There is a broad consensus that the vibes in Star Wars Outlaws They’re so good that it’s easy to overlook why bugs and idiosyncrasies are often present in an open-world title at launch (as of this writing, Ubisoft has already patched the game once). As much as other games have allowed players to explore their favorite fictional Galaxy, Ubisoft and Massive have arguably made it feel more alive than ever before. Planets new and familiar with criminals, opportunists and everyday people get through under the thumb of the Empire, and the game’s protagonist Kay Vess is just green enough to make players feel as if they are experiencing it all for the first time.
Those in search of further proof that Outlaws Is Star Wars Done right need look no further than its music. Wilbert Roget, II handled the score, and while he brought in other composers to write music for Different Planets, Cantina Jukeboxes, and Kessel Sabacc games, he wrote most of the game’s pitch-perfect new themes. Roget has contributed to many others Star Wars Play scores in various capacities, having scored Star Wars: The Old Republic And Vader Immortal: A Star Wars VR Series And worked on Star Wars: The Force Unleashed And its sequel, among others. Roget even scored the viral PS5 hit Heldivers 2.
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Roget took an approach to Star Wars Outlaws Which secretly feels bold. Blending classic orchestral instruments and themes with modern music synthesis techniques, Roget has crafted a score that reaches for beat-forward rhythms as much as John Williams-style grandeur. Roget also worked with Massive on a unique way to implement music for the game’s stealth sequences, which Screen Rants Star Wars Outlaws Overview Compare to the best of Ubisoft games past. Screen Rant Interviewed Wilbert Roget, II about his approach to writing music for returning characters, new adventures, stealth gameplay, and more.
Wilbert Roget II details what drew him to Star Wars Outlaws
“They wanted a more adventurous take on Star Wars music.”
Screen Rant: You’ve been working in this universe for a while. What was the thing that set this apart in the biggest way from your past Star Wars Projects?
Wilbert Roget: I think the two biggest ones are the gameplay and what they wanted creatively. It’s an open-world game but, from my perspective, the more important thing was that now we have such a focus on stealth gameplay in particular. In previous Star Wars games that I worked on, we didn’t really have that. We’ve done a little bit on Force Unleashed II, but it’s never been as detailed as it is here, and it’s not a true stealth system. It was, “You’re either in combat or you’re not.”
In Outlaws, not only is there a stealth mechanic influenced by Splinter Cell, but you can go in and out of stealth at any time and enemies can lose track of you. There are times when enemies hunt you down because they know you are out there somewhere, but they have lost track of where exactly you are. We needed to develop a very dynamic music system that was systemic. It wasn’t just a script thing or a switch – it was a fully dynamic interactive music system.
Stylistically, the reason I said yes to the project in the first place was because they wanted a more adventurous take on Star Wars music. They didn’t want it just to have the John Williams orchestra music influence from the films. They wanted something different, and they didn’t even know exactly what it was, but they knew they wanted a unique sound for the Holocaust. It really intrigued me because I’ve done the John Williams sound, especially the prequel sound, many times before, and I was interested in doing something different, especially since I’d done Mortal Kombat scores, Call of Duty and Helldivers [2] for this. I wanted something that continued from the kinds of music I was doing for those titles rather than just being the more stereotypical Star Wars sound.
Roget Reacts to Star Wars Outlaws “The First Open-World Star Wars Game” Criticism
“I’m not really sure where exactly the criticism is coming from”
As much is made of this as the first Star Wars Open-world game. When the marketing came out, I saw a lot of people talking about the fact that games like Star Wars: The Old Republic Already had huge open worlds that could be explored. As the composer of Star Wars: The Old RepublicHow did you feel about that?
Wilbert Roget: I don’t understand exactly where the criticism is coming from. Of course, the team at BioWare EA did such an incredible job with the Old Republic, so I’m sure they’re not trying to diminish that in any way. But, I mean, there’s a world of difference between a massive MMO title and an open-world title in the style of Outlaws. I never would have considered them to be anywhere near the same genre. So, I’m not really sure where exactly the criticism is coming from, but that’s just me.
I play a lot of open-world titles. One of my favorites was Ghost of Tsushima or the infamous series, and you can see a lot more in common with those than you can see with Old Republic, which is a completely different style of gameplay. I mean, there are open-world aspects to it just because of the nature of the game, but it’s one of those cases where you only have so many words in an article or a soundbite, and you choose your words as carefully as you Can, but inevitably someone is going to misinterpret that in certain ways.
A key component of Star Wars Outlaws was developing the Scoundrel Sound
“I use whatever random implementations I can”
There is a Jedi well in Star WarsAnd it is an empire well within Star Wars. How did you start figuring out what it meant to score the world from Outlaws?
Wilbert Roget: That was one of the most important things that the team at Ubisoft emphasized – that we needed to find dirt. We need to find a sound for that type of character that isn’t a Jedi or a Sith, or anyone on one of those teams. I don’t want to spoil things, but very early in the game some things happen that even put you at odds with the rebels. Kay Vess is her own thing, and so we have to have a sound that supports that. From my perspective, my idea was to do three things. One was to have a focus on solo instruments and melody that would carry her character. For the main theme, “Kay Wess, the Bandit”, I used the electric violin to play her melody and be the character.
The other part, and you’ll hear this a lot in the stealth music in particular, [is that] I do a lot with what I might call “elemental sounds.” What I mean by that is I have a whole rack of Foley “instruments” – different percussive things that aren’t real instruments. They’re just bottles of wine, beer, coffee tins, and random things where I just thought, “This is pretty cool sound. Let me clean it up and then save it,” and that’s a huge part of what I would do. Called the fool well.
I think of Kai Vess and how she solves problems, and she is very much an improviser. She doesn’t have the best gear, the best equipment, the best training or anything. She just uses everything she can get, and that’s how she succeeds. I think, “Okay, well, why don’t I do the same as a composer?” I don’t have very expensive instruments that I use for this character. Instead, I use whatever random implements I can and try to make something musical out of it.
Even with the actual instruments that I use, sometimes I’ll use them with unusual techniques. For example, I’ll use guitars quite often, but maybe I’ll hit them with sticks or play on the wrong side of the string – near the tuning peg, so you only get the one pitch. [I use] Different techniques to get a unique sound that sounds improvised and has that kind of character.
The last bit is [that] We used quite a lot of synthesis. One thing we discovered early on was that we wanted an analog synth style. Believe it or not, John Williams uses quite a lot of analog synth in his Star Wars scores. There are also analog synths in the original trilogy, most notably in – it has different titles depending on which soundtrack you get – “The Magic Tree”, where Luke goes into the tree and sees Darth Vader on Dagobah. There is very prominent synth usage, so it felt like it made perfect sense. Analog synths actually blend incredibly well with the orchestra. If you listen to almost any Han Zimmer score, you’ll hear this blend, and it works really well because you’re getting two analog sound sources. So, we have a lot with analog synthesis on Star Wars Outlaws blending with the orchestration.
Roget reveals where the modern sounds of Star Wars Outlaws came from
“In a Word, Selfishness” (and two Korg synths)
I don’t know if you actually use 808s (for non-musicians, the Roland TR-808 drum machine has a famous booming bass drum that is popular to this day), but my thought while playing the game was, “I have Never heard so many 808s in Star Wars.” What made you want to lean into this kind of modern synth music in a way that’s even less subtle than the John Williams piece you’re referencing?
Wilbert Roget: In one word, selfishness. and opportunism. I think, as a composer, you always have to write what is interesting to you. You have to think, “Well, what is it that will hold my interest for the next potentially two or three years?” And by the time I started Star Wars Outlaws, I was really getting into synthesis and developing new sounds. I bought some new gear, and it made sense at the time to use it because I wanted the game to have a modern sound and something different from what we’ve heard before.
I don’t use 808s, but what I did use a lot were the little Korg synths. The Korg Volka Sample and Korg Volka Drum are very useful to get what is almost like a low-tech high-tech sound. They are very simple machines, but they have a very powerful sound. You record them, make a beat on there, put it in the computer, do whatever effects you want, and you can get a unique blend of timbres.
As a gamer myself, I love hearing rhythm and interesting syncopations and beats, and I can’t see any reason why I can’t do that for a Star Wars score. It actually never even occurred to me that this might be funny, because if you think about it, the way John Williams writes for Star Wars is all about rhythms and syncopations. This is really what makes Star Wars music shine. He always had really interesting rhythms in the orchestra, so it made sense that maybe I could use some synth drums or synth bass to do the same thing.
Stealth sequences of Star Wars Outlaws required a “wild, crazy” music system
“We can have the computer assemble it in real time”
I’m really curious about how music implementation works in regard to stealth, as you mentioned earlier. How did you work with the team to put your music in, and even write music that works with the system?
Wilbert Roget: The drum machines, other synth sources and other non-orchestral elements are really what allowed us to have a full stealth and combat system. We need things outside the orchestra to make sure that when you’re switching states and going to and from different intensities, it’s something we can freely manipulate in real time. You can only do so much with the orchestra in terms of manipulating it in real-time, remixing and rearranging, especially with the Star Wars orchestra where there’s such an expectation of a more traditional orchestra. This is actually the real answer to why we used so much synth percussion and synthesis.
In terms of how we came up with the system, we knew there would be different intensity levels. We narrowed it down to three basic intensities—low, medium, and high—and we said, “What are the basic AI states?” They’re either in combat, they’re completely out of combat, or they’ve been in combat, but they’ve lost track of Kay, and they know she’s around there somewhere. We call that hiding.
For the three states and the three intensity levels, we have cues that can freely cross-fade within and between themselves. It was essentially a seven-layer dynamic system for combat. We would have the strings and brass separate from each other so the low-intensity combat cue might have just strings and then various percussion or synths, but once you get into a medium intensity, it can add brass and woodwinds into the mix. Finally, for the highest intensity, the brass and woodwinds remain the same, but the string parts are now strengthened, so we have a different pass of strings. This allowed us to cross-fade very seamlessly, as there was always an element left over from the previous intensity level. Then, of course, the percussion, synths, synth drums and what not can be different for each layer.
It was the same thing with Stealth Music, but the non-combat cues had a slightly more complicated setup. They are actually multilayered so that we can have non-looping music. Essentially, we abstracted the idea of a stealth Star Wars cue so that we could have the computer assemble it in real time rather than it being a single by-composed piece of music. And it has all its different layers, so it’s actually more like 13 layers or something like a wild thing. The team at Massive did an incredible job of co-designing and implementing this wild, crazy system that we came up with.
Roget reveals the one theme he took from Star Wars and shares new favorites
“For the needs of the game, it makes sense to do our own themes”
In this game, we revisit a lot of places that players have seen before, like Kijimi and Tatooine, and there are even specific characters like Qi’ra and Jabba the Hutt. Did you want to borrow directly thematic material from any of the movies, or did you feel it was more appropriate to do your own thing?
Wilbert Roget: For the needs of the game, it makes sense to do our own themes, just because the way themes work in this game is a little more open than in the prequels and sequels. [Even] The Imperial themes aren’t even that appropriate for what we’re dealing with because, again, we’re not really dealing with the Sith or the Jedi, and our relationships with any of those characters are very different. We try to work for Job the Hat—we don’t work against him or run away from him. Same with Qi’ra, because we’re part of the criminal underworld rather than it being the side thing.
The only theme I carried over from the original films was the stormtrooper theme from Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope. That was crucial for all of our Imperial music, because we didn’t necessarily have the concept of Darth Vader’s empire. This was more about the local governors and the stormtroopers and our relationship with them. I carried that over and tried to expand it as much as I could on all Imperial music. Otherwise, I have a theme for the Hutt Cartel, which is heavily influenced by Jabba the Hutt’s theme. It uses tuba in a certain melodic way, but that’s its own separate thing.
Do you have a new topic that you are most excited about?
Wilbert Roget: “The Trailblazer” theme is very important because as the game goes along, it becomes a second main theme in the game. It’s not just a theme for the ship. That’s what I was initially asked to do, but it became a theme for the ship, its crew, and the sense of adventure – the idea of finding family like Kay is finally assembling a crew and trusting them, and they become her Real family as the game goes along. It is very important for the themes of the game itself.
I have to say that it’s very rare that I get to write character themes for games, so it was such a pleasure to be able to write character themes. Not just for Kay, but also for ND-5 and Nix and Rico, who is Kay’s mom Wess. I loved writing Riko’s theme because I was given a character bio outlining a bunch of stuff that wasn’t even in the game, but I talked about her story. It resonated with me so much that when I wrote her theme, it was almost like a timeline of her story. I won’t spoil it, but the idea is that she starts in a safe place. It shows that she is a slicer, but she is also kind of nomadic, and she is never really able to settle down in any place. It goes through different moments in her life, moments of, “Maybe she can settle down. Maybe she can have a family or a lover,” but then it moves on in certain ways, and then Kay Wess happens.
The theme of ND-5 was another favorite of mine. I love the idea that we just put a duster on a robot and called it a day. It’s such a unique character design. Then, once I read up on his story, I thought, “Man, what a film noir, tortured character.” I can almost see him as a private detective in black and white, and he has a bottle of whiskey on his desk or something. So, I wrote a piece that evokes that kind of vibe. I played guitar on it, and I really enjoyed working with that style of harmony.
It was the same for Nix’s theme. In Nix’s case, the audio director actually had the idea of, “Maybe we can start it with a timeline of Nix being born in captivity, but then Kay discovers and frees Nix, and then they’re on an adventure together.” So, it has this three-part thing where it starts off with this almost prison-like lugubrious sound, but then it has this melodic section of the love between Kay and her pet. Then it goes into this very adventurous, very Irish and African music-influenced upbeat section.
Why Roget invites other composers to join him on Star Wars Outlaws
Roget’s response to being asked to score the full game: “Absolutely not”
There were also other composers involved. How did you all divide up the work and decide which one you would take on?
Wilbert Roget: [Ubisoft and Massive] came to me at first and said, “We’d like you to do all this,” and I was like, “Absolutely not. I can’t do it all at any time.” The first thing I said, “We need To find a Cantina music composer with enough diversity in their stylistic output and resources that they can just handle it.” That’s why I recommended Cody Matthew Johnson to the Ubisoft team, and they did a phenomenal job. I mean, it just sounds like In fact, the greatest Thing about this game, in my mind, is the immersion. For me, there’s nothing cooler than when I’m just walking around town and in the distance, I can hear some cantina music blasting and I’m like, “Oh, what’s up.” This?”. Then, you walk in, and it completely immerses you.
On top of that, I hired Jon Everest and Kazuma Jinnochi. I wanted it to feel like a true adventure, and I felt like if I did the music for every planet and every single faction, it would lose that because you wouldn’t get the diversity that you need for selling the illusion that we’re going off in Different cultures and different planets. There was kind of a back-and-forth between the three of us about who did what, but eventually we decided that Kazuma wanted to do the planet Kijimi and the Ashiga clan, who are very closely related to Kijimi. He has experience writing with that Japanese cultural influence and traditional style. I loved his music to Metal Gear and to Ghost in the Shell in particular, so I wanted to pull him from that for Stealth Music. In addition to that, he also wrote for Star Wars Visions, so he has some Star Wars experience.
Jon wrote for the Crimson Dawn faction and the planet Equiva. Right before Outlaws, Jon did a score for a game called Disintegration, which I thought made brilliant use of synthesis. He married the synths with very carefully thought-out orchestration, and I loved the sound. It just makes so much sense to bring him here. He didn’t have as much Star Wars or traditional orchestral experience, but I knew he did [great] Production chops and could sort of give a different vibe to it, which worked beautifully. He wrote such gorgeous music for Akiba, and he did all the hard-hitting synths for the Crimson Dawn Faction.
About Star Wars Outlaws
Star Wars Outlaws is the first open world Star Wars game, set between the events of The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi. This narratively driven, single-player game features Kay Vess, an outcast looking for freedom and the means to start a new life, along with her companion Nix. Players will fight, steal and subvert their way through the galaxy’s crime syndicates and join the galaxy’s most wanted.
Set between the events of Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi, Star Wars Outlaws is an open-world action-adventure game where players step into the shoes of Kay Vess, a woman who travels the galaxy looking for a better life. Along with her furry partner Nyx and new allies she meets along the way, Kay will navigate the various landscapes, cities and planets across the galaxy while outsmarting both the crime syndicates and the Empire.
Open-world
Action-adventure
- Franchise
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Star Wars
- Released
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August 30, 2024
- developer(s)
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Massive entertainment
- Publisher(s)
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Ubisoft, Lucasfilm Games
- motor
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Snowdrop
- ESRB
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T for Teens // Violence, simulated gambling, mild language
- PS Plus Availability
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N/A