The A Pirate’s Fortune DLC for Star Wars Outlaws does a lot right. We’re a year on and Outlaws is the game it should have been at launch. Updates have added some key elements, from more densely populated roads to give previously empty planets like Akiva more life, to finally being able to holster heavy weapons. And now that the gameplay and performance is stronger (it only crashed once!) the DLC introduces some pirate-y fun lacking from the core game’s story.
Infiltrating a booby-trapped lair, complete with Indiana Jones traps, is great. We get a cool new ship for contracts and combat, complete with a deeper smuggling system. There are new upgrades, finally giving a reason to keep playing and collecting. Yet it may be too little too late, with the DLC barely marketed and Ubisoft seemingly having already written the game off as a failure. I only realised the expansion was out a couple of weeks after its launch, and I’m one of the people who have kept the game taking up valuable space on their PS5 hard drive in anticipation for it. There are dozens of us! Dozens!
Being very familiar with the Outlaws mission formula, it was cool for A Pirate’s Fortune to throw in some neat subversions and additions. Jumping to hyperspace for the millionth time for a loading screen is interrupted when the ship is suddenly pulled out into danger. Seeing stormtroopers on Achra Station was strange. And then we get the cool new Khepi location. There’s a lot of legwork and planet-hopping at the start of the DLC but once Kay finds herself in the Sayma Nebula it starts to feel fresh. Fresh for Outlaws at least. The Khepi backstory is very similar to the Zeffo from Jedi: Fallen Order.
Kay’s prison escape also begins by feeling too familiar to Fallen Order. Substitute Nix for BD-1 and it’s the same mission. Initially, at least. It’s gets better and, in fact, Kay sneaking through a pirate base is one of the highlights of the whole game. It’s always interesting to build the player up as an unstoppable badass in the core game only to take away all their weapons and tools in the sequel or DLC, and Outlaws commits. Or rather, I committed. I left finding my blaster for last, completing all the other objectives in the open map first, so it’d be a unique challenge, having to rely on stealth and enemy weapon drops. It was good fun, sneaking around and taking in the lore of the location, finding notes mentioning San Tekkas, Grafs, and At Attin.
I’m just glad we had a full undercover mission that didn’t involve the empire. We get to play dress up in something other than an imperial uniform. A Pirate’s Fortune finally puts the focus on what I thought Outlaws was always going to be about: criminals and pirates rather than the wider conflict of the rebellion vs the empire. The Rebel Alliance is thankfully never mentioned. The DLC delivers the crime story I expected and wanted from the main game. The villains could have been stronger but I’ll take it. The Rokona Raiders are pretty generic and their leader Stinger Tash quite dull. “What a poor excuse for a pirate leader” someone comments and I have to agree.
Thankfully fan favourite Hondo Ohnaka appears. I doubt newcomers to the character will get much from his appearance but I found him decently written and consistent with his animated portrayals. Him calling ND-5 a “clanker” was a nice nod to The Clone Wars. And it was refreshing to see the opposite story of what we’re used to. Now he’s causing the downfall of a pirate leader rather than losing the leadership himself. He’s trying to gain a family again, even if he acts irreverent about it. It’s a nice continuation of the theme from his episodes of Rebels. He’s alone: a captain without a crew. This expands outwards to be the overall theme of the DLC. It’s a tale of loneliness and community. Characters like Hondo and R5-P8 are alone while ND-5 and Kay ultimately realise they are truly a team, a family, who have to stick together.
A Pirate’s Fortune was going so well. It’s the kind of story I want from this game, now with improved gameplay, but then it just sort of… ends. It turns out there are two endings and by playing the game well I got the bad one. That’s bullshit. That’s my reward? Playing well leads to a worse experience? I was being stealthy, leading a successful mutiny, talking to everyone and doing everything. But that just makes Stinger Tash lash out and blow up the base before we reach the treasure.
The prize the DLC has been leading towards is ignored, never paid off. I had to watch the alternate ending on YouTube to finally see the Khepi guardian droids that characters keep mentioning. Even having a good reputation with all the criminal factions gets in the way. It means everyone leaves you alone and there’s little combat. It’s such a shame it all ends on a bum note, it was going so well but ended lamely because I was playing well. I would have sabotaged myself had I known. A word of advice for anyone wanting to play A Pirate’s Fortune but haven’t yet: suck.
