Video games of all scopes and sizes are a colossal creative challenge. That's especially true of Star Wars Outlaws, the first single-player focused title from developer Massive Entertainment and the first open world adventure set in a galaxy far, far away. Over 600 developers contributed to the project across the Ubisoft stable, the group spending no fewer than four years working to bring this experience to life. An experience that had to feel authentic to the most famous trilogy of films in existence, and open enough so that players are free to roleplay an up-and-coming scoundrel in the Outer Rim.
Creative director Julian Gerighty and game director Mathias Karlson may be playing Neon White and Rocket League in their free time, but it's easy to understand where their passion for shouldering the challenge of Star Wars Outlaws' construction comes from as we discuss the video games they love, and why. "When you look at Rockstar Games, GTA 5 and Red Dead Redemption 2, they are such works of incredible scope and detail at every single level; they are endlessly inspiring for professionals," says Gerighty. "They make a lot of decisions that you can agree or disagree with, but the level of execution, the level of imagination and commitment to what they are doing, is commendable. You'd be hard pressed to find a developer who, deep down in their jellies, doesn't recognize that." Karlson adds: "Elden Ring is a fantastic experience, and I could talk at length about the key steps FromSoftware took across its previous games to make it the monster success that it has become. But the way you can just be curious, and be rewarded for just following your nose – especially throughout a game of that scale – is really very impressive."
Reflecting on the Star Wars Outlaws launch
While I suspect that neither Gerighty nor Karlson would come right out and say it, I think it's clear in Star Wars Outlaws that Massive Entertainment strived to deliver scale of detail at every single level, and experience with the clear potential to become a monster success. Launch has proven to be slightly more challenging, with Outlaws' Metacritic value sitting at a Generally Favorable rating of '76' as players begin taking their earliest steps across Toshara. "I'm a little disappointed with the Metacritic; recognition from critics is very important to us, but I do think players are really connecting with what we did," says Gerighty. "We had a very ambitious target, we literally reached for the stars, and I think we were successful from so many different angles. There's a magical, unique experience within Outlaws, whether it's Star Wars or not."
That it is a Star Wars adventure that so wonderfully captures the definition of the original trilogy is undoubtedly where Outlaws succeeds above all else. Gerighty points to players enjoying the "virtual tourism" aspect as a highlight, noting that the team is happy to see one feature in particular being utilized by the community. "Photo mode can often be an afterthought in development because there are millions of little fires to deal with because we get something that's a little bit annexed, but honestly, it's brought me so much joy to see the incredible images being captured and shared. I think that's proof positive that this is an experience like no other Star Wars experience before."
There may be nothing else quite like Outlaws out there, but that doesn't mean that Massive is moving on from its Star Wars adventure just yet. As disappointed as Gerighty is with critical reception, he also understands that there's room for improvement. "I think Outlaws has such long legs that this will be a game that millions of people are going to play for years and years, and we're never going to stop improving it… well, okay, that's a lie, we'll probably stop improving it eventually," he laughs, adding, "but today my mind is not on stopping."
How about tomorrow? Ubisoft confirmed that The Division 3 entered early production last September, and Gerighty – who previously served as associate creative director on The Division and creative director on The Division 2 – will need to shift his attention soon. "It's been announced that I'm executive producer on The Division, so these are my last weeks [on Outlaws], but I'm making sure that I'm pushing as much as I can. But whatever happens next, I'll be playing it for sure."
The potential for change
Massive will soon turn its attention to the development of two story expansions, Wild Card and Pirate's Fortune, although the studio is prioritizing improvements to the baseline game. With Gerighty and Karlson, I discuss a key point of friction raised in my Star Wars Outlaws review concerning some difficulty spikes and failstates across the critical path. "One of the things we can see through data is that elements aren't working as well as we would like them to," says Gerighty. "One of the earliest missions in Mirogana is incredibly punishing and, for me, that is a mistake – and it's something that we're going to work on improving."
This doesn't necessary mean that Massive is going to begin removing failstate conditions from Outlaws' missions, like infiltrating Gorak's base at the Pyke syndicate stronghold in Mirogana, but the studio is assessing different ways to make these sorts of encounters "more enjoyable and understandable" in the weeks ahead. "With the Faction district that you're going through in that mission, there is this sort of tension that we want to create, but we don't want it to feel unfair. And today, I think it feels unfair and, believe it or not, that was not our intention. This [realization] is something that crept in in the last week or so, and it's something that we're correcting already for a patch that's coming out in maybe the next 10 days."
The creative team tells me that it's carefully analyzing data to pinpoint areas for improvement, and ways to ease friction in an adventure it feels players will undertake for years to come. That doesn't necessarily mean that the fundamentals will change though. "We believe that giving players the opportunity to have a stealth approach fits the scoundrel fantasy really well," says Karlson, "and I think if stealth wasn't a part of the experience at all it would be a very one note game overall. It affords us a lot of width and variety in the context of our quests. The 'don't raise the alarm' quests specifically, what we were reaching for there isn't fail on detection – it's implemented in places like the Imperial space stations, where you wouldn't want the whole station to be on alert, so we think that's an intuitive fail state."
Karlson says Massive spent a lot of time trying to get these missions right, where Kay Vess is able to exist on the knife's edge of detection and quickly work to diffuse a situation before an alert is raised with things like the Star Wars Outlaws Fast Talk ability. "We really tried to create that fun suspense zone where it could tip all the way into failure, where you have many ways of dealing with the situation. However, if that turns out to not connect with its current tuning with enough people, then that's something we take very seriously, so we'll consider changing it."
Gerighty adds: "If you're going into an Empire-controlled area, coming out of your ship all guns blasting, that, narratively, doesn't quite fit the generosity that we'd love to allow – Mathias and I are 100% believers in player agency, and your ability to make decisions." It's an interesting point which speaks to the complexity of building an adventure in the Star Wars universe, one which isn't as inherently free-flowing as experiences like the aforementioned Red Dead Redemption 2. "I think once the world opens up, you get a lot more freedom. It's just these moments where we're trying to convey that aspect of you being a scoundrel against 1000 Stormtroopers, so what are you going to do?"
That natural conflict between fantasy and freedom is clearly something that Massive has spent years trying to work around, and there's no easy fix – not in a game which has already shipped, which the studio isn't treating as a live service. But that isn't to say that Gerighty isn't thinking about subtle ways the studio could make shifts to open up sections to broaden the avenues of play in future patches. "To be honest, if you tell me today – and, okay, I'd also have to look at the metrics and data – that there's a blocker for people enjoying the game then we're going to tweak the narrative context."
As for what that would look like in reality? Gerighty holds a pretend microphone to his mouth and muffles his voice to mimic that of a tannoy announcement. "So, the Stormtroopers have gone down to Toshara, and now we only have a skeleton crew on site," Gerighty laughs, as he sets the metaphorical microphone down on the table, illustrating one way Massive could facilitate more opportunities for loud action in spaces once designed for stealth and subterfuge. "The context would change, just so that we can get people to enjoy these moments as much as possible. We're not married to that concept," he says, speaking to the failstate systems currently in place, "It's something that we wanted to do, but if it isn't working, and if the data supports it – not just anecdotal, your experience or my experience – then we'll absolutely come back to these moments. We're not precious about those things."
Looking to the future
In the days following launch, some exceptionally fun easter eggs have emerged across Star Wars Outlaws' open worlds, including one which seems to settle the whole 'who shot first' debate – with a strong lean towards Greedo. I asked Julian Gerighty whether Massive had to run easter eggs between Disney, or if he was even aware that this one existed. "It's a great question, and I'm going to be politically correct here and say that absolutely we know about every single easter egg that was snuck in by every single one of the 400 artists on this game. And, of course, Disney knows exactly what's put in there as well." I'm not sold, although this tease from Mathias Karlson did act as a solid distraction: "I know of one very specific easter egg relating to Massive that no one has found yet, and that's all I'll say!"
It's been a long road for Massive Entertainment to get here, and there's still a little distance it wants to cover still. Karlson says it's strange to reflect on the earliest days of the project, and the challenges that all of the Ubisoft teams navigated across its development. "We went from, okay this is actually happening, to establishing the core fantasy that we wanted to bring to life, and then the pandemic came along. That was unexpected, and of course brought new challenges. But the way this team was able to come together and make the project take off under those circumstances, and the adaptations we had to make along the way to make it happen, is a testament to the team, and the passion that everyone had for both the IP and the fantasy we were going for. Everyone in the team has always said that they could see so clearly what the target was; every game production is a long journey of a million little hurdles to get towards that point, but as long as you know where you're walking you can keep walking even in difficult circumstances."
Looking to the future of the Star Wars Outlaws world, Gerighty says: "I'm feeling pretty good about it!" Getting either Gerighty or Karlson to comment beyond that on the potential for a sequel is more challenging than making the Kessel Run in less than twelve parsecs, especially because the pair still have plenty of work to complete. "I'm still working on it, Mathias is still working on it – we're pushing a lot of improvements," says Gerighty."Not just on the base game, but it's things that we're going to deliver later this year and next with the downloadable episodes we're creating. They are heavily themed, pushing a certain aspect of the game that we have even further."
"The first [Wild Card] is all about Sabacc in Star Wars Outlaws, so we're going to build on that and make something that has a really strong Sabacc theme. And the next [A Pirate's Fortune] features Hondo Ohnaka from the animated shows – he's a legendary pirate, a great character, and super humorous. That is space piracy focused and really pushing the space aspect – we would have loved to spend more time in space in Outlaws. There's so much more for us to do there. We've got such a great system, there's a great foundation. It's not as easy as it looks, because everything is level designed and that's a lot of work, but there's so much we can do there," says Gerighty, adding: "I'm still working on it, Mathias is still working on it – we're pushing a lot of improvements. We just don't want to let it go. They're going to have to kick us out the door!"
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