Star Wars Outlaws - Gold Edition, PlayStation 5

Im done with star wars anything

(post 6-hour review. Spolier-free)BLUF: Gorgeous vistas and an actually original Jedi-free story manage to push a pathetically weak character through a great setup and story development. A gorgeous world and delightfully vibrant ecosystem blind you to any repetition for hours. Everywhere you look is charm and thoughtful world buildingOutlaws follows Kay, a wannabe smuggler and bounty hunter, as she struggles to escape her homeworld and finally strike it rich with the "last job" that'll set her up for life.Characters: Kays character itself is probably the weakest part. She talks and acts like a bumbling child, despite supposedly being raised from childhood as a criminal. While it would’ve been disappointing if she was Sheperd or Bond level confident, something more than the weak and waffley waif was necessary to make the character work. She finds her feet eventually, but yeesh its bad for the first couple big events. She also has the weirdest reactions to certain characters that should’ve been interactive.Graphics: Graphics blast from every direction, from the sculpted red stone mesas and trees fluttering in windstorms to vibrant and almost visceral cantinas and even marketplaces. The minigame where you're eating dinner even stands out as a delightful break where you and your cat/dog/lizard thing enjoy fresh chow that you can actually enjoy watching.Combat: Straight from assassins creed, combat manages to carry very well. Why no one shoots your pet continues to befuddle me, and some of the random dialogue feels forced and stilted, but the creeping scenes through Imperial stations and pirate caves combined the best of old-school Thief and Splinter Cell with the pel mel combat of Mass Effect.Space combat: This chipped the diamond. Point your ship at a bad guy, hold L2, fire until they’re dead, rinse and repeat. The space segments themselves aren’t bad, but the combat definitely feels tacked on.Games: The minigames actually aren’t stupid. Even Sabacc, which I had expected to be a watered down version of baccarat or poker, is actually original, in that I cant point to other games that its copying from.There are some nits. It needed more fast travel points, as slogging from A to B is annoying. You cant shoot from your speeder. Space combat is blah. Commands on screen are eye wateringly hard to see.I wavered a lot between 4 and 5 stars, but even Kays stunted performance in several sections isn’t jarring enough to pull off enough charm and wonder. After some of Ubi’s recent abysmal failures (Mirage) this actually met expectations. Does it meet full sticker plus extra with the DLC expectations? I’m willing to cautiously say yes. It takes a while for you to hit repetitive encounters, good planning and careful approaches can carry you through a lot, the quest missions are charming and novel, even playing cards was fun. The graphics and delivery are polished to a mirror shine.

Pre-ordered - Amazon actually delivered it a day early! Unfortunately, the voucher for the season pass Gold edition had no code - was blank instead. Went to Amazon - they sent me to Ubisoft. Opened a ticket with Ubisoft - after a bunch of back and forth they sent me back to Amazon. Waiting on a replacement now. Due to be delivered the day of the general release. So much for getting it 3 days early.