goes in a different direction with its open-world design for a much more refreshing take on an increasingly tired genre.
Star Wars Outlaws' Open World Is Filled With Diverse Locations
Almost every location in Star Wars Outlaws appears to be hand-crafted and unique to its region. Rarely is there a case in the game where a player might feel they've visited the same location in multiple different spots. Whether it's the hollowed-out wreckage of an old ship or a sinkhole filled with valuable treasure, there is plenty of variety on the surface of Star Wars Outlaws' planets, if only to provide players with an occasional bit of visual nuance.
Star Wars Outlaws could have easily made each of its cantinas copy-and-paste versions of one another, as each one offers a somewhat similar experience. However, it thankfully chose not to apply that approach, and it's better for it, as it gives each of Star Wars Outlaws' major cities some distinction. Even the layout of each city is unique, so players can't expect to follow the same pattern to find certain vendors or otherwise notable locations. It's a refreshing occurrence, especially in light of the severe level of skepticism that drowned conversations about Star Wars Outlaws ahead of its release. Hopefully, this isn't the last time the industry will see this level of dedication given to open-world design.
Star Wars Outlaws
Open-World
Action-Adventure
Systems
- Top Critic Rating:77/100 Critics Recommend:71%
- Franchise
- Star Wars
- Platform(s)
- PC , PlayStation 5 , Xbox Series X , Xbox Series S
- Released
- August 30, 2024
- Developer(s)
- Massive Entertainment
- Publisher(s)
- Ubisoft , Lucasfilm Games
- Engine
- Snowdrop
- ESRB
- T For Teen // Violence, Simulated Gambling, Mild Language
