I wasn’t anticipating to care a lot for the latest online game entry into the Star Wars universe, however Large Leisure’s Star Wars Outlaws has had a chokehold on my consideration ever since I purchased it over the weekend. The sport has had largely middling opinions (and a few brutally destructive ones), and far has been stated about Kay Vess being a one-note protagonist, however regardless of myself and all of those complaints, I sort of love her.
It’s arduous to elucidate, actually. Maybe it’s my enduring love for the Star Wars scoundrel – I all the time performed Knights of the Outdated Republic as one, that means I did plenty of sneaking round, and getting to try this in a recreation in 2024 routinely endears me to Kay and her lifestyle. However I additionally suppose it’s as a result of Kay is, canonically, actually dangerous at being a scoundrel.
Like, Actually Dangerous
In actual fact, Star Wars Outlaws is just about propelled ahead by Kay being actually dangerous at what she does. She’s broke, in debt, and lives within the attic of a bar. Regardless of very clearly needing some charity, she rejects bartender and mentor Bram’s generosity, which is objectively a silly factor to do for those who don’t have a credit score to your identify. She scrounges up the cash to restore her damaged information spike by selecting up trash and promoting it, or getting her companion Nix to do the soiled work for her.
She’s so dangerous at hustling that when she goes to the Membership, the bouncer instantly tells her to buzz off. Later, when she tries to speak her well beyond a guard, she’s so woefully inept at mendacity that he mainly laughs her out of the room. When she does finally handle to seek out her option to her mark, she triggers an alarm and will get caught.
I’ve performed a few hours already, and it appears like that is simply Kay’s life. She strikes by way of the world, preventing an uphill battle in opposition to her personal ability points, failing always and someway, miraculously, surviving to see one other day. She regularly tells Nix that the subsequent job shall be higher, and it by no means is. She is delusionally optimistic, and powers by way of each screw up with sheer willpower.
Girlfailures Are Sympathetic Characters
And I can’t assist however love her for that. It appears like she’s horrible at every little thing, which is why the sport’s mechanical character development feels so satisfying. In lieu of ability factors, Outlaws has you unlocking new development paths by discovering consultants. To unlock expertise, you must full a associated problem that may be completed simply by way of taking part in the sport.
For instance, an early ability you may unlock is Quick-Speak, which lets Kay do the scoundrel factor of beginning to yap when she’s discovered by an enemy, complicated them sufficient that their response is delayed and she will be able to hearth off some blaster pictures. It’s mechanically helpful, permitting her to increase her stealthy incursions into locations she isn’t purported to be even when she will get caught, nevertheless it additionally appears like she’s getting higher at simply being a scoundrel. That is what scoundrels are supposed to do, and also you get to look at her determine that out in actual time.
As a result of she’s the opposite of a girlboss, watching her study these expertise makes you root for her extra. She’s failing upwards, sure, however she’s on the up-and-up nonetheless, and who amongst us doesn’t need the underdog to come back out on high? Scoundrels are scrappy, pressured into lives of crime due to the circumstances they’re born into, and Kay Vess is as scrappy as they arrive. I like watching her fail, as a result of she all the time comes again stronger. Being this naively optimistic could be a good factor.
