Star Wars Outlaws, like many of Ubisoft's recent games, has leaked a bunch of clips showcasing space combat, including about 13 minutes of gameplay. Ubisoft has naturally nuked this bold YouTube upload into low orbit, but it's fairly easy to find for yourself if you're interested.

Leaks are never ideal, and sometimes personal information is attached, putting the developer's safety at risk. It could be rather helpful.

After sitting down and watching 13 minutes of gameplay, there wasn't much worth mentioning, but at least it didn't detract from the publicity. There are a number of cutscenes, a bit of driving, a slow walk through the city, and the leaker in question even mimics the “official showcase style” at times.

Still, they neatly meet my tempered expectations in a way that the official showcase does not - especially since they are, of course, trying to sell something. An open-world action-adventure game where you shoot stuff, drive cars, and shoot more stuff. At the very least, the populated areas are lively and colorful, and jogging between mission markers looks like fun.

Perhaps the fact of leaks adds a salt-of-the-earth mystique. For example, a scripted vignette of an NPC getting someone out of a building is actually more engaging if you know it's not just a choreographed moment brewing in a lab, created to “make the world more alive” for prospective buyers. Outlaw's official presentation was chemically engineered to avoid ruffling feathers, a difficult game to get excited about.

Nor is it a sentiment not shared at all by players watching the game: “Having just seen the leaked footage, I was skeptical, but I'm actually pretty excited again: ...... I've read a lot about how they wanted it to feel like an extension of the film, like a movie, and this is the first time I've felt that vibe outside of the early trailers.”

Similarly, r/gamingleaksandrumours is littered with former skeptics who respond to the video with an overall “Hey, not bad. Looks interesting, but it's the kind of game I'd buy in five years for about $10.” level of excitement.

For my part, I am cautiously optimistic. At the very least, I think Star Wars Outlaws will be a standard Ubisoft game, with a glossy open world and too many little things like collecting outposts to “push X to knock out”. At some point you'll hack the datapad and be taken to the map screen to gaze at the dopamine-popping icons. At the very least, it's nice to have more Star Wars games that don't involve wielding a lightsaber. Now if only Ubisoft would stop the pointless bagging of pre-orders.