Ubisoft says the “handcrafted” planets in Star Wars Outlaws will be equivalent to two of the zones in Assassin’s Creed Odyssey.
As expected, Star Wars Outlaws, the new open-world game from Ubisoft Massive, will be big. “It’s a crude analogy, but the size of one planet might be about [equivalent to] two of the zones in Assassin’s Creed Odyssey, for example,” said creative director Julian Gerighty in an interview in issue 387 of Edge magazine.
There’s no indication yet of how many planets will be featured in Star Wars Outlaws, but the Edge article confirms that the planet Kijimi from The Rise of Skywalker will appear, and the trailer also shows images of various locales, from forests to deserts. Gerighty goes on to explain that some planets might be the equivalent of two to three zones in Odyssey – for reference, Assassin’s Creed Odyssey features nearly 40 different regions.
This indicates that Star Wars Outlaws will be considerably smaller than Starfield, which will feature more than a thousand procedurally generated planets, but it will still be pretty massive. Gerighty emphasises that each planet in Outlaws is “handcrafted”, and the developers wanted to ensure that each planet is of a “manageable” size.
Elsewhere, the Edge feature touches on the faction system in the game. The scoundrel protagonist, Kay Vess, can undertake tasks for various different criminal syndicates. “If you’re in their good books, you’ll unlock exclusive quests, special prices at their vendors, access to locked-off areas,” says Gerighty . “But if you’re in their bad books, they’re going to send people to chase you down – and there’ll be some consequences in terms of credits, or some sort of monetary punishment, there.”
Massive has also been working on recreating a 1970s look for the game, which is set between The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi. Vess’s ship, the Trailblazer, is inspired by toys of the 1970s, according to the Edge article, and Massive has also been working on recreating the cinematic look of the early Star Wars films, with technology that emulates the lenses used at the time.
Charmingly, Vess’s cute alien companion, Nix, is actually a puppet that was motion-captured, reflecting the use of Jim Henson puppets in the original films. In the game, Nix can be directed to attack enemies or grab items that are out of reach, among other things. “The last day of mocap with the puppet master, she cried, because it was like saying goodbye to a favourite pet,” Gerighty told Edge.
