General Gaming Star Wars Outlaws (PC/Xbox Series/PS5) - update (10/03): Patch 1.2 released

[TwinIon]

After a crazy month of work, I'm finally able to get back to this. I'm pretty early in the game, just recently I've unlocked the ability to go to each of the different planets but I haven't yet actually visited them all yet.

 

I realized that I was in pretty good standing with one of the factions, so I went a bit out of my way and just did their contracts to max out reputation with one of them. I got the gear rewards, but is there anything else valuable to do while you have max rep with a faction? My guess was that it's just the loot, but I'm pretty sure I'll be double crossing them soon so I wanted to make sure there wasn't anything worth doing while I'm in their good graces.

[Spawn_of_Apathy]

4 hours ago, TwinIon said:

After a crazy month of work, I'm finally able to get back to this. I'm pretty early in the game, just recently I've unlocked the ability to go to each of the different planets but I haven't yet actually visited them all yet.

 

I realized that I was in pretty good standing with one of the factions, so I went a bit out of my way and just did their contracts to max out reputation with one of them. I got the gear rewards, but is there anything else valuable to do while you have max rep with a faction? My guess was that it's just the loot, but I'm pretty sure I'll be double crossing them soon so I wanted to make sure there wasn't anything worth doing while I'm in their good graces.

there are venders in their regions on different planets that have things for sale. Some stuff they won’t sell to you unless you are in good enough standing. Some clothing, and some items needed for upgrades. 

[Commissar SFLUFAN]

Star Wars Outlaws Has Sold Just 1 Million Copies In The Month Since It Launched - Insider Gaming

INSIDER-GAMING.COM

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Star Wars Outlaws has sold just one million units since being released at the tail end of August 2024. Check out the full story here.

 

Quote

 

Star Wars Outlaws was plagued with issues at launch, some of which led Ubisoft to make drastic tweaks. It wasn’t well received by the general market, and gamers worldwide have been giving it pretty low scores. It comes as no surprise to learn that in an entire month on the shelves, Star Wars Outlaws has sold just one million copies.

 

It’s not as many sales as Ubisoft expected, which explains the recent comments about the game’s performance proving ‘softer than expected’. It’s also partly why Assassin’s Creed Shadows was considerably delayed, being pushed back from November 2024 to February 2024.

 

[crispy4000]

I wonder how low this will go by the holidays…

[Spork3245]

2 hours ago, crispy4000 said:

I wonder how low this will go by the holidays…

EGS giveaway

 

[johnny]

there’s some contracts where you do something stealthily and still lose reputation with whoever you were stealing shit from. like how the fuck? nobody saw me? there’s no way that’s on purpose? 

[AbsolutSurgen]

1)  Trying to ride the Star Wars IP probably doesn't work ATM, given how bad some of the recent TV has been

2)  If you make a Star Wars game that gets lots of positive buzz, I think it would sell.  Outlaws mostly had negative buzz.

 

1 million sales can only be considered a disaster for Ubisoft, given the cost to make this game.

[Biggie]

8 minutes ago, AbsolutSurgen said:

1)  Trying to ride the Star Wars IP probably doesn't work ATM, given how bad some of the recent TV had been

2)  If you make a Star Wars game that gets lots of positive buzz, I think it would sell.  Outlaws mostly had negative buzz.

 

1 million sales can only be considered a disaster for Ubisoft, given the cost to make this game.

The game is like the Raiders. 
 

Spoiler

Mid  

 

[AbsolutSurgen]

1 minute ago, Biggie said:

The game is like the Raiders. 
 

  Hide contents

Mid  

 

The Raiders aren't mid.

[Keyser_Soze]

Raiders are a bad team that were able to miraculously beat the Ravens.

[Spawn_of_Apathy]

6 hours ago, johnny said:

there’s some contracts where you do something stealthily and still lose reputation with whoever you were stealing shit from. like how the fuck? nobody saw me? there’s no way that’s on purpose? 

Another part of why I dislike the reputation system. Logically it makes no sense much of the time. It almost feels world breaking. Because based on the things that lower your rep with these syndicates, mostly for stealing from them and killing their people, there is no way they do business with you. They make an example out of you. 
 

 

[AbsolutSurgen]

Just now, Keyser_Soze said:

Raiders are a bad team that were able to miraculously beat the Ravens.

They are a bad team.  Which is why they were creamed by the Panthers.

[AbsolutSurgen]

Just now, Spawn_of_Apathy said:

Another part of why I dislike the reputation system. Logically it makes no sense much of the time. It almost feels world breaking. Because based on the things that lower your rep with these syndicates, mostly for stealing from them and killing their people, there is no way they do business with you. They make an example out of you. 
 

 

Its not any worse than the Wanted system in the GTA series.  You literally can go from having SWAT teams chasing after you, find a hiding spot for a few minutes, and everything's good.

[SuperSpreader]

11 hours ago, Commissar SFLUFAN said:

Star Wars Outlaws Has Sold Just 1 Million Copies In The Month Since It Launched - Insider Gaming

INSIDER-GAMING.COM

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Star Wars Outlaws has sold just one million units since being released at the tail end of August 2024. Check out the full story here.

 

 

Wow

[Kal-El814]

7 hours ago, johnny said:

there’s some contracts where you do something stealthily and still lose reputation with whoever you were stealing shit from. like how the fuck? nobody saw me? there’s no way that’s on purpose? 

The Force is connected to everything, you know what you did

[Spawn_of_Apathy]

Just now, AbsolutSurgen said:

Its not any worse than the Wanted system in the GTA series.  You literally can go from having SWAT teams chasing after you, find a hiding spot for a few minutes, and everything's good.

Outlaws also has that with the Empire. When you have a wanted level for any group it is a little dumb that every nobody recognizes you on sight, wizzing by at 200mph. But with the syndicates it somehow feels worse. You can hack an Empire terminal or pay off a crooked officer to clear your wanted status by the Empire. It makes less sense that gang leaders are suddenly ok with Kay.
 

and it was an own goal kind of problem. The game didn’t need a reputation system where it tells you the gangs know you badly betrayed them. Like I did a mission where I had to make a choice on who to side with being contacted directly by another gang. So I sided with them and lied to the other gang that something went wrong. So Kay didn’t look like she betrayed them as much as wasn’t as reliable. I am good with that. That makes sense. 
 

Though shit, even Han’s “even I get boarded sometimes” wasn’t good enough for Jabba who put a bounty on his head. And Jabba seemed to actually like Han. 
 

The syndicate reputation system feels like one of those “check a box” kind of things that gets added to a game only for the sake of adding a feature. It doesn’t feel like it meshes well. And you will have to grind at it to make your rep good with everyone. (Is it even possible to have excellent rep with all groups at the same time?)

[SuperSpreader]

Visceral games had 3x+ the number of sales and way less cost and still got closed by dumbass EA

[AbsolutSurgen]

1 minute ago, Spawn_of_Apathy said:

Outlaws also has that with the Empire. When you have a wanted level for any group it is a little dumb that every nobody recognizes you on sight, wizzing by at 200mph. But with the syndicates it somehow feels worse. You can hack an Empire terminal or pay off a crooked officer to clear your wanted status by the Empire. It makes less sense that gang leaders are suddenly ok with Kay.
 

and it was an own goal kind of problem. The game didn’t need a reputation system where it tells you the gangs know you badly betrayed them. Like I did a mission where I had to make a choice on who to side with being contacted directly by another gang. So I sided with them and lied to the other gang that something went wrong. So Kay didn’t look like she betrayed them as much as wasn’t as reliable. I am good with that. That makes sense. 
 

Though shit, even Han’s “even I get boarded sometimes” wasn’t good enough for Jabba who put a bounty on his head. And Jabba seemed to actually like Han. 
 

The syndicate reputation system feels like one of those “check a box” kind of things that gets added to a game only for the sake of adding a feature. It doesn’t feel like it meshes well. And you will have to grind at it to make your rep good with everyone. (Is it even possible to have excellent rep with all groups at the same time?)

Open world game frequently have systems where past transgressions are "forgotten".  It's part of the "gamey" nature of the genre.

 

I agree, I don't particularly like the system.  My guess is that it was something they thought would be more interesting in design documents, and didn't work as well as they wanted when the game was finished.

 

My main complaints with the game are the blandness of the story/characters (this may change later in the game) and the relative simplicity of the gameplay loop.  If the shooting was good, I could probably forgive everything else.

[Spawn_of_Apathy]

22 minutes ago, AbsolutSurgen said:

My main complaints with the game are the blandness of the story/characters (this may change later in the game) and the relative simplicity of the gameplay loop.  If the shooting was good, I could probably forgive everything else.

I felt like some characters stayed kind if bland in part because of how little they actually a part of the game and Kay’s adventure. A Bioware cast of characters this is not. By the end you may like some characters more than you do now, but some like Jayden felt bland to me right to the end of the game. Kay stays pretty bland and neutral with one notable exception until the final act of the game. 
 

the shooting gets a bit better with more blaster upgrades. 

[Spork3245]

My main complaint is that you can't set invert independently between controllers and mouse. Like, wtf.

[Best]

I found it in me to redownload this two days ago. That's as far as I got in my journey to play and beat this. 

[Biggie]

32 minutes ago, Best said:

I found it in me to redownload this two days ago. That's as far as I got in my journey to play and beat this. 

[TwinIon]

9 hours ago, johnny said:

there’s some contracts where you do something stealthily and still lose reputation with whoever you were stealing shit from. like how the fuck? nobody saw me? there’s no way that’s on purpose? 

Yeah, I don't like that either. I went way out of my way to be sneaky and not be seen, I shouldn't be docked for that.

 

 

[TwinIon]

The more I play, the more I'm convinced that this game should have been an Uncharted style linear adventure experience. I think the best open world games are the ones that allow you to make choices in how you approach each gameplay scenario, or at least can convince you that your playing on your own terms. Outlaws wants to pretend that you're free to play how you'd like, but it's so heavy handed in how it does so that it makes a big open game feel small.

 

The best example so far is in how every single restricted area has such a similar "hidden" path just to the immediate side of the front entrance. Maybe there are a bunch of routes and I'm only finding the most obvious ones, but I really don't feel like I'm finding my way in anywhere, just looking for the obvious back door. Most Assassin's Creed games manage to avoid this trap to some degree. Most of the places you sneak into in AC don't have a glowing neon "hidden path this way" sign, and even those that do have more obvious holes in the walls usually have multiple options for how to approach them. In AC It's a common occurrence for me to sneak in one way and stumble on a more hidden path during the mission or on my way out. So far in Outlaws every path has felt very prescribed.

 

The mechanics of the game suffer similar issues. I just had to sneak into a compound run by a faction that I had max reputation with. I'm sure it's because it was a main story mission, but it would have been interesting if I could leverage my rep and have that sequence play out differently. Unfortunately, it seems it needs to play out a certain way. As with nearly every story mission, even if I keep perfect stealth, I still end up having to shoot my way out of it. The way the game is structured, that feels like I failed, or at best it feels like control was taken away from me. If this were a more linear story, that would just be another story beat to mix up the action, but there wasn't a story moment to go along with it, just stepping through the only way out automatically triggered everyone knowing where I was and what I was up to.

 

There is a lot to like about the game. I'm consistently impressed by the set dressing. Everything looks amazing. It all bleeds Star Wars and there's a ton of variety that is all so detailed. It's very impressive. Nix is a great companion, even if he's not always the most interesting gameplay mechanic. The music is good. It just seems like so much time was spent building this world out and not enough time was spent making it a fun place to spend time. I'm a very easy mark for these Ubisoft open world games. I'm usually clearing out the map and trying to take advantage of every bit of gameplay freedom they give me. Outlaws doesn't inspire that in me at all, at least not so far.

[Keyser_Soze]

Ubisoft just wants to make Splinter Cell without making Splinter Cell.

[Spawn_of_Apathy]

1 hour ago, TwinIon said:

The more I play, the more I'm convinced that this game should have been an Uncharted style linear adventure experience.

YES!! Though I did like walking around the cities and getting an idea of the different life styles.  

[Spork3245]

I agree that this probably would be better if it was more story focused and less “Ubi open world with a million side quests”

[tgo]

Star Wars is a dying ip.  What more proof do you need.  

[BloodyHell]

9 hours ago, tgo said:

Star Wars is a dying ip.  What more proof do you need.  

No. It isn’t. When you make good SW products, millions show up. The Jedi series proves that. As does the first season of the Mandalorian. 
 

What’s dying is the writing 

[Biggie]

9 hours ago, tgo said:

Star Wars is a dying ip.  What more proof do you need.  

 

11 minutes ago, BloodyHell said:

No. It isn’t. When you make good SW products, millions show up. The Jedi series proves that. As does the first season of the Mandalorian. 
 

What’s dying is the writing 

They are spreading it pretty thin. Over saturation is a real thing 

[Spawn_of_Apathy]

1 minute ago, Biggie said:

 

They are spreading it pretty thin. Over saturation is a real thing 

Disney+ wise, yes. Game wise not so much. 

[Commissar SFLUFAN]

Star Wars Outlaws - Title Update 1.2

WWW.UBISOFT.COM

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Title Update 1.2 is now deployed. Read a detailed list of fixes and adjustments that came with this patch.

 

Quote

 

NOTABLE CHANGES:

• Tweaked the overall stealth experience by adjusting AI detection, the number of NPCs and their positioning, patrol pathing, camera detection and highlighting environmental opportunities to reduce player friction
• Fixed an issue where players would get stuck in the hyperjump sequence towards Kijimi
• Fixed an issue where the 'Takeoff' button prompt wouldn't be shown after 'The Wreck' mission
• Improved the position of the speeder camera when the FOV was increased
• Improved the speeder's response and reaction when called
• Improved speeder collision with the environment to reduce being knocked off the speeder
• Kerro's Speakeasy - fixed an issue where the energy barrier was not disabled after successfully slicing the panel on Mirogana
• Fixed an issue where players could not interact with the triangulation stone in Jet Kordo's quest line on Toshara, and where the holotracker would not spawn in the Trailblazer

 

[TwinIon]

The empire wanted system is pretty silly. There was an unlock that required killing some death troopers, so I figured I could just stroll up to an empire outpost and just start something and eventually they'd show up like a SWAT team in GTA. Not so much. I attacked three different outposts, allowed a trooper to call in backup, didn't go hiding, and no one showed up. Sometimes I'd get one small wave of reinforcements, but then they'd just lose interest and stop showing up, despite all the radio messages about my position and hunting me down. I attacked three different outposts and couldn't get my wanted level up high enough and they always gave up after a short time.

 

Eventually I just had to go to a full on imperial base. Reinforcements still were not showing up, but at least there were enough groups of troopers around that I could go find more trouble. After a while I was able to get my wanted level all the way up, and the death trooper logo showed up and I heard the imperial radio messages to leave things to the death troopers, but they don't actually hunt you down. Maybe there are death troopers that will hunt you, but none would come for me, so I had to go hunt them. I did that and the wanted level went to zero.

 

I suppose to some degree I'm grateful that I can attack an outpost and not have to spend too long shrugging off my wanted level, but overall the wanted system feels odd or underbaked.

[TwinIon]

Speaking of underbaked, I just remembered another thing that seemed like an interesting idea but hasn't really proven to be, which is the skill tree system. The idea of meeting different scoundrels or mentors or whatever and having them introduce you to new skills is kind of cool and different. In practice you don't really continue communicating with those characters, so really it's just a skill tree with less organization and some normal story based progression unlocks. I thought maybe unlocking new abilities would trigger a conversation or something, but nope, you just finish the requirements and get your new ability, no sign of who taught you or anything.

 

If anything, I think this system is probably worse than a typical skill tree because you have to navigate around the UI so much more to even see what new abilities you can unlock and what you have to do to unlock them.

[SuperSpreader]

12 hours ago, tgo said:

Star Wars is a dying ip.

 

Good. Let's collectively move on.