The first time I hopped on my speeder, I immediately careened straight into a poor unassuming Stormtrooper, sending him sprawling across the screen. This instantly rocketed up my wanted level. Moments later, an entire Imperial garrison was hot on my trail across the hills of Toshara.

Playing Star Wars Outlaws, there was one question that kept popping up every hour: Why haven’t we had more open world Star Wars games? Being able to explore that galaxy far, far away and go anywhere you want is something I’ve wanted for all the decades I’ve been playing video games, and I’m sure I’m not the only one. Because of that fact alone, Outlaws has a lot of expectations riding on it and a lot to live up to as the first true open world Star Wars game.

After experiencing over five hours of Outlaws, it doesn’t feel revolutionary. It’s even a bit rough around the edges. But it undoubtedly nails the most important thing it needed to — making you feel like a part of a fantastical Star Wars galaxy ripe for exploration.

Jedi and Sith are a dime a dozen in Star Wars, but when it comes to charming outlaws with a heart of gold, there’s Han Solo and then there’s everyone else. So creating a memorable new scoundrel was perhaps the biggest challenge facing the team at Ubisoft Massive when they came up with Kay Vess, a young starry-eyed thief and the protagonist of the upcoming open world video game Star Wars Outlaws.

“Kay is dealing with seedy characters and seedy organizations, and has to get by in a world that has never really been on her side,” Star Wars Outlaws director Mathias Karlson tells Inverse, “but Kay is not an evil person.”

To drive home that point, and help distinguish Kay from her scoundrel peers, Outlaws gives her a furry sidekick — admittedly not the most original idea when Han Solo basically comes with Chewbacca attached at the hip — but the game finds a unique spin on that classic dynamic with Nix, a whimsical alien pet and an entirely new species invented for Outlaws.