This interview has been edited for clarity.
Mention Star Wars and the elements that excite the majority of fans would be the Jedi and Sith, lightsabers and spaceships, and the different alien species who inhabit the galaxy far, far away.
For Star Wars Outlaw’s Creative Director, Julian Gerighty though, it all boils down to his favourite character – rogue smuggler, Han Solo, so it’s probably why the 25-year industry veteran has spent the last few years developing a Star Wars game that focuses on the criminal underworld in George Lucas’ iconic sci-fi fantasy, bringing fans away from the often treaded narratives around the Force and the desire to rule the galaxy, and into the scoundrel fantasy that has rarely been touched upon since the series began in 1977.
“Han Solo was the coolest guy in the galaxy. He was traveling the galaxy in his Volkswagen camper van, the Millennium Falcon is surfing the waves with his best friend, the two-legged dog Chewbacca, this was the character that I connected with the most,” explained Gerighty during a recent media preview for the upcoming game in Los Angeles.
“So I thought, okay, there’s so much richness in gameplay that we can have with the scoundrel and outlaw fantasy. There’s spying missions, smuggling missions, there’s playing the factions, pitting the syndicates against one another. There’s exploration, finding relics, going to cantinas and bartering. All of these things that show a different perspective of Star Wars, other than from the perspective of the Jedi.”
That said, the team at developer Massive Entertainment also understood that they could not, and should not build a game from scratch, and had previously talked about tapping on the rich lore of Star Wars to establish the narrative parameters of the game. It was Lucasfilm who proposed setting the game between the events of The Empire Strikes Back (1980) and Return of the Jedi (1983), shifting focus on the Rebel Alliance and putting the criminal elements in focus.
On his part, Gerighty also looked at the games that drew players into action adventure titles and he was led to and inspired by Red Dead Redemption (2010) and Ghost of Tsushima (2020), as both open-world games weren’t just about having players live out experiences, but actual ones unique to the time period, of the fantasy of being a cowboy in the Wild West, and being a samurai ninja in feudal Japan, and also delivering on the premise. And through this game, it was about bringing fans and players into the world of Star Wars, by taking on the role of a galactic outlaw.
In the game, players step into the boots of Kay Vess (voiced by Humberly González), the first female protagonist of the Star Wars games who works her way around four syndicates – the Ashiga Clan, Crimson Dawn, Hutt Cartel, and Pyke Syndicate, and earns her reputation by completing jobs and staying alive.
The open-world, single-player action-adventure developed by Ubisoft’s Massive Entertainment introduces new characters, races and even adds to the lore of what fans know during that time period. As the Empire continues to rule, multiple criminal syndicates rise to power within the underworld during this time of civil unrest. Along with her trusty creature companion Nix (trust us, the Han Solo and Chewbacca’s parallels are intended), the duo fight to survive and dream of a life of freedom. Kay unexpectedly ends up with a bounty on her head and in order to free herself, she needs to convince a skilled crew of outlaws to journey and pull off one of the greatest heists the galaxy has ever seen.
Judging by what we’ve seen so far, the near-final version of the game is love letter to Star Wars and open-world games, and a dream game to make.
“It’s a once in a lifetime opportunity to work on something that was so important to me, culturally. George Lucas wanted to base this (franchise) on mythology and to create a new mythology. So it is our mythology. You’re a fan. I’m a fan. It’s part of our culture. It’s not popular culture. It’s part of our culture, to being able to participate in that and to build something with amazing teams around the world. It’s practically a dream come true.”
Players can expect to take between 25 to 30 hours to finish the core narrative adventure of the game but completionists will have a field day as it would take over 70 hours to complete all the side quests, fiddle with the reputation system, find all the treasures, and even complete quests for Nix, or even simply spend hours playing Sabacc, a popular Star Wars card game that most fans would have heard of. In case you didn’t know, Galaxy’s Edge in Disneyland even sells the physical card game if you prefer to play it for real.
Still, there is one thing about that game that Gerighty is particularly proud of and that’s the space combat aspect. His team worked with a studio at Ubisoft Bucharest, who did Blazing Angels and Tom Clancy’s H.A.W.X. series of flying games in the early 2000s, to develop and mirror what fans know of space fights in Star Wars. This includes ensuring that players with plenty of experience with arcade flight simulators would find it easy to nail the action-packed space combat and navigation, while also keeping the learning curve low so it doesn’t put off players who are not accustomed to flight simulator controls.
But in a game about outlaws, and with the evil Empire in power across the galaxy, who are the real bad guys? It’s all about prespective in every single location that Kay and Nix visit, there’s always an Empire presence and if Kay commits any crimes in front of the Empire, the Stormtroopers are going to start chasing her, to either arrest or neutralize her. If she kills the Stormtroopers, it will escalate the severity of the crime level which will lead to the Empire sending more formidable troops, including the venerable Death Troopers. The game will feature six levels of crime severity, in similar vein to Grand Theft Auto‘s Wanted System, that makes use of stars, but with “space cops”.
There’s the aforementioned Reputation System that establishes the type of outlaw Kay is.
“The Reputation System is completely different. It’s your relationship with each one of the criminal syndicates and it’s about how you play around with them. You’re playing not only for credits, but also other rewards and access into faction districts. You will have to make decisions about which faction to align with, at least temporarily and play the syndicates against each other,” explains Gerighty.
“A good reputation will lead to things such as syndicate territory access, lucrative jobs, and vendor discounts. A bad reputation on the other hand, will result in Kay being hunted down by syndicate assassins.”
But with so many gamers out there, what if not everyone is a fan of Star Wars?
“Star Wars Outlaws just happens to be an incredible action adventure, single player game featuring beautiful open worlds that happen to be set in the Star Wars universe,” shares Gerighty.
“So even if you’re not a Star Wars fan, but you enjoy sci-fi settings where you have your own spaceship and speeders, interacting with aliens and creatures. It’s a matter of whether this game makes sense to you, and would it be attractive to you.”
Star Wars Outlaws hits PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC on 30 August.
Yonk is a geek who is fortunate enough to have an equally geeky Star Wars fan for a wife, who owns a LEGO Millennium Falcon encased in a glass coffee table as their home’s centre-piece.
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