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Before the 5-7 hours of additional gameplay that brand-new DLC Wild Card adds to the game, I had put around 40 hours into Star Wars Outlaws. Yes, it's not a game without its flaws - even worse, it felt like it still had too many issues too long after its original late-August release, but nevertheless I kept playing and actually enjoying most of my time with Kay and Nix.
Because despite the glitchy mess, the dumb enemy behaviour, Vess' ridiculous jumping, the occasional filler, or the annoying stealth sections, it kept giving me what it does best. It kept delivering perhaps the most beautiful Star Wars video game rendition to date, its very first open world full of varied things to do, amazing interactions between rival criminal factions, a bunch of great stories and designs, and some memorable moments, with some of these pluses already highlighted back then by Magnus's original review.
I had finished the main story in early October after completing most of the game's content and applying a few chunky patches. Its ending and final twists, sadly, were ruined by one of those many bugs, with space junk hilariously clipping into the characters inside a spaceship, making it impossible to see their faces or what was going on. And even then, I reloaded my last save, watched the ending, saw the credits roll, and kept playing further, as it's just always fun to toy around with the Pykes.
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What I mean with all this is that Outlaws clearly released in an unfinished state, yet it gave me some of the best Star Wars entertainment I've ever had. This is something I could also have said about the two Star Wars Jedi games, with the little difference that those drove me mad in frustration with their problems given their Souls angle, something that doesn't happen with the more light-hearted approach here. And what I also want to say is that Wild Card, together with Title Update 1.4, bring both a compilation of those gameplay highlights, and proof, or hope, that it can only get better and better with time.
And what is Wild Card? Starting as a Sabacc-focused Casino Royale tribute, it takes Kay, Nix, and ND-5 on a journey through several completely new environments, while recycling a couple old ones in a smart, seamless way. In this journey, the content tries its best with all the gameplay styles (and the lore bits) the base game has on offer, and the result is quite satisfactory. It includes action-packed shooting versus both droids and biological races, pursuits involving spaceships and speeders, stealth sections that will inevitably end up in more blaster action, detective investigations with funny dialogue, platforming exploration, and of course probably the best Sabacc game you'll ever play.
The addition of new elements such as the whole Morenia casino-spaceship stage, the brand-new bunker environment at Mirogana's spaceport in Toshara, or the plot surrounding Governor Thorden, Lando Calrissian, and the Empire-Rebellion shenanigans, as seen from Kay's independent POV (remember this is before Return of the Jedi, with the rebels reinforcing and Han Solo still frozen in Carbonite patiently waiting for rescue from Jabba's Palace), makes the content an interesting-enough standalone story that is always rooted in Outlaws' own-introduced lore and characters. In other words, it's a good piece of interwoven writing and gameplay, with a nice balance between the old, the new, and the canon.
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I felt a little bit OP because, as said, I had completed a lot from the main game, which meant I had many expert abilities unlocked and the acquired natural skill when approaching the different segments. The whole content - an attempt of trying to get to the Okala V moon before others - felt fun and satisfactory, albeit not very challenging, and despite one obscure solution to a crane puzzle, the DLC played as smooth as Bantha butter and added a couple of those memorable moments to my Outlaws list.
So, what else is left to say? Well, and this goes for every Star Wars Outlaws player and not just for those interested or considering Wild Card and the season pass, Title Update 1.4 means a lot, but it doesn't mean all is fixed and completely polished as of yet, sadly. I still see glitchy things and silly behaviour, points where I can't click R3 to interact with an NPC or to even mount my speeder, and some crazy physics that were definitely not caused by the Force. We still need all this solved, and hopefully the team at Massive keeps working hard like they've done since August in order for DLC 2, A Pirate's Fortune, releasing in Spring 2025 featuring the famous Clone Wars Hondo Ohnaka, to be all it can be.
On the bright side, pretty much every tweak introduced by the patch has been for the better, and now we have enhanced UI/UX, gunplay, dogfights, and stealth. And even if it clearly feels like an afterthought, to be able to carry with you your Death Trooper's E-11D blaster carbine, or the all-satisfying TL-50 Heavy Repeater, beyond the previously-limited sections, including while riding your speeder or climbing a wall, is a game changer.
