Games have given us a long list of heroes over the years. We love our heroes. They allowed us to experience wonderful adventures, we shared joys and sorrows, and we overcame all kinds of obstacles and challenges. But you know what could be more fun than a hero? An anti-hero, a character who has never wanted to be in the spotlight, has never wanted to save the world, but inadvertently finds herself in a situation where she has to do all kinds of special things. An ordinary person ends up in an abnormal situation: this is Kai Face, the main character of Ubisoft Star Wars Outlaws. Everyone can play her adventure starting August 30, and at Ubisoft Forward in Los Angeles, I had the opportunity to play the game for an hour.

“The story of Kai Face and her friend, Miracle Nyx, is somewhat of a story villainDream story,” he says Creative director Julian Gerety in an interview after the gaming session. He explains that Kai’s story is the story of an underdog who ends up in a difficult situation due to bad luck. Kay grew up in squalid poverty on Canto Bight and kept herself alive by stealing when necessary. However, she faces a big problem when she steals a ship from a powerful character who places a death mark on it. This means bounty hunters can hunt it down and turn it in for a reward. To earn money to pay off her debts, Kai must work with a variety of notorious criminal factions, which only brings more problems. So Kai gets into trouble deeper and deeper.

Kai is clearly not a typical hero. She does not want to save the universe and is not interested in defeating the Galactic Empire, which is what others are preoccupied with at the time of this story. Because in reality: Star Wars Outlaws takes place between Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back and Star Wars Episode VI: The Return of the Jedi. The Emperor’s forces are thus in charge of the universe, including the planets where the criminal families ply their trade. So you’ll see a lot of Stormtroopers there and you’ll definitely have to compete against the Empire every now and then, but defeating them isn’t the ultimate goal. They even get in the way with some regularity, and overcoming them is a necessary evil for Kai.

So what’s the point? The answer to this question is as simple as it is trite: freedom. Kay has lived her whole life without true freedom. From her childhood in Canto Bight, where the rich are in charge, to living in an era where empire rules: she has never known true freedom. So Kai is mainly concerned with survival and trying to gain freedom. Literally, because money is a way to gain freedom. This also explains Kay’s choice of a questionable profession: for her, stealing, preferably from the rich with the biggest spoils, is a way to achieve her personal goals.