Star Wars Outlaws Is Walking Back Its Most Controversial Mechanic

Star Wars Outlaws took fans into the role of scoundrel Kay Vess during a familiar time in the original Star Wars trilogy. Instead of playing a powerful Force-wielding Jedi, gamers explore the open world environments with their loyal companion, Nix, carefully sneaking around restricted areas or blasting away anyone in their path. Since the game's launch, discussions about Star Wars Outlaws gameplay generated mixed feedback, with many players frustrated by the required stealth sections of Kay's missions.

After appointing a new Star Wars Outlaws Creative Director, Drew Rechner, Ubisoft and Massive Entertainment have responded to player complaints and constructive feedback. A month after the game's release, Rechner announced a major Title Update to Star Wars Outlaws. These changes address many player concerns, including promises of improved depth and player choice. Most importantly, Star Wars Outlaws developers changed the role of stealth in the game, fixing the game's most critiqued mechanic.

Star Wars Outlaws Players Criticize Stealth Mechanics

Many Gamers Felt Restricted by Forced Stealthy Playstyles as Required Gameplay

At launch, Star Wars Outlaws faced a generally favorable, yet mixed, reception. Players and critics adored Nix as a fan-favorite character and enjoyed being immersed in an open world to explore, appealing to many longtime Star Wars fans who wanted to get lost in the environment. However, many critiques pointed to repetitive combat and frustrating stealth mechanics during missions as major weak points of the game.

Players felt tension between Star Wars Outlaws' vision of freedom in an open world and the game's lack of choice about how they could approach missions. In some instances, Kay Vess had to stealth in certain areas or parts of a mission. If Kay got caught, it would be game over, sending players to an earlier checkpoint that forced them to lose progress. This forced stealth playstyle turned off many gamers, as they had no other options for mission success.

Ubisoft and Massive Entertainment kept an ear to the ground for player concerns. On Nov. 5, 2024, the team released their first Star War Outlaws Dev Update, with a note from the new Creative Director, Drew Rechner, outlining many planned changes to improve the gameplay experience based on player concerns. Rechner emphasized the importance of player choice as a priority in the post-launch updates to the game.

Fans speculated about Rechner's hints at possible changes to stealth, as he explained, "You can expect to see more details about how we will be celebrating and embracing player choice more than ever before, whether it's sneaking through encounters, going in blasters-blazing, or everything in-between."

A couple of weeks later, the second Star Wars Outlaws Dev Update further expanded on what the team was working on: weapons and combat. In particular, the team made changes to stats for all weapons and enemies, adding weak points for Kay to more easily take out enemies with a critical hit at the right moment. Rechner referenced player feedback again and the team's goal of improving player choice in the combat loop, "allowing you to go silent or loud in all scenarios." All of these changes are now part of the Star Wars Outlaws Title Update 1.4, released on Nov. 21, 2024.

Star Wars Title Update 1.4 Fixes Kay's Stealth Missions

Massive Entertainment Implements Changes Based on Critical Player Feedback

Star Wars Outlaws Title Update 1.4 is the game's latest patch, released on November 21, 2024. As the biggest update to Ubisoft's 2024 action-adventure game, Star Wars Outlaws Title Update 1.4 introduces major changes to combat and stealth options for more player choice during Kay's missions. Additionally, update 1.4 lets Star Wars Outlaws players hold onto weapons Kay picks up along the way in more situations, provides enhanced enemy AI and enemy weak points, and improves the visual experience for lighting and dialogue animations in cutscenes. The size of this Nov. 2024 update varies based on the platform:

• PlayStation 5: 7.44 GB (version 01.004.000)
• Xbox Series X|S: 10.18 GB (version 1.0.4.0)
• PC: 8.83 GB (version 1.0.4.0)

On Nov. 21, 2024, Rechner provided the third Star Wars Outlaws Dev Update to explain in more detail what went into the team's changes to improve the player's gameplay experience. Each mission typically has specific restrictions that instruct players to "Do not raise the alarm" or "Do not get caught," forcing Kay to stealth through these areas.

Though Star Wars Outlaws was largely designed with stealth playstyles in mind, other parts of the game let players choose to avoid combat by finding alternative pathways through a building or run in with blasters to take out enemies. The game has a Wanted system that encourages a more undercover approach, so some players felt restricted by being forced into a stealthy playstyle to successfully proceed with a mission. Fortunately, the Star Wars Outlaws team agreed, removing these restrictions entirely.

Our first step in expanding player choice is removing forced stealth from almost all quest objectives. This doesn't mean that sneaking is no longer a viable or even preferable option in some cases. Rather, if you're caught while sneaking, the objective won't fail and reset you to the last checkpoint. Instead, you'll seamlessly transition into combat.

Rechner explained that these adjustments seek to elevate "a true scoundrel experience" and reassured players that stealth will always be an option for Kay and Nix, given their specific training and experiences as street thieves. However, the Star Wars Outlaws team wanted to address player feedback to allow more freedom with a variety of playstyles to approach missions.

Taking out forced stealth from missions is a major cut that shows the Star Wars Outlaws team's willingness to walk back a key aspect of the game's design. This move might be in response to Star Wars Outlaws not meeting sales expectations, but regardless, players are chalking Title Update 1.4 as a win for the community.

Future Star Wars Outlaw Updates on the Horizon

More Story Packs Will Expand Kay's Adventures With Familiar Star Wars Faces

In addition to Title Update 1.4, Star Wars Outlaws has more plans to improve Kay and Nix's adventures in the Outer Rim. Sabacc fans can rejoice with the first story DLC, Star Wars Outlaws: Wild Card, which is now available on all platforms. In Wild Card, Kay is hired to infiltrate a high-stake Sabacc tournament where she runs into a Star Wars fan-favorite, Lando Calrissian. Though the story DLC is included in the Star Wars Outlaws season pass, players can also purchase Wild Card separately. A second DLC story pack, Star Wars Outlaws: A Pirate's Fortune, is planned for a Spring 2025 release.

With such major changes, Star Wars Outlaws fans will benefit from more flexible gameplay approaches in missions and new players can explore the galaxy with these options. Players can continue to keep an eye out for future Dev Updates for further changes made by the team. Ubisoft and Massive Entertainment are looking to close out the year strong with three Star Wars Outlaws Game Awards 2024 nominations: Best Action/Adventure Game, Innovation in Accessibility, and Best Performance for Humberly González's Kay Vess.