Star Wars Outlaws Could Have An Assassin"s Creed Problem, But Even Worse

Star Wars Outlaws holds significant promise as an open-world Star Wars game, but it also has the potential to double down on some of the issues that plague the Assassin's Creed series. Published by Ubisoft, Star Wars Outlaws has a long legacy of open-world titles from the studio to build on, many of which offer exciting gameplay and gorgeous environments. Ubisoft's flagship Assassin's Creed franchise, however, also showcases a number of sticking points that are all too likely to appear in the path of the new Star Wars game as well.
The open-world concept is a major selling point for Star Wars Outlaws, as the expansive and varied setting of Star Wars has traditionally been corralled into smaller levels or zones for gameplay. The one previous game with a viable claim to an open world is LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga, which is less interested in rendering a realistic view of the galaxy than it is in a comically charming one. It's fitting that a studio as well-versed in open-world gameplay as Ubisoft should tackle the task of a lifelike open world before anyone else in the Star Wars gaming mix, but acing the assignment could be a tall order.
Star Wars Outlaws Might Share Assassin's Creed's Bloat The vast maps of recent Assassin's Creed games can be impressive to explore, but scaling the franchise up has also had its side effects. Although games like Assassin's Creed Odyssey and Valhalla have a variety of engaging missions and interesting story elements, they also accompany those with a mix of repetitive areas and recycled challenges. In aiming for a multi-planetary scale, it seems likely that Star Wars Outlaws will fall to some of this same inconsistency, filling out the space around a central questline that could be strong with a surplus of unimaginative content.
Assassin's Creed Mirage admits the issues with the Assassin's Creed franchise, scaling back down to focus on one city rather than a vast region. Games like Assassin's Creed 2 and Brotherhood have retained serious staying power in the hearts of many fans, as Ezio's adventures in cities like Venice and Rome feature plenty of memorable moments without the distractions of too many filler tasks. There's nothing wrong with Star Wars Outlaws aiming for a larger scope than these entries, but it needs to find a way to keep the quality consistent across its runtime.
Star Wars Outlaws Needs Planets With Personality As a Star Wars game, it's particularly important that different areas in Star Wars Outlaws avoid feeling like copy-pasted material. An Assassin's Creed title like Origins features an environment where most areas fall in line with one predominant culture, allowing for accurate depictions without having to craft a whole new set of assets and designs for each city. In Star Wars Outlaws, each planet needs to come across as distinct. Although the presence of the Empire can create some sense of continuity across the galaxy, architecture, landscapes, and NPCs all need to reflect the unique styles of their respective environments.
Tailoring gameplay to different planets could also help elevate Star Wars Outlaws above the Assassin's Creed formula. A forested environment would be a perfect setting to explore both speeder chases that echo Return of the Jedi and stealth missions that take advantage of camouflage, while a bustling urban environment can focus on interesting NPCs and side stories. It would be all too easy for the Star Wars Outlaws story to slip into Ubisoft's habit of relying on stagnant trailing missions or repetitive tower activations, and cycling through similar activities across the game would lose out on the distinct personality of each destination.
Ubisoft Bloat Isn't Just An Assassin's Creed Problem Assassin's Creed may be the easiest model to compare Star Wars Outlaws to, but it's not the only series from Ubisoft to deliver imperfectly on an open-world formula. The Far Cry games might slip into even more repetition, typically tasking players with taking over strongholds or blowing up buildings without leaning into as much experimental mayhem as Just Cause ekes from a similar premise. Massive Entertainment, the Ubisoft subsidiary behind Star Wars Outlaws, is responsible for the Division series that faces many of the same issues, featuring decent main mission variety but allotting minimal originality to much of the side content.
The difficulties of filling out an open world aren't surprising, but some other developers have managed the task better than Ubisoft. Nintendo's The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom offer players the creative freedom to make their own fun in the vast land of Hyrule, while Elden Ring spreads the difficulty that FromSoftware is known for across a fantastical realm filled with tough encounters and loving details. The Horizon titles from Guerilla Games hew closer to the Ubisoft formula while limiting the overall size of the open world, focusing principally on the more exciting aspects of gameplay and narrative.


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