Star Wars Outlaws Gold Edition

Genre: Open-World Action-RPG

Players: 1

.

Review:

Star Wars Outlaws is an Open-World Action-RPG released in 2024 on PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X|S, and though it comes to the Nintendo Switch 2 a year late, it seems that publisher UbiSoft has given Nintendo fans a bit of an apology in the form of making the base version of the game on Nintendo Switch 2 the Gold Edition of the game, which includes all of the Season Pass DLC, and pricing this package $10 cheaper than the standard price on other platforms. Clearly they’re positioning this as a good deal for Nintendo Switch 2 owners, but is it a good game, and is it a good port?

I’ll address the second question first with a simple “yes”. While the Nintendo Switch 2 version of the game drops the framerate down to 30FPS, everything else here looks fantastic, with detailed characters and massive environments that don’t suffer from too much pop-in, and with some very nice lighting effects. I don’t think hair and facial features are quite right here, but otherwise this is a phenomenal port, and one of the best-looking games on Nintendo Switch 2 so far.

Beyond the graphics, you also have orchestral music in a similar style to John Williams’ classic film scores, and excellent voice acting for all characters, along with sound effects that would fit right in with the films.

The game’s story has you following Kay Vess, a rogue-esque Han Solo type who’s on the run from one of the galaxy’s nastier mob bosses, and is looking to bring together a crew to pull off a heist that can get her the money she believes will help her buy her safety. To do so, she’ll need to head to planets throughout the galaxy both familiar and unfamiliar to fans of the movies, and as with any good heist story, there are plenty of wrinkles in the plot, and something always comes along to make plans go awry.

When it comes to the actual gameplay, Star Wars Outlaws is good, but never achieves greatness. There’s nothing truly new here apart from the Star Wars world being explorable in a way it previously hasn’t been. There’s good action here, and players can opt to be sneaky or go in guns a-blazin’, but the gunplay is merely okay, and this game doesn’t reward players for exploring its Open World in the same way that some of the best games in the genre do, the world only lets you interact with parts of it the creators specifically designated as being there to interact with, and the game also doesn’t have the sort of narrative depth of something like the Knights of the Old Republic series.

In other words, Star Wars Outlaws Gold Edition on Nintendo Switch 2 is an excellent port of a “good, not great” Open-World Action-RPG. If you’re the sort of person who enjoys Open-World games and especially if you’re a fan of the Star Wars franchise looking for something to play on the go, this game will be perfect for you. But the Nintendo Switch 2 already had some excellent Open-World games from day one (including the phenomenal port of the absolutely sublime No Man’s Sky), so “you’ll enjoy this if you like Star Wars” might not be enough for everyone when you could play those better alternatives instead.

tl;dr – Star Wars Outlaws on Nintendo Switch 2 is an excellent port of a “good not great” Open-World Action-RPG. Players take the role of the Han Solo-like Kay Vess as she travels the galaxy to gather crew for a great heist, and while this is an all-around solid game, it doesn’t have the qualities that you look for in the best Open-World games. Still, if an Open-World game set in the Star Wars universe appeals to you, I don’t think you’ll be disappointed with this one.

Grade: B

^{You can support eShopperReviews on Patreon! Please click HERE to become a Sponsor!}

^{This month’s sponsors are Jamie and His Cats, Ben, Ilya Zverev, Andy Miller, Johannes, Jaka, Jared Wark, Gabriel Coronad-Medina, Francis Obst, Kristoffer Wulff, and Seth Christenfeld. Thank you for helping to keep the reviews coming!}