Later this summer, Ubisoft and Massive Entertainment will put players in the role of Kay Vess in Star Wars Outlaws, an open-world game set in the Star Wars universe. Traditionally, Ubisoft's open-world games--including the Assassin's Creed series--allow the lead characters to build up their skills through experience points. However, Star Wars Outlaws is shaking up that formula by making players level up Kay's skills by sending her on special missions.

Via IGN, Star Wars Outlaws co-director Mathias Karlson explained that there are experts spread throughout the game who can offer Kay new abilities and upgrades in exchange for completing tasks and missions for them. He also indicated that the experts are fully-realized characters in their own right.

"They are full-on characters," said Karlson. "So they're spread out in the world and you don't know exactly who they are, what exactly they have to offer you and how to reach them from the very beginning. So there's this journey of discovery here as well. And once you reach them, there's a character there to interact with and an adventure to go on because they won't instantly just, 'oh, here you go.' And then they essentially open up a little regional progression for you where the nature of those things is also very tangible."

During Summer Game Fest 2024, GameSpot's Jordan Ramee shared his thoughts on the game after completing a hands-on preview of Star Wars Outlaws. Ramee wrote that "Kay feels way too powerful," which made the game "laughably easy." Based on Karlson's remarks, it's possible that Massive Entertainment adjusted the demo to give Kay most of her skills early. But we won't know for sure until we get our hands on the finished title.

Star Wars Outlaws will be released on Xbox Series X|S, PlayStation 5, and PC on August 30. You can check out our pre-order guide here.

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