As part of last month's Summer Game Fest season, Ubisoft allowed press to play Star Wars Outlaws for the first time in a demo made up of three different parts, each designed to justify the game's core pillars. Reactions were quite mixed — unfavourable comparisons to PS Vita game Uncharted: Golden Abyss were drawn — so leads at Massive Entertainment spoke of a more comprehensive media playtest that would reveal all the connective tissue between those three teasers.

Fast forward a month and change and Star Wars Outlaws now occupies a very different, much more promising space in our brains. Having played four hours of a new demo that released the shackles and allowed us to explore its open world to our heart's content, it's just not possible to imagine the game without it. The open world of Star Wars Outlaws is what brings everything together. As a whole, when allowed to roam freely, pursue side quests, and converse with aliens, those missions of the first demo are just a bonus. This is what Star Wars Outlaws is really about, and it's overall excellent.

The newest demo — which we played via live stream on PC — was broken up into two pieces: for three hours, we toured Toshara, and then sixty minutes were spent on the city-focused planet of Kijimi. The former is what puts the game back on the map, as the decently sized area beyond its city walls promises secrets, fun exploration, puzzle solving, and races.

Unlike so many past Ubisoft games, your map won't be automatically littered with icons; you make them instead. As you explore the cities and outposts of the world, you'll unlock side quests and points of interest in a drastically more natural manner — like overhearing conversations or finding datapads. That mission then receives a marker on your map, with a fog of war making the journey to it still one full of mystery. You can find even more Intel (the in-game name for the side quests) along the way or an upgrade for your blaster, speeder, or even entire spaceship. Since you do not level up in Star Wars Outlaws, every one of these expeditions is leant extra weight since the reward at the end of them could genuinely improve your loadout. Getting better gear is your sole source of improvement, and intriguing Intel — complete with little stories — is how you obtain it.

Superior weapons and gadgets are reason enough to pursue side activities alone, but what elevates them further is the genuinely fun puzzle, interaction, or fight you'll have when you reach the marker. Just some we encountered on Toshara involved trying to convince the Empire (and failing) to stop bothering a family that wants to go fishing, a droid in need of repair, and standalone puzzles to test your skills and knowledge. With the promise of really meaningful rewards upon completion, side tasks shouldn't be disregarded as unimportant distractions. Instead, they're one of the main reasons to play.

Working alongside them is a story of suspicion, heists, and double-crossing. Main character Kay and her alien sidekick Nix work to maintain relationships with the various factions of the Star Wars universe, placing themselves in good stead with some while trying not to lose the trust of others. This manifests itself as a reputation system you'll need to balance throughout the campaign, with the preview session providing a quick glance at the mechanic in action. Depending on your faction level with a group, you'll either be able to casually stroll into their quarters or be denied entry at the gate. In one mission, we were made to choose which faction we stole some upgrade parts for our blaster from. We were in very good standing with one but the other disliked us. As such, this created a balancing act where the quest would be much easier to complete by stealing from the faction that liked us since they wouldn't bother us in the act. This, though, would negatively affect their opinion of Kay after the fact. With decisions like this to consider alongside choices forced upon you, it's all about delicately navigating your way through situations to make sure nobody hates you too much.

This is all presented in what seems to be Ubisoft's most cinematic game to date. There is a noticeable step up in quality compared to the publisher's past PS5 efforts, with striking cutscene visuals that ooze class and style. It's not quite on the same level as a PlayStation Studios product, but it's not far off. The graphical upgrade extends to the open world too, where even through a stream of the game, we could pick up on lush, colourful biomes and some lovely architecture.

Main missions are where you'll catch most of that, though the gameplay in between those cutscenes is where Star Wars Outlaws can sometimes falter. Since the game revolves around balancing your reputation with factions and the fact you'll occasionally need to enter areas owned by those you're on the bad side of, stealth plays a large part in general gameplay and combat. Depending on the circumstances, these sections can instantly fail you if you're spotted, meaning you'll have to try it all over again. This quickly became a little frustrating, as the stealth mechanics don't feel all that fleshed out — at least in the early game section we played. You can use Nix to distract guards, but that's all you really have alongside a crouch. It is at least neat to see the Metal Gear Solid-style in-game vision cones of cameras still out and about, though.

What we played of the main quests was enjoyable — particularly with its graphical shine — but it is understandable why the first round of previews wasn't as glowing as our updated thoughts. The big open world connecting those big-budget levels together is so utterly essential to the experience that, without it, Star Wars Outlaws would be an average, standard affair. With it, Massive Entertainment appears to have successfully blended the cinematic productions of an Uncharted with the open-ended exploration of an Assassin's Creed Odyssey — without all the icons.

Having played just four hours of a game that's likely to offer enough content to cover at least ten times that playtime, it's not the time for any definitive statements just yet. Star Wars Outlaws will need to prove it has the chops across a full campaign next month, but as a microcosm of what the full experience might offer, we have come away bursting with renewed hope. Exploration is what the latest Massive Entertainment outing does best, and with many more open world planets to visit in the full game, it's that sense of discovery that's primed to elevate the experience to something special.

Star Wars Outlaws releases for PS5 on 30th August 2024, with three days of early access available if you opt for either the Gold Edition or Ultimate Edition. Are you looking forward to the game? Share your thoughts in the comments below.