I have a lot of love for the blaster in Star Wars Outlaws. It's simple to wield, a no thrills point of interaction with a universe which has often considered it to be an inelegant weapon for a more uncivilized age. Developer Massive Entertainment builds an incredible sense of time and place throughout its first Star Wars adventure, but perhaps something I didn't give the studio enough credit for in my Star Wars Outlaws review was just how well the studio captured how chaotic combat in the original trilogy could be.
I think back to Han Solo frantically firing from the hip aboard the original Death Star after detection, small-arms fire against an army of Stormtroopers who couldn't bullseye a womp rat at a two meter distance. It's a riot to watch, but not necessarily the easiest experience to translate into a competent third-person shooter model – particularly as the genre grapples with increasing complexity in the modern era. Still, Star Wars Outlaws finds the fun in functional combat as Key Vess holds her own against mobs of Syndicate gunslingers and Imperial squadrons.
Something I really like about Star Wars Outlaws is how it essentially merges the snappiness of the Uncharted-style of haphazard combat with a lot of micro-interactions – a change in blaster module here, a cleanly-timed reload there – to keep this element of play feeling forever active, as if any moment of passivity while under duress, ducking behind cover to lazily trade plasma bolts with an encroaching aggressor, would send you hurtling back to a checkpoint. The influence of Gears of War felt clear, particularly in Outlaws' tight reload windows, and its lead systems designer is quick to agree.
- Helldivers 2's Killzone-inspired sniper "could maybe use some tweaking," creative director admits, but "weapons are what weapons are" and "balance doesn't matter"
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"Oh, definitely," laughs Matthieu Delisle. "All of us have played Gears of War, and we love that game. The invention of the 'perfect reload' is a great mechanic to bring micro-interactions to the shooting, so we were definitely inspired by Gears of War and other games that have used it since."
Anatomy of a blaster
The recycling of the perfect reload mechanic isn't just to pay homage to one of the greats though, it helps solve one of the principal challenges Massive faced with the blaster: just as Obi-Wan once inferred, it's kinda sorta basic. "The interesting thing here is that, while it is iconic, the blaster is a fairly basic type of weapon when you think about it – compared to other weapons that you can see in other games," says Delisle. "So we really wanted to bring as much interactivity and depth and flexibility as possible to the blaster. There are different modules you can swap between, and some are better against certain types of enemies. You can upgrade the blaster and customize it visually, so there ends up being quite a lot of depth with that blaster; even if it is a very simple weapon, it can also be fairly unique."
Star Wars Outlaws operates with three core modules: Plasma, Ion, and Power; all three of these can be upgraded and improved as you scout for resources and barter for parts across the worlds. As you fire the blaster it overheats, at which point a gauge appears allowing you an opportunity to cool the module instantly and get back into the action. Further upgrades will even let you supercool the weapon, introducing a smaller sweet spot which, if hit, lets you continue firing the blaster without running the risk of heating it up for a short period. A nice twist on a Gears classic.
All of this is so key to the cycle of combat in Star Wars Outlaws because the blaster is ever-present. As Delisle says, "Kay could use other weapons, and sometimes she'll pick up weapons dropped by enemies, but she'll always go back to her faithful blaster." That is one of those design decisions that I don't necessarily agree with, which Massive otherwise maintains was vital to preserve the core scoundrel fantasy at the heart of Outlaws. "From my experience playing the game," adds Samuel De Vos, lead concept artist, "I feel like a scoundrel archetype is quite a charming, romantic experience. And I think it's clear that all of the mechanics and systems sort of serve that fantasy, much more than they would in some of the other games that Massive has made."
It's a fair point, but it's also fair to say that it's a lot of fun to pick up the equally iconic E-11 Blaster Rifle from a Stormtrooper's corpse, or new additions to the wider Star Wars world like the powerful ZB-3 Modulator Rifle, and exceptionally frustrating when Vess isn't able to navigate a ladder, locked door, or ventilation system without dropping the damn thing. Then again, I think back to Han Solo in Star Wars: The Force Awakens during a particularly fierce battle on Takodana. After getting pinned, he requisitions a bowcaster to take down a couple of Stormtroopers at distance. "I like this thing," he croons, before eventually handing the laser crossbow back to Chewbacca. I suppose the lesson here is that you just can't separate a scoundrel from their favorite blaster.
