Ubisoft Massive had to "break" The Division's "staccato" pacing to make Star Wars Outlaws' open world

Star Wars Outlaws' creative director has explained how Ubisoft Massive had to "break" The Division's cover-shooting rhythm for its new open-world game.

Speaking to GamesRadar+ as part of our hands-on Star Wars Outlaws preview, creative director Julian Gerighty explains how Ubisoft Massive is making Outlaws different from past open-world Ubisoft games, like Massive's own The Division. "It's a cover based shooter. It's not military, it's sort of a military-trained civilian agent, but the movement and the gameplay is - [snaps fingers] - precise and the rhythm is staccato," Gerighty says of The Division's pacing. 

"For [Outlaws], we wanted to break that sort of rhythm. We wanted to find something that really corresponded to a resourceful underdog, which meant much more fluidity. Much less sharpness in the approach, in the animation, in the weapon selection, in the controls, all of those things. That's really at the heart of what we wanted to do with Kay Vess," the creative director continues.

Gerighty points to Kay's sole weapon - the blaster - which features multiple modules for the player to experiment with. "She can pick up heavy weapons on the battlefield. But once she's done with the ammunition - toss it, grab something else. It's all about really flowing and finding the flow within the gameplay," Gerighty says, adding that the final result is "very different" from The Division.

Elsewhere during our preview, Gerighty explains that Ghost of Tsushima was his "biggest reference" for making Star Wars Outlaws' open world. Looking a little closer to home for inspiration, the creative director also reveals that Assassin's Creed Odyssey helped shape Star Wars Outlaws because Gerighty could literally pick up the phone and talk to developers of the huge open-world Assassin's Creed game.

I weirdly loved Jabba the Hutt as a kid, so I asked the Star Wars Outlaws devs what it was like bringing him to life .

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