If you’re a fan of a certain galaxy far, far away, then you’ll likely have been playing Star Wars Outlaws since it came out on August 30th. The title from Ubisoft has had a ton of spotlight put on it due to how the game was not only by the publisher but was focused on an entirely new character that wasn’t a Jedi or a Sith. There was much curiosity about what Ubisoft would do with Kay Vess and her journey, and initial thoughts stated the game was good but not exactly great. However, for the team, there was another aspect of “quality” that they were concerned with.
Lead concept artist Samuel De Vos and associate art director Marthe Jonkers had a chat with GamesRadar+about the title, and they noted that they wanted to ensure that the game was authentic to the original trilogy above all else:
“Star Wars is one of the most established IPs in the world, so creating authentic additions to that universe takes a lot of special care. We looked at what inspired George Lucas and [conceptual designer] Ralph McQuarrie in the first place to make sure that the very base of our ideation came from a similar place.”
That’s a fair thing to do, especially since Star Wars Outlaws is set within the original trilogy, so the “feel” of it all has to be within line with what came before. To that end, De Vos revealed that there were plenty of things from the 60s/70s period that influenced how they designed certain parts of the world.
Jonkers then popped in to add:
“It was very important that we were authentic to the original trilogy. We wanted it so that if you play Outlaws you feel as if you are stepping into those movies and are actually there.”
Whether that feeling has come across to fans is up in the air. After all, the game has been out for almost a week now, yet there hasn’t been any significant news about its launch outside of certain people talking about bugs they’ve encountered and such. We have seen some people praising it, but we’ve also seen some people bashing it.
Its fate may be tied to how things go in the near future, especially with the DLC, which will offer more options for Kay Vess and expand what she can do in the galaxy.
Either way, it’s nice to know that Ubisoft paid true attention to the design themes of the original movie, as it shows they’re true fans.