Reviewer's Note: Certain story critiques compel me to touch on SPOILERS for both Star Wars Outlaws (the main game) and A Pirate's Fortune.  Read on at your own risk.

Word to the wise: throw away and ignore any unsolicited holo-messages sent by Hondo Ohnaka.  Of course, neither Kay Vess nor ND-5 saw Star Wars: The Clone Wars or Star Wars Rebels, so they weren't aware of his infamous exploits; then again, given that this expansion can't even be explored until you've completed Star Wars Outlaws' main campaign, it's suspicious to think of this duo putting their guard down so willingly.  Then again (again), the promises of vast ancient treasures have led many to make foolhardy decisions.  It's funny that – in a way – both Kay's crew and A Pirate's Fortune share a burning question that can be applied to themselves and Massive Entertainment respectively: did they finally strike Gold Aurodium?

Before even answering that question, the crew is compelled to return to the familiar Akiva System to test the veracity of this mysterious holo-message.  Again, with only nuggets provided by Ohnaka's recording, Kay and Nix have to follow a breadcrumb trail across the planet before discovering the coordinates of the new Khepi star system.  After a series of unfortunate events, the crew and Trailblazer are captured by The Rokana Raiders – who are also interested in the legendary treasure.  With Hondo's help, maybe there's a chance to beat them into the vault.


Similar to Star Wars Outlaws: Wild Card, there's some build-up within the main game's content before you venture to parts unknown.  And like its expansion predecessor, Fortune's newest on-foot location ranks among Outlaws' most engaging.  By taking and segregating Kay's equipment, blaster, and a necessary ship part across different locations within The Khepi Tomb, you're able to interact with the world in different ways; that said, the heightened stealth emphasis is defanged by secondary weapon stashes strewn about, alongside pick-ups from fallen enemies.  Still, weighing the option between more traversal opportunities or her Swiss Army Blaster through non-linear design remains one of its best traits.  Another flavor is added later on with social stealth too.

Of course, the yang to Fortune's yin comes back to the flawed fundamentals.  Sure, sure, Massive can brag about Version 1.8 – finally! – enabling you to free aim from your speeder, but that only reinforces how this open-world stealth-action confection doesn't feel like a cohesive vision.  Despite the success of Khepi Tomb's non-linearity, there's no contextual nor mechanical sense as to why raising alarm doesn't cause the whole mercenary crew to descend on your location.  There's still this sense of… segmented interest, where creating chaos in one part of this gang hideout can simply be blown over in 30 seconds without further repercussions.  It's nonsensical in principle because any normal leader would use their speaker system as an all-points bulletin for these escaped prisoners shooting anyone in their way, rather than scolding her crew.  And she can't be personally involved because of her artificial importance at the end.


That level of confused illogic is emblematic of the wider narrative.  I'll admit some bias against Hondo's circumlocution, but that's more to do with this gag being on repeat for over a decade: loquacious embellishments to his reputation, knavish charade to his innocent treachery, and so on and so forth.  Jim Cummings' great voice complements this Weequay, and yet the character's become tired at this point.  Past those personal biases, his wiles don't even make sense during this point in Kay's development.  Wild Card works better before reaching the finale, and there are tangible building blocks made between Kay & ND-5; here, they effectively hit the reset button on what was clearly established by the original campaign's conclusion.  It's like Richard Elliot & co.'s only move in their writer playbook is making Kay naïve so that she'll learn to trust her closest companions again.  

How Hondo's incorporated alongside a rather confused binary decision you influence towards the end also reinforces this mismanagement.  It's also not helped by an unimpressive new adversary here, especially when the leader looks like… Kay's uglier sister with some mascara?  Perhaps it's annoying to revive this topic again, but it's hard to get past just how well Hondo's scaly facial texture work compares to every human.  Beyond surface-level looks, neither she nor this crew carry much gravitas.  They do have a quasi-democratic structure that – admittedly – serves a narrative purpose, but making that feel more tangible requires proper time and development.  It's impossible to treat them as anything other than cannon fodder when that dynamic is only explored for one portion of this add-on.

If anything, Fortune reveals how important timing and context are for an expansion's storytelling.  Because it's a decent little yarn in the abstract; a sci-fi/fantasy rendition of an Uncharted or Indiana Jones side-story, with classic pulp adventure themes about greed and its costs.  That sounds perfectly suitable as a send-off for this crew.  But then you start filling out the details and see how fundamentally confused it all becomes.


The game mechanics reach their mechanical zenith in spite of its narrative hitting the reset button.  Aside from the aforementioned update's chief addition and new on-foot location, a greater emphasis on space-faring contributes to its four-hour runtime (more if being a completionist); that said, space battles getting a bigger share of this runtime also highlights the Trailblazer's clunkiness compared to other Star Wars titles.  Overall, though, Fortune feels more interested in additions beyond the story itself: 

• New Trailblazer passive abilities.
• New Ion module for Kay's blaster.
• New Khepi star system with another docking bay.
• New flyable B-Wing knock-off (only for Khepi System).
• The Miyuki Trade League with special smuggling contracts.

This only leaves its fundamentally inconsistent core in marginally better shape for me, but any long-time fan will feel this is closer to the initial selling point of being "the first open-world Star Wars game."  

Like Wild Card, A Pirate's Fortune pulls double duty as both a capstone to Kay's adventures (in games, at least) and a final rallying cry for Outlaws' reputation.  To give a scintilla of credit where it's due, Massive Entertainment did fulfill its promise of making the game proper more mechanically substantial: weapon balancing, secondary weapon carrying, free-aiming on a fucking speeder, and more.  Even though my overall impressions aren't as jagged as before, and I'm appreciative of its more fleshed-out design, it's hard to look past where Outlaws once was, because its past reflects the more endemic faults it can't escape.  Combine that alongside an underwhelming story and it still feels like Ubisoft is trying to sell me Fool's Gold Aurodium.

Contractor by trade and writer by hobby, Lee's obnoxious criticisms have found a way to be featured across several gaming sites: N4G, VGChartz, Gaming Nexus, DarkStation, and TechRaptor! He started gaming in the mid-90s and has had the privilege in playing many games across a plethora of platforms. Reader warning: each click given to his articles only helps to inflate his Texas-sized ego. Proceed with caution.