For all of the freedom Star Wars Outlaws hands over to players, principally the ability to carve your own path as a scoundrel across multiple Outer Rim territories, it does have a few surprising restrictions. Developer Massive Entertainment has a tendency to lean on strict stealth encounters to drive main campaign missions, leaving little room for experimentation – an issue I contended with all throughout my time with the open world adventure. Something I didn't cover in my Star Wars Outlaws review was another restriction which surprised me: the inability to freely fire from the saddle of your speeder.
As Key Vess, you are able to ride across some pretty wide spaces – delving into regions of places like Akiva and Tatooine that haven't been seen before in other Star Wars media. You'll frequently encounter aggressors whilst out exploring, such as Imperial patrols and assassination squads from Syndicates you screwed over one too many times, and you'll have precious few ways to defend yourself. The chase is better than the catch Star Wars Outlaws' lead gameplay designer tells me that one reason this design decision was made is to do with fantasy fulfillment – Massive Entertainment looking at elements of the original trilogy of films and trying to find ways to evoke similar feelings through interactive play.
"What we see in the Star Wars movies is speeder chases – you being chased. We see you having to dodge and get away, and then try to explode their speeder or make them .