Ubisoft boss Yves Guillemot once declared that the games his company makes are apolitical. This was a bold statement considering that Far Cry 5 was set in the Midwest of the USA. Disney+ is at loggerheads with the governor in Florida. Apart from that, the media giant is very keen to present its audience with content that is as politically inoffensive as possible. And then there is Star Wars.
Originally political like anything else
It should be no secret that the basic idea of the first episode to be broadcast in 1977, Episode IV, was deeply political. The film begins with the rebels fleeing from the Empire. The remnants of the previously democratically elected Galactic Senate flee from the autocratic and completely militaristic regime of the Empire – which had previously seized power in a coup and had the members of the Senate killed. A lot has happened in terms of media since the 1970s, and both Episodes I to III and the newer Disney spin-offs have been heavily polished to appeal to as many viewers as possible and offend as few as possible.
So one flavor for everyone?
Modern triple-A developments such as Star Wars Outlaws have a budget in the hundreds of millions. A not insignificant part of this is likely to be due to Disney for licensing fees. Mickey Mouse also decides how suitable the game has to be for the masses and how carefully it has to deal with the film. The higher the financial risk, the less willingness there is to include controversial content. In a society as politically divided as the USA, both companies will, for obvious reasons, seek the path of least resistance. And it is not only in the USA that right and left, conservatives and progressives are increasingly irreconcilable.
The fact that Star Wars Outlaws has a female character is actually the biggest concession. But certainly not just because the developers are so feminist-minded, but because the game also wants to appeal to female buyers. Ultimately, Kay Vess looks like a woman, but does the job of any male main character: shooting, assassinating, roguery. Basically a female Indiana Jones, who is also a Lucasfilm creation and now in the hands of Disney. Fittingly, Kay also has a whip, sorry, a grappling hook, with which she can swing over chasms.
The demand for non-political games
Although artistic freedom is also unlimited in games, there are always people, especially in the usual corners of social networks, who demand: Get politics out of games! To put it briefly: That’s not possible. Art is always oriented towards the real world – including its political developments. Star Wars Episode IV shows this more than clearly. Anyone who then expects that a game that takes place between Episodes V and VI could keep politics out of it is at least naive, at worst ignorant, has no idea about game development and apparently doesn’t want to know too much about it either.
How much politics is involved now?
Star Wars Outlaws is impressively polished. The Empire are the bad guys who bully everyone. But not so much that it bothers the player. Kay has to get through exactly one identity check relatively early in the game. After that, she’s left in peace, unless she breaks into Imperial facilities without authorization and gets caught. Or the story deliberately puts her in a chase.
The syndicates are criminal organizations at heart, but Kay is a criminal herself and completed jobs fill the coffers. A necessary evil, then, that only becomes a burden when Kay falls so far out of favor with a syndicate that she can no longer move freely without someone opening fire on her. And after the first few hours of the game, you have to be very clumsy to achieve that.
The syndicates are waging a war against each other, in which Kay repeatedly works for both sides, completely unashamedly. But the game world and its inhabitants do not experience any really serious effects. One would expect that more people (and aliens) would suffer if two hostile and armed to the teeth underground organizations were fighting for territory. Where are the refugees or those who have lost relatives in this war – either as collateral damage or because they joined one of the syndicates?
The Empire, on the other hand, oppresses wherever it can. After the events of Episode V, it is trying to further expand its supremacy. The rebellion seems invincible, on the verge of defeat. After all, the Empire has just destroyed an entire planet. And not because the inhabitants there were particularly dangerous, but just to get one over on the rightful ruler.
This would be accompanied by an extremely depressed mood. The outlook would be bleak, there would be no improvement in sight, and hope would be rare. Most people would probably run away, others would seek confrontation. These conflicts and their consequences would provide plenty of material for intense, emotional and, of course, political stories. But Kay doesn’t have to concern himself with that and, consequently, neither does the player. This makes the game easy to digest, but also shallow fare. And from the investors’ point of view, it is a little less risky. Although the more recent series spin-offs such as Andor have already shown that a serious mood can work well.
Some conflicts lie in the details
Here and there, if you look very closely, turn over every stone and listen carefully to every conversation, you notice that the developers knew what template they were holding in their hands. If you only play the main story, you won’t get much of it. But if you follow all the clues and complete all the side missions, you will come across the isolated, small stories that give an idea of what the authors at Ubisoft would be capable of if they were only allowed to. There is the village on the edge of the desert, whose inhabitants are collectively put under pressure by the Hutt Syndicate, the harmless version.
Star Wars Outlaws tells well-written, entertaining and cinematic stories. That’s great. And that makes the game a great pleasure for anyone who likes popcorn cinema. The approach of not playing the hero and world savior is a great narrative advance, especially for such a large production. But because the game is so little allowed to offend, a lot of potential remains unused. On the one hand, Kay is repeatedly the plaything of powerful interests and is rightly outraged by this. On the other hand, she voluntarily puts herself in the service of the syndicates without addressing the dissonance in this or even rebelling against it.
The good stories in games could be great if they offered more scope for players to get angry. Just think of the huge success of the Game of Thrones series, which constantly upsets its viewers with blatant injustices. Games could do this much better, because as players we are naturally much more connected to the fate of our characters.
Unfortunately, most of the story remains vague in our memory. Only one moment is burned into our minds. And that is the one scene in the game in which Kay, and therefore us as players, suffer a great injustice over which we have no control. And whose consequences we have to deal with to great lengths. This helplessness of the character, this deliberate offence, is what makes this part of the game memorable.