Gaming Star Wars: Outlaws (Ubisoft) [Mod Approved]

Is that sniper rifle that literally deletes people molecularly from DF/JK in it?

 

Doubt it, sounds too effective.

 

Speaking of Dark Forces though, saw this easter egg on reddit.

Spoiler

There's also a reference to Dash Rendar in an imperial base, a report mentioning a smuggler with a YT-2400.

 

I finished the main story. I enjoyed it, I'd give the main story 8/10

but the actual gameplay is uh, idk 6?

 

The stealth hate is absolutely real

 

A rather frustrating run on the whole tonight.

Was on the Veteran quest and it comes out with a timed shoot-three-targets requirement. Problem is the targets are spread out and two are very small in the distance, with very small aim windows. Aim assist? Oh, you serious? Of course that's useless. It was pure luck I did it.

It then followed that with a space fiasco - in space you have a scanner that shows you where things are. For this mission, it decided the scanner would still show treasure but not the mission targets! Those you have to look for manually. Not only that, pirates attack a couple of times, wrecking any sense of position. Also, the pursuit mode was somehow disabled, pressing the button but no effect.

It was, again, a dumb luck resolution. And it's stuff like this that makes me wonder how much user testing did Massive do and with who? In this mission particularly I found it very difficult to see what I needed to. I only did the three targets via video guide, so effectively did they blend into the background.

The other thing that tends to blend in amid all the detail is the target indicator. Space isn't good either, red on black isn't that distinctive.

On a part mission, came on a timed four target shooting one. Eventually found the solution by a video, the result was still partly luck-based.

Still, did get Veteran unlocked as an expert and nabbed some treasures and upgrade / ability pieces.

And you're playing after they tweaked it to be less harsh.

 

There's so much to like about it, but it really does not want to encourage experimentation. For instance Massifs can detect you in cover, so stun the dog while the Beastmaster is turned away? No, because you only have one stun shot and when you do not only does he know where the shot came from, he can see you in cover! Then Fast Talk goes active but can't stun, try to break line of sight? That'd be good, if the camera wasn't so close in I can't see the wider environment. Cue entire massive instantly alerted.

All the talk of the AI being dumb is false. It is. This lot see through cover, can see through solid rock - you think you've escaped? An enemy part alert icon will go active with no possible way to see you.

Similarly, blow up an explosive barrel at a base and it's instant alert and location known no matter what.

More stupid AI? Yes, it would make the game more fun and better match to the Story setting I'm supposedly playing on.

Then there's the ability conditions screwing around. Like defeating enemies with the environment. Get to cover, whistle enemy over, take out - doesn't count.

And another thing, why is the speeder angle of view so close to the ground and pointing up? I'll tweak it to better see the track, it then puts it back. That gets in the way of enjoying the speeder use.

 

The Camera angles are dreadful and I'm far too close to my character, I want to pull the view back a little but can't which is really annoying

I can't climb. This game is all insurmountable waist high fence (give or take). This is a game by the people who made Assassins Creed, I should be able to climb a rock face but noooooo. Its so infuriating.

 

I can understand not wanting to do AC SW, but the limitations are pretty heavy.

The run I just did started off with all the irritations active - bad signposting, irritating puzzle design, unpredictable responses from enemies. Oh and the small, poison-spitting lizards on Akiva? They get their spawn world on the Death Star demolition list.

But then it got better, very unexpectedly too. Had a stealth run go bad, goon somehow sees me, in cover, doing a takedown, while he is turned away. Resigned to a rep reduction, I decide to shoot everyone, eventually find and disable the alarm, and after this total slaughter? No reduction, no one cares. Huh, cool.

Then do some treasure hunting, in ground and space. Turns out if you have excellent rep, the treasure in faction locations, if not in restricted areas, is no longer deemed stealing! That was very smart.

Also did a couple of Trailblazer upgrades. The pursuit mode is back too, so that must have been a weird bug last night.

 

This game is so uneven.


Sometimes it just works, its logical, it makes sense and plays well. Then you hit some weirdness that ALWAYS relates to either reputation or an inability to travel in what should be a sensible direction.

Also, why the hell am I being discovered after blowing up a fog cloud with Nix whilst not moving myself. Why does that happen sometimes and not others. Its frustratingly inconsistent.

 

Today's run was pretty much treasure nabbing and contracts, plus the odd poison pill faction quest. Got a couple more abilities unlocked too.

Also finished the Heavy quest, who'd thought an abandoned moisture farm would be so creepy? The post-Tusken parts were frustrating as I just can't trust the stealth at all. Sure, that guy is looking away now, but as soon as I do a silent takedown, he'll magically know, as will the rest of the telepath hench-goons.

Fortunately the combination of abilities and gear makes shooting everyone a viable option, so did that both times.

Did have some minor stealth wins, also found a proper sniper rifle which I mowed down a load of bandits with. Also, space missions are far better with a tooled-up engine, shield and blasters.

The experimental restrained depiction of information in the game does work for quest discovery. It does not work for stealth, exploration and combat. There needs to be far better guidance modes / highlighting / aim assist - some won't need them but I certainly do.

 

After some glimmers of hope towards fixing my CTD issues the problem has gotten worse, following the patch from a few days ago. It’s becoming quite frustrating to play now, and playing the way I want to - a laid back emergent experience - is pretty much impossible. Unfortunately I don’t know if I’ll be able to finish Outlaws, if I do it’ll need to be a focused sort of speed run broken up by constant CTD to just plow through the main story. That should be doable, but it’s really not how I wanted to play it.

 

At just under 45 hours, my strongest conclusion is the world environments deserve better. Better what? Everything. Better signposting, combat, stealth, puzzles that are accessibility friendly, better overall consistency.

Case in point, I'm pretty certain there is the open world difficulty and the mission difficulty. Generally, open-world enemies tend to be smarter, see better. Problem is if I apply that experience to a mission, I might be giving the enemies too much credit. I can't assess accurately due to the inconsistency.

To my surprise, while using a guide, I finished the Akiva missions. Could have done without the magic wanted rating inflicted at the end, along with my engine speed being nerfed as I'm legging it to a satelite.

The Viper boss at the start? Makes the case for both an auto highlight enemies option, plus snap to target aim assist. Because a boss fight in a jungle, at night, against black probe droids that are hard to see, isn't great.

It'd be better for this game if it was published by anyone other than UbiSoft, then it wouldn't be so baffling. It wouldn't look to be a UbiSoft game where they've either thrown out or forgotten all they knew about stealth, parkour and combat.

 

Ok, let's talk about the Jabba mission duo.

This game has brilliant world design and a good story joined to abominable and, by current standards, prehistoric gameplay. It's an infuriating combination.

Take the Partners quest. Great story set-up, but the gameplay execution? Awful. First, there is the approach to the palace - apparently you do not have to kill everyone. Good luck spotting the alternative approaches because I never saw them.

Then there's infiltrating the palace, complete with the do not raise the alarm rubbish. Doing this with the electro-prod helped, but not always, as if it goes to a fight, Kay will forget she has a taser!

Still, you get past that and you end up legging it from the Rancor! Then it catches up with you, cue boss fight. Or, more accurately, an atrocity of one. If you get hit by the Rancor, even on Story mode, say goodbye to 5 health bars - it's practically a one-hit kill. It also has bad view of the boss and crappy mechanics. It has no redeeming features.

Then there's the Jabba's Favour quest - to be fair, getting into the Imperial base was OK. Getting out was a mess of bad signposting, then a follow speeder sequence where it was hard to see who I was to follow. It should have been an epic escape run, it wasn't. Oh and there was a final, messy, crappy Stormtrooper shoot-out at the end.

So, they're done, 76% complete, Tatooine complete, yay. Was it good? No. The only real benefits is I can probably now get the last two experts and maybe go back to enjoying it more.

 

I finally got through this mandatory stealth mission in Pyke territory, either the update made the AI dumber (which considering I walked past someone by 2 feet and they didn't see me) or I had always been going at it from the wrong direction but just walked up a hill and took out one guy and got in. I couldn't even find that direction when I first tried it.

Another part where I think I used a glitch was the Imps raiding a pirate site and then they started shooting at me, so I run away and then go back all the pirates are gone, shot 1 buckethead, took at the stuff and then when I got out the imps started coming out of the shuttle so I just called my speeder and ran over a few on my way out

 

Huh, that was actually a good run for a change.

Some boosting the rep with the Hutts via contracts, some intel resolutions, got a couple of good parts.

Also did a deliciously sweet, full stealth run on a Hutt safehouse. Detonated a guy with his own grenade and killed one of the beastmaster's pets. Bomb detonation took out the other pet and another enemy. Then a final bomb took out beastmaster and last normal guard. What was so fun is it was Nix triggering the bombs. Gamorrean got distracted then tased. Slip in, took out the last guy, stole everything!

 

Truly terrible level with when you go to the Imperial orbiting station, just not well designed or fun and that shoot out at the end was just getting pasted. Guy in the jar like that singing dude from Solo was nice though

I keep going back to Lego Star Wars Skywalker Saga just to destress after these levels

 

Sounds like the False Flag mission Al?

With Assassin's Creed Shadows delayed to February 2025, this game is getting some attention so it likely to continue to change.

Meanwhile, had a very weird experience where, despite being on mid-alert, not full, this Imperial outpost kept hitting the alarm, which was very well-hidden, then this small outpost base spawned at least three more enemies. No speeders, no shuttle drop-offs, they just... appeared.

In the end, I resorted to reloading to practically reset everything then found a stealthier route, that let me nab the part and leg it.

Did the main quest Legacy. Bar some far too subtle signposting of route, this trip to and through a Clone Wars droid factory was superb. Even taking out a squad of Zerek Besh, mostly using Nix's detonate skill, was good. The next bit with two hunters magically knowing where you are not so much.

Then it goes off a cliff. It starts by telling you to head to the Hutt outpost, no probs, been there before, I know the way. Nope! There's an out of bounds / return to quest area! In this open world UbiSoft game. The limits of the zone are poorly indicated too.

When you get to the area, that restriction continues, no going around by an alternative route - that's outside the area. OK, fine, let's slip in, get Nix to distract a goon, do stealth takedown - cue apparently everyone looking at this guard from across the entire area! That's it then, shoot everyone, open the cages.

But when you do that, these unindicated Rebels leg it, and you're suddenly to supposed to escort them out after clearing the area. Problem is it is a very short window to catch up to them and you might be high up and not able to.

It was a bizarre section, full of archaic gameplay structures I would never have expected to encounter in a 2024 game. The two benefits is I am, somehow, at the point of no return for the endgame! Second, I have the fusion cutter to nab all those chests I couldn't previously get to.

 

Like twice in that mission I opened a hatch and there's Stormtroopers like right freaking there you can't stop and it sets off the alarm. That's just the game straight up cheating

 

Strange as it sounds, there's been nothing quite on the scale of that mission afterwards. It also opens the game substantially.

 

Yes to all of this:

https://www.videogameschronicle.com/news/star-wars-outlaws-lando-story-dlc-has-been-dated/

 

The Sabbac mission after I got back on the planet was ridiculously easy, I thought I had one of those trick decks like Lando had. And I won my 2nd Fathier race without cheating or knowing who it was rigged for. That's two inside info wins and two random pick wins

 

Mine was stupidly difficult.

 

Had enough now

There is a game in there but so much is badly signposted or just obscure.

The last straw today was dying today in an out of place location and rather than resetting to just outside the starting point as with most games. It warped me back to the effing city I started at.

It moved me further back for falling off a highish wall than it did when I was taken out by a bandit (where it just kept respawning me next to the bastard so he could keep doing it till I figured out the right direction to run away)

The game wants t be played and has so much going for it but when its crap, its utter crap. I'm staying away now till the next patch and I'm going to try Ghost of Tsushima again. I'm about due that game finally clicking with me.