Ubisoft is trying its best to fix Star Wars Outlaws after its less-than-stellar launch and technical shortcomings. One of the game’s biggest criticisms was the unimpressive AI, which couldn’t find the player’s character during an action sequence just because she hid in a bush. The French developer is fixing this by letting players skip the stealth sections in Star Wars Outlaws altogether allowing them to play however they wish, without running into a failure state just for being spotted after the upcoming update.
So, all of the instant-fail stealth sequences will be removed with the next update for Star Wars Outlaws. When the game came out this year, it had many parts in which if you were merely noticed by the enemies, it would result in a failure state. This showed the lack of player freedom, and also put the AI’s capabilities, or lack thereof, on full display.
The new creative director for Star Wars Outlaws said that player choice is important for the team and that forcing players into stealthy playstyles by enforcing “do not raise the alarm” or “do not get caught” objectives in quests isn’t the way to do it. After incorporating player feedback, this lack of freedom is being fixed.
Now, the aim is to let players play in whichever playstyle they choose and not be limited to whatever the game has set in stone. This resulted in some quests feeling frustrating and unfair, especially since the detection mechanics used were often janky and unpredictable.
This doesn’t mean that sneaking around and playing stealthily isn’t an option anymore, it just means that players now have the option to not play a certain way. And if, while sneaking around, you’re noticed by the random detection mechanics, you won’t be forced to start over and can just go in all blasters blazing.
The update for Star Wars Outlaws only focuses on stealth for now, but upcoming updates will improve upon other issues that the game has. The goal for Ubisoft is to fix the game and get it into the shape it originally envisioned by the end of this year.
This is also why Ubisoft delayed Assassin’s Creed Shadows, to make sure it isn’t received poorly on release and is as polished as possible by the time players get their hands on it.