Star Wars Outlaws’ Creative Director, Julian Gerighty, recently shed some light on the scope and size of the game’s planets in Edge magazine, as well as how the locations were crafted without procedural generation like other large open world titles.
One Planet = 2-3 Zones in Assassin’s Creed: Odyssey
Gerighty confirmed that when players reach a new planet, exploring it will be like a journey, even with high-speed vehicles. He also commented on the overall size of planets.
“It’s a crude analogy, but the size of one planet might be about [equivalent to] two of the zones in Assassin’s Creed Odyssey, for example. It could be two to three zones. But it’s not, you know, this sort of epic ‘the whole of England recreated’ approach.”
Julian Gerighty
Reputation System and Handcrafted Locations
In addition to the size of planets, Julian also highlighted a few other of the game’s features, including the fact that its locations are handcrafted and not procedurally generated like they are in No Man’s Sky. He also said that a player’s reputation will dictate what faction missions they can take on and what types of special items they can buy.
- Focusing on “full freedom of approach” when it comes to encounters.
- Exclusive quests, vendor prices, locked off areas can be accessed by the Reputation system. If you’re not in a faction’s good side, they can send people to chase you down, monetary punishment is also part of it/
- Players will not have “total free rein” in terms of travel, you won’t be able to freely fly above the planet, and there will be set landing and take-off areas.
- Nix (alien companion of protagonist Vass) can be directed by players to attack enemies, activate out-of-reach buttons, cause distractions, pick up heavy weapons from fallen foes, Massive says Nix is like a cross between Watch Dogs’ spiderbot, BioShock Infinite’s Elizabeth or like BD-1 from EA’s Star Wars Jedi games.
- Each planet was designed to be big enough that traversing will feel like a “journey even on a vehicle that’s fast moving.
- Vass’ ship Trailblazer inspired by toys of the 1970s and was made to be “very, very simple.”
- Game is set between Empire and Jedi, so Massive can emulate that “feel.” The studio has been developing tech which “emulates some of the lenses of the 1970s.”
- ND-5 droid (Vass’ companion) design lifted from prequels.
Star Wars Outlaws is set to hit PC, PS5, and Xbox Series consoles in 2024.
Nick and I will talk more about Outlaws on this week’s episode of the SWTS, so don’t forget to tune into the Star Wars Time Show on a weekly basis via our podcast platforms or via YouTube if you prefer the livestream angle.
