Star Wars Outlaws’ Fashion Makes a Bold Storytelling Statement

Gameplay was revealed for Star Wars Outlaws almost immediately after its announcement and yet what was shown seems to only scratch the surface of what the open-world Ubisoft game might feature. This gameplay was a commendable slice, illustrating how stealth works with Nix as a vital companion, as well as how speeder and spaceship combat look. Star Wars Outlaws seems to pride itself on moment-to-moment immersion as a result, which may also be translated to what Kay Vess is wearing in distinct story moments where a new system’s remarkable weather or biomes may prompt a wardrobe change.

Outlaws hasn’t been shy about Kay’s cosmetic skins thus far. Star Wars Outlaws’ pre-order bonuses include skins for Kay’s speeder and Trailblazer ship as part of the Kessel Runner Bonus Pack, while the Kessel Runner Character Pack includes cosmetics for Kay and Nix available in the season pass. Meanwhile, the Ultimate Pack earns players a Lando Calrissian-inspired Sabacc Shark Bundle as well as the Rogue Infiltrator Bundle, which features Kay’s most unique look yet. These are all lovely skin packages, but how Kay chooses to dress in scripted moments of the narrative may be far more impressive and could serve as inspiration for Cal Kestis or whoever else is playable in the sequel to Star Wars Jedi: Survivor.

Star Wars Outlaws’ Cosmetic Pool isn’t All Superficial

Indeed, Kay deciding to wear warmer clothing has an impact on Outlaws’ available cosmetic outfits, meaning each planet, system, or biome in the open world could have its own aesthetically appropriate gear for Kay to select. Players probably don’t need to wear this fur jacket while in this particularly frosty setting, but the fact that it becomes available there shows that Massive took care in ensuring that narrative events could have a visual tether to gameplay as well. The only other outfit Kay’s been seen wearing otherwise is a white blouse under a blue leather jacket—her default gear—but more story- and biome-related clothing would be fantastic to see if wherever she and Nix go warrants new attire to combat the weather.

Star Wars Can’t Get Over Its Obsession of Easter Eggs, References. and Legacy Characters

That’s not to say Outlaws won’t have a ton of Easter egg-laden skins that have nothing to do with Kay’s surroundings—which is already evident in its Ultimate Pack bundles—though it’s still a nice touch if it has particular clothes that are connected to different places players travel to in the open world and can be collected as souvenirs of their time spent there. Rather, skins in Star Wars Jedi haven’t been narratively meaningful in the slightest and recently dove into the same fan service as part of its special edition and pre-order bonus.

Cosmetic Gear Allows Star Wars to Indulge in Environmental Storytelling

All that aside, Cal would’ve been content with going all of Fallen Order in his Bracca scrapper jumpsuit and poncho if it wasn’t for the player intervening and dressing him in whatever jumpsuit/poncho combinations they looted from miscellaneous chests. Cal’s dressed in Padawan robes when played as a child in flashbacks, but present-day Cal doesn’t become any more fashion savvy without the player’s help as a personal stylist. Survivor makes the same decision and lets Cal wear one default look the whole time—one that bears a striking resemblance to Kay’s since he wears a white shirt beneath a blue leather vest.

Luckily, players have a wealth of customization options in Star Wars Jedi: Survivor and Cal does indeed wear a story-related Imperial commander uniform at one point, meaning he isn’t stuck wearing the same clothes the entire time otherwise. Still, if Outlaws can take players to enough radically diverse planets and dress Kay uniquely in each, that’ll go a long way in punctuating its environmental storytelling and it would’ve been satisfying to see Cal wear something else in different parts of Survivor’s story, too.

It’s fair that Star Wars Jedi doesn’t choose to dress him any differently throughout the story since players might often swap that scripted look out for something else anyway, and that’s the beauty of customization in such games. Even Star Wars Jedi: Survivor’s BD-1 and Star Wars Outlaws’ Nix have their own customization options, yet Survivor oddly chose not to reprise customization for the Stinger Mantis. Greez Dritus’ ship was no longer the only tiny hub players could call home, however, and so maybe that’s why it was abandoned for Respawn to focus on other features.

Outlaws’ Trailblazer having skin customization is a relief because players will be seeing a whole lot more of it than the Mantis as it’s a fully controllable ship that players fly and engage in dogfights with between their galactic destinations. It isn’t logical to assume the Trailblazer will get new coats of paint as part of the story, but what Kay can wear anywhere she and Nix touch down on should be emblematic of the culture or climate in order to better represent Star Wars’ rich lore cosmetically.

Star Wars Outlaws

Massive Entertainment’s Star Wars Outlaws is an in-development game that will be published by Ubisoft. The sci-fi franchise’s first full open-world project, Outlaws follows Kay Vess and is set during the Imperial Era. Announced for PC and ninth-generation hardware, the game is expected to drop in 2024.

Released

August 30, 2024

Publisher(s)

Ubisoft , Lucasfilm Games

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