Even coveted media juggernauts go through their ups and downs, both in their native format like comics, movies, TV shows, and expanded mediums like games. This anlso extends to platform holders themselves like Sony back in the PS3 era and Xbox now with their onslaught of repeated price hikes for their hardware and subscription services. We saw it with a franchise that is dear to me, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, once Michael Bay got his grubby little hands on the IP which saw him churn out two pretty bad live action adaptations and we’ve seen it more than once after the Disney overlords swallowed up the Star Wars brand for over $4 billion over than a decade ago.
Bringing it back to video games, both franchises also had great game releases such as TMNT Splintered Fate or Star Wars Jedi: Fallen order while also releasing their fair share of duds like Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutants Unleashed or Kinect Star Wars. So where does that leave us with Ubisoft’s latest take on a Star Wars game from Ubisoft?
Right off the bat I need to kick things off by saying this port is nothing short of a miracle. That may sound like hyperbole for a console that’s not even a year old, and it’s something the original Switch had plenty of similar claims thrown out there with Doom/Witcher/etc, but the thing is, it was a miracle those ports ran—that doesn’t mean they looked or ran great. Most of the time they didn’t but it was the convenience of having them portable that made them tolerable. Nowadays we have the Steam Deck, a plethora of Windows and Steam OS handhelds, an upcoming ROG Xbox Ally, and the Switch 2. While I don’t have Outlaws on Steam to verify how it runs on the Deck, it’s not great from what I’ve read which is where the Switch 2 port is so fascinating and demonstratesto the leg up dedicated consoles can have over their PC counterparts when it comes to bare metal optimization.
Sure, Outlaws runs at 30fps on Switch 2 and sure it has visual compromises, but I (A) became used to the 30fps limit and (B) can’t see how much the visual are lacking compared to the PC/Xbox/PS5 counterparts since they’re not side by side (spoiler: going off of videos it’s not bad at all). I’ll be damned, this little system can handle the likes of Cyberpunk 2077 and Star Wars Outlaws, the latter of which has ray-tracing enabled by default as Ubisoft baked it right into the engine and they run fantastic on Nintendo’s latest console that could.
So, yes, Outlaws runs fantastic on Switch 2 both in docked and handheld in my experience, even while zipping around on your speeder through the open world, a stark contrast from what the media and players were expecting considering how early hands on impressions fared. I’d love to see these optimizations trickle down to the Steam version for Deck owners similar to what superstar Durante did with the original Switch release of Ys IX Monstrum Nox and bringing those optimizations over to Steam which greatly benefited Deck and gaming handheld players. One thing I wasn’t expecting going into Outlaws was how much of a Stealth affair it would be. I mean, sure, story wise it makes sense that you’d want to tiptoe around as an, erm, outlaw, but also this is a video game. Just let me blam blam shooty shooty the bad guys.
That’s what I initially thought anyway, but there are plenty of other Star Wars games that let you live out that epic space battle fantasy. Instead, the franchise’s latest outing is meant to throw you into the darker day to day of the galaxy’s biggest criminals and crime lords at which it excels. The world also feels so vast and alive while also still teeming with many secrets waiting to be discovered. You play as Kay Vess whose sole objective is to pull off a massive heist in space in order to leave her past of crime behind her and live life on the down low. Oh, and you’ve got this effing adorable little sidekick named Nix who I would do anything for and who would do anything for me…..like sabotage alarm systems, attack Storm Troopers in the face, that sorta thing.
The gameplay overall feels like a little bit of Dishonored meets Deus Ex with some Assassin’s Creed sprinkled in for good measure. These are all fantastic franchises to pull from and Outlaws balances them well enough that I had a blast sneaking my way into enemy encampments to take out troopers in the tall grass systematically until everyone was knocked out and I could loot ALL THE THINGS! You have quite a few choices thanks to your grappling hook, speed bike, and other fun tools at your disposal. On the flip side, shit can go south quick, especially in larger enemy bases so it’s best to play slow and calculated. You can finish this game in probably thirty hours or so, maybe forty or more if you collect everything and hit every side quest. This is pretty much the gameplay loop in outlaws: knock out the baddies, steal their shit, play factions against each other, repeat. Oh, on that front, just like in real life you can’t make everyone happy, so as they say in South Park, when you find yourself wandering into the area belonging to a faction you pissed off, “You’re gonna have yourself a bad time.” It adds to the spice of your adventure and who you choose to cozy up with. All things considered, I think Star Wars Outlaws for Switch 2 is a solid port and one worth picking up, and this is coming from someone who mainly games on his gaming desktop paired with a Steam Deck.
