Star Wars Outlaws Designers Explain How the Game was Influenced by the Original Trilogy

Star Wars Outlaws takes place during the original truly with the new Ubisoft game more specifically sandwiched between The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi, so fittingly enough, it’s also taking some inspiration from those movies. That inspiration extends not just to the setting and the dialogue as characters talk about ongoings in the galaxy around them but also the game’s combat system, too. The feels of those first three movies combined with the improvisational skill of our new protagonist, Kay Vess, help sell her position as a scoundrel in the Star Wars universe, the game’s creators said.

ComicBook spoke to the Star Wars Outlaws developers recently during a hands-on opportunity with the Star Wars game with inspirations and the source material naturally coming up in conversation. In reference to the game’s combat where Kay Vess uses a blaster as her primary tool and has to stay alert for temporary weapon pickups and other resources, lead gameplay designer Fredrick Thylander summed up the game’s combat system as “effort over elegance.”

“When you do a scoundrel combat system, you’re gonna go back to the source material, and we’re in the original trilogy,” Thylander said. “So you want effort over elegance, you want haymakers and dirty tricks and shooting from the hip.”

“Shooting from the hip” isn’t just an expression here either as Thylander pointed out that you’ll actually see Kay Vess doing that in Star Wars Outlaws. You can holster your weapon in the game, and if you need to get it out quickly to address a threat, Thylander said Kay Vess can show off her quickdraw skills by shooting before the gun is even fully raised and aimed.

“We actually went to a lot of trouble making sure that if your blaster is holstered, and you just pull the trigger, you literally shoot from the hip before she raises it into an aimed position,” Thylander said. “It’s those little details that really sell the character of that era. And it was a particular style. She’s not a trained commando, she’s making it up as she goes along and taking opportunities as they come. And that’s really what we wanted to sell with that style of combat and the expression and animation of combat.”

We also spoke to the game’s creators about other cameo characters we may see in Star Wars Outlaws, though if you’re familiar with the seedy underside of Star Wars the game centers around, it’s not too much of a stretch to imagine which characters might make appearances.