Lightsabers, blasters, and Jedi robes are all critical parts of the universe’s iconography, but Star Wars wouldn’t be Star Wars without its ships. X-Wings. TIE Fighters. Millennium Falcons. One look at any of these iconic spaceships is enough to conjure up dreams of freedom and adventure among the stars. It’s no wonder that starships are so critical to the Star Wars Outlaws.
“I’ve been a Star Wars fan for decades, and the space side of things is really important to me,” says Allen Frank, senior game designer at Massive Entertainment. “I grew up on games like X-Wing and TIE Fighter, Rogue Squadron.”
With five distinct, deeply detailed open worlds to explore in the Outlaws galaxy, you could be forgiven for thinking that the inky black space surrounding each one would be a bit empty by comparison. However, Massive has applied much of the same design ethos it uses on planets to its regions of space.
“There’s a lot to do,” says inventive director Julian Gerighty. “There are secrets to uncover. There’s exploration, there’s possibilities to scan. And of course there will be live events, or ‘live events.’”
To bring the galaxy to life, various NPC routines will be transformed into organic events. A freighter might be attacked by pirates, or the Empire might stop a smuggling ship, and you’ll have the option to intervene or stay behind. Crashed ships send out distress signals, but are they a source of wealth or a trap? It’s these kinds of events that will fill the void of space between Outlaws’ surface gameplay.
The answer was to push the visualization of space in Star Wars further than we usually see in movies and TV shows. Each planet had to be surrounded by regions of space that looked unique, which in turn would offer compelling gameplay challenges.
The planet Akiva is surrounded by a dense asteroid field that promises its own challenges. Massive declines to provide details about what surrounds the other three worlds in the Outlaws galaxy, but promises that each will “provide players with some fun.”
One of the most impressive things about Star Wars Outlaws is that space isn’t exactly a separate entity or “level” from the surface of the planet. When Massive talks about Outlaws as open world, the idea is galactic, not just planetary—all five worlds, plus the space in between, make up the game’s “open world.” That means there’s a level of connectivity between the ground and space. For example, if you’re wanted by the Empire, their forces will chase you from the surface to the stars.
Creating the feel of a completely open galaxy requires a lot of technical work, but there is one aspect that is crucial: the seamless transition between land and space.
“I think pulling the player out of the experience and into a loading screen kind of kills the immersion,” Frank says. While there are technically loading barriers between regions of space, they’re masked by the iconic visuals of Star Wars hyperspace, which keeps players feeling connected to the experience. Landing on planets is a bit more complicated, though; you can’t just throw a few long star trails to mask the transition. To really feel like you’re breaching a planet’s atmosphere and landing on the surface in one velvety motion, you need the Snowdrop engine that Outlaws was built on to work its impressive digital magic.
Stephen Hawes, Outlaws’ lead technical artist, reveals that the entire landing process feels like you have control over it, but there’s a degree of automation. In orbit, you select a landing spot from a menu, and the game moves your ship, the Trailblazer, into position to begin its descent. “Then we start rapidly unloading everything behind you and start loading everything on the new map in front of you,” he says.
During this process, the Trailblazer goes through a “mixing” transition where it’s held in place. Layers of cloud cover give the illusion of falling while the engine charges the planet’s surface. “Once we’re done charging, we’ll take you through the clouds again and then you’ll drop down to the planet’s surface. We go into execution and then you drop off at a place where everything is charged.” In motion, the result is as immersive as anything in No Man’s Sky.
Speaking of the Trailblazer, this is one of many novel additions to the canon that Massive has created. It’s the only surviving example of a prototype cargo freighter, so it’s not based on any existing Star Wars ship. This meant the art team had almost complete freedom when it came to the Trailblazer’s look (as long as it had that retro, 70s-inspired aesthetic, of course).
The turtle doesn’t look too mechanical, though, so Podlesnigg also sought more recognizable influences in the Trailblazer’s many details. For example, the shape of the front air vents is based on the lines of the Ford Mustang.
While most of the Trailblazer’s design is set in stone, players do have a fair amount of customization available to them. You can purchase and upgrade offensive options, including a turret and various missiles to aid fend off anyone who tries to steal your smuggled cargo. And then there are the aesthetic options, including different color schemes and customizing the ship’s exhaust effects.
While a lot of effort has clearly gone into livening up the experience of flying the Trailblazer, it’s critical to note that Star Wars Outlaws isn’t secretly a flight simulator. The act of flying in Outlaws is a far cry from the hardcore simulation systems seen in the elderly X-Wing and TIE Fighter PC games, or even the Star Wars Squadrons of a few years ago. “We really didn’t want to lean into a more simulation experience, because Star Wars is for everyone,” Frank says.
“You can do a few things, there are abilities to repair your ship, shields and other things, there will be some light management of that, with things on cooldowns,” he explained. But when it comes to controlling the Trailblazer, everything is designed to be fun and accessible with “familiar controls.” You definitely won’t have to worry about transferring power from weapons to shields.
In Outlaws , between The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi , Han Solo is trapped in carbonite. Still, it’s clear that Star Wars Outlaws is trying to deliver a proper Han Solo simulator, and you can’t have the full package without a Millennium Falcon equivalent. With Trailblazer and the many space-age gameplay systems it taps into, it seems like Massive Entertainment has just figured out that side of fantasy. We’ll find out for sure when Star Wars Outlaws enters hyperdrive (AKA launches) on August 30th.
Matt Purslow is a senior features editor at IGN.
