Star Wars Outlaws: First Impressions

I'm not a nerf herder, I'm a nerfed herder.

Yeah, I've been waiting way too long in life to make that pun. Don't like it? Too bad; I don't make dad jokes regularly, but here I'm the only one who gets to.

Anyway, we now have Star Wars Outlaws for those of us dumb enough to shill out at least $110 USD for early access and a season pass, plus exclusive bonus content for pre-ordering.. Well, actually, we got access even earlier than expected - folks on PC were able to play as early as 8 hours before the actual early-access-unlock.

Ok, maybe I am a nerf herder at this point, but let me say this:

I'm glad I did pre-order the gold edition, because I'm enjoying the game.. Even more than I expected.

First off, elephant in the room time: Yes, this is an Ubisoft title, with a lot of Ubisoft standards.. Except it's not entirely. It does feel different; Movement is similar to Ghost Recon Breakpoint, yet.. Not. Exploration and getting around is similar to Assassin's Creed, yet.. Not. Combat is reminiscent of Splinter Cell, yet.. not.

I actually feel like Ubisoft did just the right amount of depature here to make it feel just unique enough, without alienating the core fanbase of Ubisoft games.

Anyway, on to a few key points that I've experienced in my limited playtime.

Accessibility controls are FANTASTIC. Seriously: So many options here. I'll play the game a bit, encounter something, and if I don't like how it works, I can change it. For example: The lockpicking minigame I struggled with.. Until I enabled the additional visual queues, and then it all made sense.

The hacking minigame? I changed the visual elements to numbers, and while it didn't really do a lot for me, I was less visually distracted.

Of course, not everything is sunshine and roses.

The game frequently neglects to obviously tell you about some mechanics. I don't actually recall it ever showing me how to crouch; I had to guess that "C" was crouch, and just do it. Not a big deal since I play a lot of stealth games, but I figure some folks are going to come to this as Star Wars fans first, and stealth gamers second.

Next: Speeder controls are just AWFUL; I'd rather drive a vehicle in Breakpoint - or even Cyberpunk 2077's initial release - than these things.

Part of that is just because the damned sensitivity is cranked higher than Jabba after a big hit off his Hookah. Seriously: I dropped the mouse sensitivity down to the lowest level and it's STILL too high.

The photo mode camera has the same issue; A light brush of the mouse and I'm dizzier than a stormtrooper on a spinning speeder bike.

Anyway, graphics & performance are decent; the game looks good, and performs better than I expected on my aging RTX 3080 8GB with an i7 10k. I expect further optimization will improve things, too.

My favorite aspect of this game is Nix; he really is the star here. I love interacting with him, and asking him to go steal stuff is just totes adorbs.. And then you praise him for being a good little thief and I just melt.

His mechanics overall are really well done, and he's a crucial part of the gameplay in general.

The skill progression system is also great; It reminds me of Forspoken's system for improving skills, but much less of a PITA to track and grind.

Overall, this feels like a Star Wars game, and a good one at that.

I expect to enjoy this for a very long time.