Star Wars Outlaws creative director Julian Gerighty says the upcoming open-world game won't follow in the footsteps of modern Assassin's Creed titles as a "200 or 300-hour epic unfinishable RPG."
Speaking with our friends at Edge Magazine earlier this month, Gerighty said that a "crude analogy" would put the average Star Wars Outlaws planet at around the size of "two to three zones" in Assassin's Creed Odyssey. He added that Outlaws is not taking the "epic 'the whole of England recreated' approach" we saw in Assassin's Creed Valhalla, and that the game will be "manageable in size for both the player and developer at Ubisoft Massive."
While those quotes suggest Outlaws will be reasonable in size, the comparisons to recent Assassin's Creed games - along with publisher Ubisoft's other recent titles being downright exhausting in scope - have had fans concerned that it still might be too big.
Gerighty tells IGN that fans shouldn't be worried. "Our objective is to really get people into a very dense, rich, open-world adventure that they can explore at their own rhythm," Gerighty says. "So it is absolutely not a 200 or 300-hour epic unfinishable RPG. This is a very focused action-adventure RPG that will take people on a ride and is very manageable."
Ubisoft has become synonymous with open-world games over the years, and that unfortunately that includes the genre's tendency toward being bloated with checklists full of dull, menial tasks. Just do a quick search for Assassin's Creed on HowLongToBeat for an example. The beloved Assassin's Creed 2 takes around 26 hours to beat, even with some side content. In the most recent game, Assassin's Creed Valhalla, that estimate is 96 hours. I could watch 20% of One Piece in that time!
The Outlaws devs recently noted that the game's open world is built to offer players "full freedom of approach," which is certainly a more promising line than 'more content than you could ever possibly hope to see.' They've also explained their decision not to include free-flying above the game's planets, and revealed that you're going to be able to betray Jabba the Hutt if you want. Look, Jabba didn't kill Han, right?
Of all the reasons to be excited, maybe the most promising bit about Star Wars Outlaws is not being a Jedi.
