Star Wars Outlaws (PC) Review: A Scoundrel Sandbox That Shines With a Few Tweaks

I didn’t buy Star Wars Outlaws; it came bundled as a free code with the GPU in my current PC.

For a freebie, I put in ~40 hours, wrapped the main story, did almost all the side content, and walked away… actually pretty satisfied.

If the phrase “open-world Star Wars” makes you smile, you’ll likely have a good time here.

If you’re suffering open-world fatigue (especially with the Ubisoft formula), this is very much another one of those, with that familiar mix of exploration, stealth outposts, light crafting/collecting, and rep bars to push.

I don’t play tons of open worlds these days, so the loop felt fresh enough, especially after a few PC tweaks and mods.

I played about a year after launch, and it feels like a lot of the early rough edges have been sanded down.

I only had a handful of crashes, plus some occasional “Star Wars jank” (e.g., ships flying in sideways) that was more funny than frustrating.

With some settings nudges I hit 4K/60fps consistently, even with ray tracing stuck on (more on that later).

Story & Characters: Scoundrels, Syndicates… and One Standout Droid

Set during the Original Trilogy era, Outlaws lives in that sweet spot of TIEs, cantinas, and criminal syndicates.

The world-building is familiar and cozy: the cantinas hum, the underworld schemers scheme, and jobs go sideways in classic Star Wars fashion.

I appreciated the era callbacks but less so the overtly “Disney Star Wars” touches like characters dropping “Dank Farrik”, which still lands clunky to my ears.

The lead, Kay Vess, didn’t work for me.

She’s written as a scrappy underdog, but she often bumbles through situations that should reasonably get her killed in the criminal underworld, then inexplicably lands on her feet.

The script tells you she matures and wins people’s trust but I never really saw that growth.

By contrast, her companion ND-5, the droid, is fantastic: dry, competent, and consistently the most interesting presence in any scene he’s in. Every time ND-5 showed up, the story felt sharper and funnier.

Despite my Kay reservations, the ending mission is pure Star Wars fun, big spectacle, punchy pacing, and a nice capstone to the scoundrel fantasy.

Gameplay (On Foot): Stealthy Scoundrel, Occasional Head-Scratchers

Moment-to-moment on foot, stealth is the star.

Outposts and interiors are built for infiltration, lots of vents, patrol routes, alternate entries, and “aha” gadget moments.

Sneaking past stormtroopers, timing routes, and threading a perfect takedown chain is genuinely fun.

My biggest nitpick: melee knockouts.

Watching a 5-foot-tall female smuggler drop fully armored stormtroopers with a helmet bonk breaks the fantasy.

It feels especially odd because later you get a stun device to quietly disable droids, so why not a similar tool for flesh-and-blood enemies?

The game seems to want you to sneak and melee to keep noise down, which leads to…

The blaster stun cooldown.

You have a stun shot mode, but the cooldown is long, too long. I understand the intent (keep stealth primarily melee-driven), but 20 hours in it wore thin.

I installed Infinite Stun Shots – Cooldown Options and set stun to 30 seconds. That single tweak made stealth feel fair instead of fussy, letting me play the fantasy of a non-lethal space rogue without waiting an eternity between stuns.

Combat, when it breaks loud, is serviceable (cover shooters are rarely the highlight in an infiltration-forward game) but the sneakiness is where Outlaws clicks.

Scouting, tagging, routing, then executing a clean run is satisfying in that “one more outpost” way.

Gameplay (Ships & Travel): The Brick That Needed a Tune-Up

Space is where Outlaws stumbled for me initially.

Ship handling felt sluggish, like flying a brick through syrup and dogfights lacked that nimble snap you want in a Star Wars game.

Thankfully, PC modders exist: Trailblazer Under Control – Boost changed everything.

With that installed, the ship became far more responsive, and I actually enjoyed the space segments.

They still aren’t elite dogfighting sim moments, but they turned from chore to chill fun.

A separate, very Star Wars nerd nitpick: ship scale can look off.

Seeing Kay stand on an A-wing and realizing the cockpit seemed too tiny for an average person pulled me out of it.

Not a dealbreaker (most players won’t notice) but scale matters in Star Wars, and here it occasionally felt undersized.

I’m a huge Star Wars nerd in case you couldn’t tell.

World Structure & Progression: Discovery Over Map Slop

A big win: this isn’t one of those maps covered in 200 icons right away.

You discover things organically: eavesdrop a conversation in a cantina, pick up a rumor, stumble on a cave or a stash. Those discoveries then mark onto your map. It’s a small design choice that pays dividends; exploration feels curious instead of checklisty.

The faction reputation system, however, was friction for me.

For the first 10-ish hours, mine tanked constantly because I like to sneak everywhere and poke around areas I “shouldn’t” be in, shocking that guards dislike that.

Raising rep via incidental chores was busywork.

I installed No Loss of Reputation and the game immediately got better. I could explore freely, roleplay a sneaky scoundrel, and pick my fights without tiptoeing around a meter.

If you want the rep sim, great; if not, turning it off reveals the best version of Outlaws.

If you’re already tired of open worlds, be warned: beyond that discovery model, the broader structure is very Ubisoft, outposts to clear, caches to find, crafting bits, repeatable job loops.

For me, that was fine; I haven’t burned out on that format, and the Star Wars wrapper elevated it.

Graphics & Performance (PC): From Desaturated Fuzz to Photo-Pop

Out of the box, I found the visuals too desaturated and a little fuzzy, like an Instagram filter glued on top.

Enter ReShade. The Outlaws – Definitive Photorealistic preset delivered richer color, better local contrast, and a cleaner overall image. Suddenly the planets and city hubs popped. With that setup, Outlaws looked really good.

Performance-wise, I targeted 4K/60 and got there with some setting tweaks.

Ray tracing is enabled by default and can’t be fully disabled, but even so, a few dials down (shadow quality, crowd density, some reflection handling) locked things in nicely.

Over 40 hours, I had very few crashes, and mild visual bugs were mostly comedic.

Overall: solid PC experience once tuned.

Sound & Music: The Galaxy Far, Far Away Feels Right

Audio is where Outlaws nails the vibe. The soundscape (cantina chatter, docking clamps hissing, blaster pops down a corridor) feels thoroughly Star Wars.

The score threads that familiar orchestral excitement, then dials down to moody textures in stealth sequences.

Voice work is broadly good; my issue wasn’t performance, it was Kay’s writing.

Whenever ND-5 speaks, the scenes land. His dry humor, crisp delivery, and a tone that perfectly matches the setting.

Verdict: A Worthwhile Scoundrel Romp, Especially If It’s Free (or Modded)

As a free pack-in, Star Wars Outlaws was an easy win for me.

Even as a paid purchase (on sale), I’d still recommend it to anyone who hears “open-world Star Wars” and says “yes, please.”

The stealth sandbox is fun, the discovery-first map philosophy is smart, and the final mission delivers classic Star Wars spectacle. I finished the story, skipped the DLC, and felt like I got a complete adventure.

Caveats: if you’re over the Ubisoft open-world template, the structure here won’t change your mind.

If you need a compelling protagonist, Kay may not be it, she often survives via plot armor, and her arc is more told than felt.

Flight is mid without a mod.

And I wouldn’t play vanilla on PC; with Trailblazer Under Control – Boost for ships, Infinite Stun Shots – Cooldown Options for a reasonable non-lethal loop, No Loss of Reputation for frictionless exploration, and a ReShade preset like Outlaws – Definitive Photorealistic, the game blossoms into the scoundrel fantasy I wanted.

With a few tweaks, Outlaws becomes a very playable, often delightful Star Wars playground, ND-5 steals every scene, stealth sings, and the galaxy feels inviting to roam.

For me, that was more than enough reason to smuggle this one across the finish line.

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Images are from the Stars Wars Outlaws page on Steam or were captured by the author during gameplay and used under Fair Use