Star Wars Outlaws Creative Director Elaborates on Game’s Open World, Freedom of Choice, Inter-Planetary Travel and More

Star Wars Outlaws is the next big game in the franchise coming from Ubisoft and Massive Entertainment. After the big reveal at the Microsoft Xbox Games Showcase earlier this year, creative director Julian Gerighty has now revealed more information about the upcoming game in a recent interview. He spoke about the making of the expansive open world of the game. Here are the details:

How expansive is Star Wars Outlaws?

Star Wars Outlaws creative director Julian Gerighty shared new details about the game’s open world in an interview with Edge magazine (via Exputer). He gave us an idea of how big the world of Star Wars Outlaws will be. According to Gerighty,

“It’s a crude analogy, but the size of one planet might be about [equivalent to] two of the zones in Assassin’s Creed: Odyssey, for example. It could be two to three zones. But it’s not, you know, this sort of epic ‘the whole of England recreated’ approach.”

We don’t yet have the specific number of planets that the game will include, but Gerighty also added that each was handcrafted. The planets are of a manageable size, and they have not procedurally generated entire planets. Gerighty added, “We’re really focusing on what ‘open world’ means to the player, which is full freedom of approach”.

Star Wars Outlaws inter-planetary travel and factions explained

As for the means of travelling between planets, the game will include speeders and spaceships. While players will reportedly be able to explore the “near-orbit of each planet or moon”, there are limitations to this as well. Gerighty explains, “Flying freely above the planet was something that we chose not to do, because it was going to take us a huge amount of effort for very little payoff.”

Players will be dropped off at specific nearby points from which they will have to calculate and strategise their ways in. We saw a demo of this at the Ubisoft showcase, where the lead character Vess was seen choosing whether to bribe the Imperial officer or not. This is also where the different factions come in, as you can be in the good or bad books of each depending on the choices you make in the game. This will affect your gameplay as you’ll get to unlock exclusive quests, gain access to locked areas and more. Gerighty explained,

“If you’re in their good books, you’ll unlock exclusive quests, special prices at their vendors, access to locked-off areas. But if you’re in their bad books, they’re going to send people to chase you down, and there’ll be consequences in terms of credits, or some sort of monetary punishment, there.”

1970s Influence in Star World Outlaws

Gerighty also elaborated on the different styles one can see influencing the game, especially a vintage approach reminiscent of the 1970s. He said,

“So you have the vignetting, film grain, lens breathing, the curvature of a thicker lens, the slight lens flares – all of these things that are very subtle, but come together to give you a more cinematic experience.”

Star Wars Outlaws is currently scheduled for release sometime in 2024 on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S and PC.