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Ubisoft’s Star Wars Outlaws stars a cunning hero seeking a new life

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This story is part of our Summer Gaming Marathon series.

Ubisoft announced Star Wars Outlaws, a new Star Wars game, in collaboration with Lucasfilm Games at today’s Xbox Showcase. The latest installment leaves behind Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order and Survivor protagonist Cal Kestis in favor of a new rebellious, rule-breaking hero called Kay Vess.

Star Wars Outlaws: Official World Premiere Trailer

We don’t know much about Kay Vess yet. Her role in the trailer starts during a card game, where she and her mutant companion, Nix, are trying to swindle their fellow bar patrons. However, she needs to fold early because of law enforcers who discover her whereabouts before the end of the game. The bar erupts into chaos, and she escapes. She then receives a curious offer to turn her life around and finally be free of the day-to-day conning she needs to do to survive.

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As per the official trailer description, Vess is willing to risk it all to leave behind the Underworld. She will be traveling through new and familiar planets in the Star Wars franchise, but it won’t be so easy because of the bounty on Kay Vess’s head. We’ll have to see how it ends up with her journey across the galaxy.

Kay Vess looking out at Star Wars landscape vista
Image used with permission by copyright holder

Star Wars Outlaws will be the first modern open-world Star Wars game, but there wasn’t much explanation about how the exploration would work in the Xbox Showcase announcement trailer. Ubisoft is scheduled to reveal more about Star Wars: Outlaws during its dedicated showcase at 1 p.m. ET tomorrow, June 12.

Star Wars Outlaws will launch in 2024 for Xbox Series X/S. Xbox hasn’t confirmed if it will be PC compatible or on Xbox Game Pass.

Jess Reyes
Jessica Reyes is a freelance writer who specializes in anime-centric and trending topics. Her work can be found in Looper…
All Jet Vault locations in Star Wars Outlaws
Kay tries to enter Crimson Dawn territory.

One of the most tantalizing distractions in Star Wars Outlaws is the Jet Kordo Holodiscs. After you find your first one and gain access to the Holotracker early on in the game, you will be teased with a hidden treasure from this legendary scoundrel that is just waiting to be looted. Unlock other treasures that you can just lockpick, Jet put a bit more thought into keeping his loot hidden from anyone unworthy of it. You will need to find six individual vaults across the galaxy before you can get the big score at the end, but it will all be worth it. If you're having trouble locating each vault, we'll put an X on your map so you can go right to them.
Jet Kordo rewards

After you've collected all the loot from the vaults and returned to Toshara, you can claim your last reward.

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One small Star Wars Outlaws moment gets autism representation right
Star Wars Outlaws key art that features Kay Vess.

While playing through the first few hours of Star Wars Outlaws, I found myself once again presented with an all-too-familiar trope. ND-5, the game's primary droid crewmate to Kay Vess, appeared to be yet another autism-coded droid that is typically played for laughs or treated as "other" by the main cast.

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An arcade machine appears in Star Wars Outlaws.

While the era of arcades was long past its prime by the time I started playing games, I still appreciate the elegant simplicity of many of those classics. Games like Pac-Man, Pole Position, and Galaga aren't that complex ,but I'm drawn to replay them as I chase high scores. I was reminded of that grace of arcade games when I played Star Wars Outlaws, which includes some original ones as in-world minigames.

Players can find arcade cabinets for two different games-within-a-game near cantinas across Star Wars Outlaws' planets. One is titled Raven 6 and is a space shooter based on the look and feel of Atari's classic Star Wars arcade game. The other is Racer, a time trial game where players must speed to the end of a level as quickly as possible without hitting any obstacles.

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