Star Wars Outlawsallows players to explore an open-world depiction of several planets in the galaxy’s Outer Rim. Several iconic locations from the Star Wars universe are fully explorable, with impressive attention to detail as Kay lives the scoundrel lifestyle, dealing with a variety of brokers and syndicates to get enough jobs to build a reputation and make a name for herself. Just last year, however, another AAA release launched focusing on open-world space exploration:Starfield, and it’s easy to draw comparisons between the two titles' open-world goals and spot the differences in how they went about achieving them, with one key feature thatStar Wars Outlawsdid much better.
Bethesda’s space RPG,Starfield, and Massive Entertainment’s action-adventure title,Star Wars Outlaws, both feature open-world exploration with space combat and the opportunity to deal with some shadier organizations - entirely depending on players' choices in the case of Starfield. However, the two take a different approach to how their maps are put together, withStar Wars Outlawsfeaturing fewer explorable planets - it has 5, compared toStarfield’s 1000 - that areentirely handcrafted and packed with details forStar Warsfans. WhileStarfieldalso features handcrafted planetsfor specific story and quest locations, many criticized the majority of the game’s planets for feeling empty and lifeless due to them being procedurally generated.
Star Wars Outlaws Review: Dazzling Hives Of Scum & Villainy
Star Wars Outlaws focuses on a grimier, seedier side of the universe with a rich, detailed open world that features both new and legacy characters.
Star Wars Outlaws & Starfield Have The Same Landing Process
But Star Wars Outlaws Does It Better
Ultimately, the process of going from space to landing on a planet or launching from a planet into space is the same in both games. Players in space can select a landing zone or point of interest to land on from a planet’s orbit, and to get off a planet, they simply need to get to their starship’s cockpit and launch it.
Star Wars Outlawsdoes this better, however, by making it feel like a more seamless experienceas The Trailblazer goes through the atmosphere and into the new zone. It’s hardly a secret that this is an animation to cover a loading screen - and anyone who tries to skip it will get a generic black screen with the game’s logo in the bottom left corner instead - but it better helps to keep players immersed, unlikeStarfield, which jumps to a more obvious style of loading screen that uses a static image from the game, potentially one taken in photo mode, with a hint or piece of lore printed along the bottom, which, in comparison, completely pulls players out of the moment.
I’m Disappointed We Didn’t Get To See More Of This Planet In Star Wars Outlaws
Despite all there is to see and do in Star Wars Outlaws' open-world, there is one planet that is present that I wish we got to explore a bit further.
Getting Between Planets Is Also In Keeping With The Star Wars Aesthetic
With An Iconic Visual From The Planet Being Used
Even the animation ofgetting between planetsis masked similarly, but it is extremely satisfying forStar Warsfans. Upon selecting a planet - which in itself is a quicker process due to it being linked to a button and not having to go through menus each time, mainly due to there being fewer planets to choose between - players have the option to “Punch It,” which creates the iconic Hyperspace visuals around Kay’s ship until she arrives at a new location. It may be a loading screen, but at least it doesn’t feel as obvious asStarfield’s by being tied into the main game world’s aesthetic and letting players jump straight into action without missing a beat once it ends to make it feel even more like a fluid transition.
Star Wars Outlawsplayers can also jump from anywhere on a planet to a landing zone on another planet through the Map menu without needing to return to The Trailblazer first.
Getting between planets is a huge part of bothStarfieldandStar Wars Outlaws, and even in an age in which loading times are being massively reduced, withmassive maps such as the ones present, loading screens are still necessary. The difference is thatStar Wars Outlaws' loading screens are still entertaining and seek to keep players immersed in the exploration, whereasStarfield’s serve as a constant reminder to players that they are playing a video game and constantly slows down its pacing.
Starfield
Bethesda Game Studios presents Starfield - the first original IP from the studio in twenty-five-plus years. Set in the year 2310, the United Colonies and Freestar Collective are observing a shaky truce after a war set 20 years prior. The player will customize their character as a member of a space exploration team called Constellation while navigating The Settled Systems and the conflicts between the warring factions. According to Bethesda, players can explore over 100 systems and 1000 planets to find resources and build their ships, living out their own sci-fi journeys.
