Star Wars Outlaws features a Grand Theft Auto-inspired wanted system

If it was possible to travel back in time to last week and tell my past self that the game I’m now most excited for is Ubisoft’s Star Wars title, I highly doubt that I’d believe myself.

Star Wars Outlaws got a surprise announcement at the Xbox Games Showcase on Sunday, and after a more in-depth look at its gameplay during the Ubisoft Forward event yesterday, it really does look like it’s shaping up to be something special. The first ever open-world Star Wars game will feature scoundrel Kay Vess (who genuinely looks like she’s gonna be one of the coolest characters ever) and her adorable, fuzzy axolotl-like companion, Nix, in an adventure set between the events of The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi.

Take a look at the gameplay overview for Star Wars Outlaws below.

Even from the short amount of gameplay that’s been shown so far, it’s obvious that Outlaws takes quite a bit of inspiration from the likes of Red Dead Redemption 2 and the Grand Theft Auto series, and a great example of that is its wanted system. As Game Rant reports, during the gameplay overview which was shown yesterday, we got a glimpse of what it looks like when Kay becomes wanted by the Empire. When a meeting with an an Imperial officer goes wrong, a huge ‘wanted’ warning appears on the screen as pictures of the scoundrel flood the various screens in the saloon she’s in.

What’s more, an icon can be seen in the top left corner representing the Imperial crest - as Kay engages with more enemies, more red bars appear around it. These eventually disappear as she manages to jump into hyperspace, at which point the text instructing the player to ‘escape the Empire’ on the right side of the screen disappears.

As Game Rant writes, it’s not super clear if this mechanic will remain present throughout the entire game, or if it’ll just be in certain narrative points. Whichever way it might be, I for one can’t wait to play GTA in space.