It took a few hours, but Star Wars Outlaws finally started to win over our scumbag Morgan Park when he got his hands on a preview earlier this month. Despite the “undeniable slowness of the action,” Morgan eventually found that, like Ubisoft’s previous games, “no single aspect is exceptional, but when it all comes together, I have a really good time.”
Aside from the obvious reason Star Wars Outlaws feels similar to Ubisoft’s other open-world games — because it’s another open-world Ubisoft game — there’s an even more direct connection. Speaking to GamesRadarStar Wars Outlaws artistic director Julian Gerighty has said that Assassin’s Creed Odyssey is “without a doubt” one of his favorite AC games.
Praising the “freedom of approach in a very large environment” and “curiosity at heart,” Gerighty told GR that he would “pick up the phone” and ask members of the Odyssey development team specific questions as Outlaws was being created. “Okay, how did you do it? What was too big for you? What was too far to travel?”
Odyssey wasn’t the only influence on the Outlaws. Gerighty also said GamesRadar that “my biggest reference was Ghost of Tsushima, which is more inspired by a Kurosawa film than a Western, and George Lucas was inspired by John Ford.”
Red Dead Redemption was another influence, because it treats “the world as a world, rather than as a checklist of actions that are repeated over and over again,” Gerighty said. “But I think Ghost of Tsushima, what I liked about it was that purity of having the player’s fantasy and really delving into it.
That’s not exactly the same theme in Outlaws — as Morgan notes, Ubisoft and LucasArts have repeatedly called it a “fantasy villain.” As for inspirations like AC Odyssey, RDR, and Ghost of Tsushima, we don’t have long to wait to see if their influence really makes itself felt in Gerighty’s open world. Star Wars Outlaws launches on August 30.
