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Over the years, Star Wars video games have become their own institution separate from and adjacent to the source material. The massive multimedia franchise offers a wide range of playstyles ranging from RPGs, a variety of first and third person shooters, Lego platforming games, and even an ongoing MMORPG. However, the franchise was missing a proper open-world experience. Or at least it was before the arrival of Star Wars Outlaws, a full-fledged scoundrel adventure game spanning a galaxy far, far away.

Star Wars Outlaws is the first open-world game available featuring the Star Wars extended universe. This third person shooter adventure puts players in the role of Kay Vess, a fledgling scoundrel accompanied by her alien mascot Nix. After two failed attempts at her big break in the criminal underworld of Canto Bight, she gets thrust into a galaxy-wide underbelly world of intrigues, backstabbing, political alliances, where the powerful and influential have a lot to lose and everyone else has a lot to gain. With a reputation following Kay, a new and flashy spaceship in tow, and a death mark from the head of the biggest crime syndicate himself on her back, the scoundrel must now find a way to survive in a ruthless galaxy and make a credit or two in the process.

After a brisk and exciting prologue setting the events of the game in march, Kay Vess lands in the planet of Toshara, where she needs to get her act together and start acting as a true criminal and trickster. The first few main quests in the game introduce the players to the structure of the game and its main draw— the aforementioned open-world. While the first planet offers a vast expanse, the always accessible speeder allows for these big open areas to feel easy to cover. The focus is always on exploring and finding points of interest in the map, whether it be interconnected and detailed city hubs, settlements, caves, or Imperial bases to sneak into and get a hold of rare parts and materials.

What I found most interesting about Star Wars Outlaws is that it felt like games I’ve already played, but never before for a Star Wars title. Different parts of other titles combine to make something exciting. The main gameplay loop lies in semi-linear missions, third person action, and free-form exploration. On top of it all you have a healthy dose of stealth-action, some light roleplaying elements and decision making, and even some space travel elements added to the mix. Star Wars Outlaws doesn’t reinvent the open-world, but it adds layers of genres you’re familiar with to make for a fun theme-park ride that keeps itself fresh for long enough to captivate, but not to much that it bores or distracts from what makes the game enjoyable.

Perhaps the most surprising aspect of the game is how reactive the world felt to my choices. Throughout both main story missions and other various contracts and side quests, Kay has the chance to ally herself or favor the four major crime syndicates that appear in the game, these being Crimson Dawn, the Pyke Syndicate, the Hutt Cartel, and the Ashiga Clan. During my time in Toshara I spent plenty of time favoring Crimson Dawn over rivals, which led to my reputation following me when I traveled to other planets.

The narrative of the game is mostly linear, meaning that the game only allows for some decisions to truly alter the world of Star Wars Outlaws. Despite that, the Reputation system of the game stands out for its interesting gameplay repercussions. If your stand with any of the crime syndicates is good, you’ll have it easier to get inside their home turfs both inside cities and in the open world areas. Meanwhile, a bad reputation means getting worse deals from their merchants, or even being persecuted and blacklisted if you mess with them too much. I like how this meld with both side content and main story quests, as you will often need to have a different approach to complete objectives depending on who you favor and who you betray for plenty of occasions.

This is different when it comes to the Galactic Empire, as they have no interest in making friends. Instead, the Empire and its iconic Stormtroopers act as the Wanted system in this game. If you cause too much trouble to them, the Empire will put a bounty on you that you can only clear by staying off their nose for long enough. Unless you max out your bounty, in which case they will deploy a full manhunt for Kay. I met this instance twice, in which I had to go to a Death Trooper camp and delete my record from their files to clear my name. While this sounds daunting, the manhunts are a good spectacle and show of might for the Empire, deploying an inordinate amount of war machinery against a single person. Fortunately for Kay and for the player, clearing your name is not too difficult or intrusive, and it made for very cool highlights of my galactic hijinks.

The events of Star Wars Outlaws are set between The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi, allowing the Rebel Alliance and Force-sensitive characters to take a step back in the narrative and allow the criminal syndicates to take center stage. Star Wars hasn’t been historically great at allowing non-Force sensitive characters to take the spotlight, which is why I loved being able to soak in the more mundane and down to earth world of Outlaws, with its common folks trying to make a quick credit and its more unsavory fellas waiting to double cross you at the drop of a hat.

Some colorful and interesting characters complete the roster of the game, with the Clone Wars-era ND-5 battle droid being a standout with his sexy long coat. While he’s a great crew member, I wish he had gotten a bit more gameplay participation than just being your handler and your guy on comms, as he’s always a great presence to have. Likewise, Sliro and his Zerek Besh crime syndicate are an interesting addition and offer great tension throughouth the course of the game. Aside from them, the adorable Nix is your mainstay partner. Nix is great fun and acts as both great comic relief as well as a great gameplay element. Nix can fetch items for Kay or distract them during stealth, as well as attack enemies to blind them in the fray of combat. Using him to open vents or complete platforming puzzles always felt fun and quick.

Other gameplay elements that changed the experience somewhat noticeable were the varied costumes, tokens, and collectibles. Almost everything you collect has a gameplay purpose, and with exploring feeling fast and engaging every aspect of Star Wars Outlaws felt rewarding. It helps that both the various planets available in the game and their corresponding surrounding space areas are absolutely stunning and filled with unique looking vistas. Some maps like Akiva or Tatooine can feel vast and their scope too big, but the speeder and some smart fast travel points make them very easily accessible. Meanwhile, planets like Kijimi focus on a maze-like single city and hiding things at every corner.

With an oversaturated market for open-world games, Star Wars Outlaws keeps things varied, fast-paced, and constantly rewarding. Developers at Massive Entertainment focused on variety and quality over quantity, and didn’t skimp on visual spectacle. There is always something for Kay Vess and her Trailblazer crew to do, whether it be treasure to find, some gang territory to sneak into and rob, an Imperial space base to assault, or even some card games to play. For a true space scoundrel there is no limit in the galaxy.

Star Wars Outlaws will release for the Playstation 5, Xbox Series X, and Windows PC via Ubisoft Connect on August 30, 2024.

The post Review: Star Wars Outlaws Keeps Things Fresh and Familiar appeared first on Siliconera.

A new trailer for Star Wars Outlaws appeared at the 2024 Summer Game Fest, showcasing speeder chases, bike combat, and space battles. The game is still set to relase on August 30, 2024, with more gamplay promised at the Ubisoft Forward event on June 10, 2024.

The trailer shows us some brief snippets of gameplay and in-engine cutscenes as Kay and Nix get up to classic scoundrel shenanigans. We see a job offered to them in a seedy cantina, Nix being used to stealthily steal an item, and some light gambling before shifting. From there, it shifts to exploration gameplay and some combat. Assassin droid ND-5 also appears briefly in his handsomely disheveled overcoat, on board what appears to be an Imperial vessel.

You can watch the Star Wars Outlaws Summer Game Fest trailer via Youtube below:

Originally announced back in June, 2023, the release date for Star Wars Outlaws was later accidentally leaked via a Youtube placeholder. Meanwhile, other games announced at the 2024 Summer Game Fest include a remake of the 2002 Playstation 2 Horror game The Thing, set for a 2024 release.

Star Wars Outlaws is set to release on August 30, 2024, for PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X. More gameplay is expected at the Ubisoft Forward on Monday June 10, 2024.

The post Star Wars Outlaws New Trailer Appears at Summer Game Fest appeared first on Siliconera.

Gematsu discovered that the Ubisoft Japan YouTube placeholder for the new Star Wars Outlaws trailer included the release date. According to that early information, the game will debut on August 30, 2024, however the video is now set to private until its debut later on April 9, 2024. [Thanks, Gematsu!]

This comes right as the official story trailer is about to debut worldwide. On April 8, 2024, Ubisoft noted people will get to see it at 9am PT/12pm ET/6pm CET on April 9, 2024. The English language ’s placeholder is also live for that. Its description doesn’t include any hints about the release date for the game.

You can catch that below once it is live:

We already knew Star Wars Outlaws would debut in 2024. It will take place after Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back. It features two outlaws named Kay and Nix who are out to get funds by any means necessary. It is described as a third-person, open-world game. It comes from Massive Entertainment, who previously worked on both The Division games and Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora. 

We’ll officially know the Star Wars Outlaws release date when the story trailer launches at 9am PT/12pm ET/6pm CET on April 9, 2024. The game will be available on the PS5, Xbox Series X, and PC. 

The post Star Wars Outlaws Release Date Leaked appeared first on Siliconera.

James Cameron's Avatar hit theaters in 2009 and absolutely demolished box office records. It spawned a sequel (with more on the way), as well as books and a theme park attraction. Now, the franchise is diving into gaming for the first time in 14 years with Ubisoft's Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora.

Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora is a first-person, open world game that takes place on a portion of Pandora not yet seen in the films. Massive Entertainment, a Ubisoft studio, developed it. Ubisoft did the Avatar movie tie-in back in 2009, so the company is working from experience. Not to mention the publisher is no stranger to the open world genre, with several Far Cry titles under their belt. And, to address the possible elephant in the room, there is Far Cry DNA all over Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora.

However, this isn't a bad thing in and of itself. , Far Cry 3 was once called "Skyrim with guns" and yet it revitalized the franchise. Similarly, even the original Avatar movie faced comparisons to Dances with Wolves, then made literally billions of dollars. Not everything has to reinvent the wheel; it's all about execution.

So, is Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora more or less Far Cry with an Avatar paint job? Sort of. But, does it execute it well? Also sort of.

In Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora, you take control of an unnamed, customizable character, however not in the way the human characters in the film use an Avatar. In this game, you're actually playing as a Na'vi, a choice I really liked. You customize basically everything about your character, from body type and voice down to stripe patterns your character has. You can even adjust the bioluminescence of their skin.

However, this is pretty much where choice ends. The character has a personality and interacts with the world in ways you don't really get to influence. While you are a Na'vi, you are one that was more or less raised in captivity. This means you are learning about Pandora, but still have an emotional connection to the planet.

The plot of the game takes place sometime after the first movie, and only barely references the events of it. The main conflict of the game is between the resistance, the Na'vi tribes of Pandora, and the militant RDA. This is a pretty black and white conflict, especially from the lens of a Na'vi protagonist. I actually found this refreshing. Sometimes it's nice to have a clear good vs. evil story.

The protagonist, one of the last of their clan, must discover their identity as a Na'vi and place on Pandora. This translates into gameplay by your character being the liaison between the mostly human resistance and the native tribes. I think they nailed this aspect. A Na'vi protagonist gives a very different perspective than what the films offer. Therefore, it allows a deeper dive into Na'vi culture than if your character was an Avatar driver.

In fact, the world building in this game is probably its greatest strength. The first step into Pandora is one of those jaw dropping moments games don't happen as often for me anymore. It reminded me of leaving the vault for the first time in Fallout 3. I found myself stopping and just enjoying the view multiple times throughout the game.

A lot of care clearly went into Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora. Massive Entertainment did the work to breathe life into the world of Pandora. The tribes act differently, depending on what you're wearing or if you're in favor with them. Additionally, the world simply feels alive. Flora and fauna you can't even interact with are living, breathing, and wandering the world. If you're a huge fan of Avatar, this game may blow your mind in the way Hogwarts Legacy did for Potterheads, in regards to the details.

The world, from a gameplay perspective, offers the usual open world fare. There are animals to hunt, resources to collect, and markers on the map to discover new items and quests. Since you're playing as a a 9-to-10 foot tall Na'vi, you actually can navigate the world via large jumps. This adds an element of traversal not usually seen in these types of games. While this could get rather clunky at times, for the most part it was fun and made me wonder about some of the ridiculous breaks speedrunners are going to do to this game.

The real kicker when it comes to traversal though is a relatively unique mechanic not often in open world games: free flight. Not too far into the game, you gain this option and, while it doesn't completely open up the map for story reasons, it certainly makes traversal much more fun. It's also deeply connected to lore in ways I'll keep vague. I hope if there's anything future games borrow from Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora, it's the natural and nuanced way it handles flight.

There are two navigation modes in the game: guided and exploration. Guided will give you markers on the map, as well as on your com. Meanwhile, exploration mode just gives you hints and landmarks so you can find the objective yourself. I chose the former for most of the game, but I can see the value in using exploration mode in a game like this. When you're not exploring all Pandora has to offer, you're going to be dealing with quests for the resistance and native Na'vi tribes. I feel there is some attempt here to be diverse, but despite the very different setting of Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora, it falls into the same routine as other open world games.

This, to me, is the game's biggest flaw. There is a section in the story where there are two nearly back-to-back quests where you have to use Na'vi senses to follow a trail to a missing person, fight once you get there, then follow more trails to a cutscene. You're going to be fetching resources, you're going to be finding missing citizens, and you're going to be clearing out enemy outposts. Then you're going to do it all again in a new area. Now, in most Far Cry games this isn't a problem, but in Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora it really started to feel like an issue. One reason is because the game world is so full and vibrant that doing monotonous things in it feels especially out of place.

However, the woefully unbalanced combat, during the early and mid-game especially, is the real issue. Standard RDA grunts pose almost no threat to you at all and can be downed with a single arrow, while the armored ones need a whole quiver. Though these armored ones do have weak spots and more options to deal with them later, they are still way more annoying than difficult to deal with. These are also pretty much the only enemy types you'll see for a huge majority of the game, so it gets old fighting dozens of them every time you move to something else. It made me start to put off quests, because I knew I was about to be annoyed by a combat encounter.

Take the outposts for example, like the refineries set up around Pandora. A ridiculous number of enemies usually guard these and the game makes it clear stealth is the way to deal with them. However, this game really doesn't give you great covert options. For a large portion of the game, stealth consists of "crouch and don't be seen." Sure, you can sneak, but unless you do the run completely perfectly, you're toast. I found these outposts to be, frankly, one of the least fun things I've done in a game in a very long time. The game has no business doing so much right and failing so miserably there. Especially when Far Cry has fun and engaging outposts in every release, even if they are occasionally monotonous too. Though I will say, harkening back to the fun of flying, that midair combat was executed quite well. I found myself enjoying taking to battle in the skies way more than on land.

However, to help with combat there is a skill tree full of upgrades and new abilities, though I found the buffs to be the most useful. The abilities, especially combat ones, tended to be so situational that they usually weren't worth attempting to pull off. The skill system actually sort of plays into the series' lore, with the character learning these abilities from the their spiritual ancestors. This is yet another way the game ties lore and worldbuilding into the gameplay.

There is also a cooking and crafting mechanic to use all those resources you've been gathering. I loved how some of it was handled, especially as you rarely see it in games. You can create the same item using multiple types of a resource, and the item actually changes its appearance depending on what you use. For example, if you use a specific plant as the ingredient in your bow, the bow will take on the appearance of that plant. This is such a small detail that really made me happy every time it came up, and it actually made me want to go and find more resources to see how different I could make my gear look.

All in all, I feel like there is a lot to love about Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora. There truly is an amazing world to get lost in and forget about the rest of the game. However, it seems like that may be what the developers did. The team went full tilt on aesthetics and worldbuilding, and nailed it. However, the monotony of the combat and many quests takes away from the overall experience. So no, Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora isn't a soulless Far Cry clone. There is love and care put into recreating James Cameron's world. However, once the awe of wandering Pandora eventually wears off, you're left with a game that doesn't have as much going on as it should in a world this vast and alive.

Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora is available on the PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X.

The post Review: Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora Is a Far Cry from Perfect appeared first on Siliconera.

Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora finally got a release date during the Ubisoft Forward 2023 conference. Following its delay in 2022, the first-person adventure spin-off will launch on December 7, 2023. Major gameplay details about the Massive Entertainment title were also revealed in a lengthy trailer that showcased the game's characters and world.

The release date trailer specifically previewed Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora's massive open-world map, which has multiple biomes to explore and tribes to obtain quests from. Ubisoft also gave us a first look at the game's combat, which will allow players to choose between human and Na'vi-style weapons and powers.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=difL_diHo2o

The first-person adventure game is a spin-off of the popular 2009 film Avatar directed by James Cameron. In the game you will play as a Na'vi protagonist who has been abducted by humans as a child. The story campaign will center around re-discovering Pandora as an adult and having your character connect with their lost heritage.

Ubisoft is offering up DLC for those who pre-order Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora before its Winter release. The bonus content includes the Child of Two Worlds Pack, which features a cosmetic set for your character, as well as a rare weapon skin.

Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora is releasing on the PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X on December 7, 2023.

The post Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora will release on December 7, 2023 appeared first on Siliconera.

During the Xbox Showcase stream on June 12, 2023, Ubisoft showed a trailer for Star Wars: Outlaws. It reintroduces characters from previous Star Wars games, as well as introduces Kay Vess. This will be the very first open-world Star Wars game.

The trailer showed Kay escaping from the bar after Storm Troopers find her. She has a little alien companion with her, and it looks as if you can explore a variety of planets. It will bring back Jalen, who was an NPC from Star Wars Galaxies. A gameplay trailer will appear at Ubisoft Forward, where we will be able to check out what Kay can do.

You can watch the trailer for Star Wars: Outlaws here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ymwq1ltQc

Star Wars: Outlaws is in development and will come out for the Xbox Series X in 2024. A gameplay walkthrough reveal will be at Ubisoft Forward, which will take place on June 12, 2023 at 10:00 AM PT/1:00 PM ET.

The post Star Wars: Outlaws Will Be First Open World Star Wars Game appeared first on Siliconera.

During Ubisoft Forward, Ubisoft revealed an action-adventure game based on James Cameron’s 2009 movie Avatar, titled Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora. They revealed a short trailer showing off the environment and worldview, which follows the general gist of the movie. Massive Entertainment, in collaboration with Lightstorm Entertainment and Disney, developed the game.

[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Axmg1E4HrVE[/embed]

Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora will be a first-person action-adventure game. Though the background is the same as the movie and follows the Na’vi conflict with the RDA, the story is an original one separate from Avatar. Aside from action elements, the game also involves exploring the environment of Pandora. The player Na’vi has to journey across the never-seen-before Western Frontier, where they will meet a variety of new characters and creatures to interact with.

Avatar originally came out in 2009 and became the highest-grossing film at that time. It beat out James Cameron's other blockbuster hit, Titanic, which had been the highest-grossing film for twelve years. Though Cameron has teased four Avatar sequels for years, delays to refine the technology have kept them out of theaters.

Other games featuring during the Ubisoft Forward stream include Mario + Rabbids: Sparks of Hope, Assassin's Creed: Valhalla, and Far Cry 6.

Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora will release in 2022 on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X, Windows PC, Stadia, and Luna.

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