Star Wars Outlaws - Nintendo Switch 2 - Review

2024 was such a great year for games for me, I got a fantastic Prince of Persia game to start the year and ended it with the incredible Indiana Jones. However, between them were countless games and one of the best was Star Wars Outlaws, which I loved. Getting word that it was coming to Switch 2, I was super keen on seeing how a galaxy far, far away looked on the new console. Is this one of those impossible ports, or are we setting a new standard for games on the go?

When Star Wars Outlaws first released, it was a lot more specific in how it wanted players to play the game. While I was ok with that, mostly, a lot of players did not enjoy that and so the team worked to address player feedback. With all those updates and the two expansions, Star Wars Outlaws for Nintendo Switch 2 is the most complete version of the game that you are going to get. What I find funny is that in playing the game again, I am not noticing any of those changes that the team has worked on. This is just something from my own observations, also likely due to the fact that I opted to shoot everything this time, but those changes don’t stand out to me. But that is perfectly fine, because I was still playing the game how I wanted to, in my playthrough on Xbox last year, I was being all sneaky and trying to border the line between all the syndicates, this time I don’t care.

What I found in playing the game on Switch 2 is that it is giving me the same experience. That first escape from Canto Bight, blasting across the fields of Toshara on my speeder and sneaking across the city of Kijimi, all of it was wonderful. Now this is not to say its perfect, there are a number of pop-in of elements, usually shadows and small details like rocks and such, but nothing really got in the way of my fun. Which is what makes me happy, there was no lag in playing the game, the loads after a death might be a tad long, but in playing there are none. Whenever we got a port of a game to Nintendo Switch, it would always come with a series of concessions, be they visual or asset based, in order to get it to work. I am seeing none of that here and I am loving it for that, this is the same game from the other platforms, just now in handheld form.

Speaking of handheld, as the game was on Switch 2, I wanted to ensure I spent a good number of hours playing in handheld mode and I can report that it looked great and more impressively, ran great. One of the aspects that I was expecting to see here was a drop in quality, as the console had to run from battery and there was none of that. Playing in handheld also gave me a reason to use some of those Switch 2 edition features like touch and motion. The motion control is great, I was able to line up some shots with the stick and then use the motion to fine tune it, but I would suggest not trying to do that on a train, stupid stormtrooper. The touch was the one I was least interested in using, because it just seems counterintuitive to me, to let go of buttons to tap the screen and then go back to buttons, but it works.

Now I would be remiss not to point out that visually the game does take a hit, at least compared to the other platforms and a lot of that is down to character details. At one point while in space, I jumped into the photo mode and pulled the camera back as far as I could and once I had a shot, I pushed it in as far as I could and took a shot. Apart from some shadows, the level of detail didn’t really change, but that is not true for the characters. Now the major characters like Kay, Jaylen and more all look great, but the background characters are where the quality drops. The most noticeable is with the hair, there was one character early on in a cutscene, whose hair was more akin to a few strands, rather than a full head. If this was a once off, I would just mark it down as a weird thing and move on, but the hair across the game is sadly the visual indicator of it being the Switch 2 edition, that is how frequent it all is.

Star Wars Outlaws on Nintendo Switch 2 is an amazing port of the game, which apart from some visual concessions with hair, is mostly the same as the other platforms. The game runs great, looks great and is still fun to play, which is what I wanted. If you are like me, then replaying the game on Switch 2 will give you a chance to play differently to how you did the first time, just know the story surprises won’t be surprises. If you have not played the game at all, this is a fantastic way to experience a game that I consider one of the best Star Wars games ever made.

The Score

9.0

Review code provided by Ubisoft

The Pros

The same amazing game, now in portable form

The addition of motion controls doesn't change the game, but refines it

The Cons

There are a number of visual issues, like pop in and character detail that are quite noticeable