Star Wars Outlaws Has Seamless Ground-To-Space Transitions, Unlike Starfield

In recent times, Ubisoft showcased gameplay for its upcoming open-world Star Wars game, Star Wars Outlaws.  Although its setting and time period seem interesting, despite the game’s Forspoken-like quippy, sarcastic millennial dialogue, we found one feature stood out among all the others. It seems like you will be able to fly your ship from the atmosphere straight into space.

This is a feature that has not been seen in any Star Wars games since the PSP Battlefront games from the late 2000s, which featured seamless ground-to-space transitions and battles. In recent Star Wars games like Jedi Fallen Order and Jedi Survivor, these transitions are done through cutscenes. This is also the case in the Star Wars Battlefront II campaign. 

This is also a feature that is not available in Starfield, which will not allow you to seamlessly fly from ground to space, or fly through the atmosphere. This was a specific design decision from Bethesda. Speaking with IGN, Todd Howard noted that early on the decision was made to not include these features.

People have asked, ‘Can you fly the ship straight down to the planet?’ No. We decided early in the project that the on-surface is one reality, and then when you’re in space it’s another reality,” said Todd Howard.

Bethesda did not want to spend too much time on a system that they would deem not necessary for the player experience. Judging from the Star Wars Outlaws trailer, the transition from land to space plays some tricks, by having the player fly through clouds to hide the space assets generated in the back.

Star Wars Outlaws will release sometime in 2024 and will be one of the first Star Wars games released outside of EA’s exclusivity license.