Star Wars Outlaws - In a Galaxy far far too boring.

CriticalGaming

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I picked up Star Wars Outlaws because I do happen to like average Ubisoft open world slop from time to time. It's like getting some McDonald's every now and again, the food sucks but somehow it hits the right spot sometimes.

The game starts by setting up a big bad crime boss and identifying that the game is taking place between The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi films. You are Kay Vess, a Han Solo genderbent cosplay with about 10% the charisma. And she steals things, that's about all there is to her character. She is staying in the attic of a bar who's owner looks out of her for some reason, and you go off to explore the city stealing things. You meet another "friend", nobody seems to like Kay, and in order to get your little hacky tool fixed you gotta steal some shit. Turns out you steal from the wrong guy and they come hunting you at the bar. The own gives you the job that he didn't want you to take in the beginning and it leads Kay off world to start stealing professionally.

The gameplay itself is a mix between an AC game and a 3rd person Far Cry. However a lot of interesting things that those series do with the gameplay loops is sort of missing here. The stealth is uber basic, sneak up on guy, hit guy, done. The gun play is bland and blasters have zero impact on anything so they are just boring to use. Enemies barely react to getting shot until they die and it's just unsatisfying to play.

Even the open world is empty and boring. Normal the world is covered in vomit markers with little shits to do, but not here. There is very few points of interest and the best play seems to be to move from main mission to main mission to get all your unlocks since a lot of the few random locations on the map require those abilities anyway.

It's like Ubisoft heard people complaining about Valhalla and took way too many steps back to provide a big open world game that feels empty. Then took out the leveling system or any sort of character progression at all besides a few challenge unlocks and called it a day.

I didn't expect a great game, but I expect a decent open world game with a Star Wars skin on it. Instead I got a boring game that is boring and unfun to play. I will not even bother doing any more with this.
 

meiam

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It speaks a lot about the state of both star wars and ubisoft when this game came out to cricket. Even the average assasin creed get talked about more than this (except the one that release like 3 day after another AC game). It's just... strange.
 

Catfood220

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In fairness, this looked dull in every video I've seen for it...which is about two...but still, that was enough.

Been playing Jedi: Fallen order recently. That's a fun Star Wars game.
 
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Gordon_4

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I’m a big weirdo when it comes to games - I think I’m one of a baker’s dozen of people who are excited for DragonAge Veilguard - so I still want to play this.
 
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Old_Hunter_77

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As always thx for sharing your impressions.

I picked up Star Wars Outlaws because I do happen to like average Ubisoft open world slop from time to time. It's like getting some McDonald's every now and again, the food sucks but somehow it hits the right spot sometimes.
Yep lol.. totally. AssCreed is McDonald's but if the Big Mac looked IRL like in the commercials.

I was considering getting the game until some reviews talked about the stealth- that there's a lot of it, that's it shit, and that the AI is inconsistent (something I'm used to from AssCreed 3 and Unity). That stealth is just crouching from box to box and figuring out exactly which b.s. NPC is going to spot you from a mile away or not notice if kick them in the ankle.

So, no thanks.

I'm gonna risk getting crapped on for sharing a Kotaku article but I think this person sums things up well for these games if you can get past the insufferable headline and first paragraph:

Star Wars Outlaws Stealth Bugs Make It A Crappy Masterpiece (kotaku.com)

The positive parts of reviews are for the world detail, graphics, "feeling like a Star Wars" kind of stuff.

I think also there is this annoying Star Wars fandom trend (well ok all of Star Wars fandom is annoying) where people all seem to agree that Jedi and light sabers are boring, and that's why we like what Outlaws is trying to do and Andor. Like, my dudes... if we are bored with Jedi, maybe we're just done with Star Wars lol.

Anyway- the gameplay of this game looks lame so *ppfffftttt*
 
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Bob_McMillan

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Even the open world is empty and boring. Normal the world is covered in vomit markers with little shits to do, but not here. There is very few points of interest and the best play seems to be to move from main mission to main mission to get all your unlocks since a lot of the few random locations on the map require those abilities anyway.

It's like Ubisoft heard people complaining about Valhalla and took way too many steps back to provide a big open world game that feels empty. Then took out the leveling system or any sort of character progression at all besides a few challenge unlocks and called it a day.
From Skill Up's review, the world exploration and character progression are supposed to be more "organic". You overhear some people talking, you go to a location they mentioned, you find treasure. How well they execute that, I dunno. When your game isn't very interesting to play, seems risky to make exploration depend on people actually paying attention.
 

Casual Shinji

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I’m a big weirdo when it comes to games - I think I’m one of a baker’s dozen of people who are excited for DragonAge Veilguard - so I still want to play this.
I'm honestly more excited for Dragon Age Veilguard now than I was before I played Baldur's Gate 3, just because I'm oh-so curious to see how it thinks it can measure up.
 

PsychedelicDiamond

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There was a short streak in the mid 10's when Ubisoft made a couple of surprisingly good games (By which I mean Watch Dogs 2, Far Cry 5 and arguably AC Origins and Odyssey, although I did burn out on Odyssey way before completing it) and every year I have less of a clue how that ever happened. Like, those were very much formulaic Ubisoft Maspro games, but they had personality and fun core gameplay and spots of compelling writing.

But then they just fell back into sub mediocrity. Like, Far Cry 5 and Far Cry 6 have the same basic gameplay and yet there's world of difference in actual execution.
 

Dirty Hipsters

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There was a short streak in the mid 10's when Ubisoft made a couple of surprisingly good games (By which I mean Watch Dogs 2, Far Cry 5 and arguably AC Origins and Odyssey, although I did burn out on Odyssey way before completing it) and every year I have less of a clue how that ever happened. Like, those were very much formulaic Ubisoft Maspro games, but they had personality and fun core gameplay and spots of compelling writing.

But then they just fell back into sub mediocrity. Like, Far Cry 5 and Far Cry 6 have the same basic gameplay and yet there's world of difference in actual execution.
I think this might be the first time I've heard someone speak positively about Far Cry 5. The only Fry Cry games that ever get praise are 3, 4, and Primal.
 

PsychedelicDiamond

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I think this might be the first time I've heard someone speak positively about Far Cry 5. The only Fry Cry games that ever get praise are 3, 4, and Primal.
Whitelight praises FC5 to hell and back when it launched.

Yeah, I actually think word of mouth around FC5 is mostly fairly positive. If anything I feel like it's 4 that most people are kind of dismissive of and 6 that a lot of people actively dislike.

5 is far and away my favourite of the Ubisoft Far Cry games. It still has the somewhat forced fatalist morals that this series really clings to , but it has the most memorable setpieces, moments of actual poignancy and my favorite setting.
 
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Dreiko

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I’m a big weirdo when it comes to games - I think I’m one of a baker’s dozen of people who are excited for DragonAge Veilguard - so I still want to play this.
I love dragon age, blemishes and all, so I'm always gonna give it the benefit of the doubt. Here's hoping it's as good as origins was.

As for this starwars game, I dunno, it feels weird to play as a shooty sneaky type in a setting that can have jedis, those fallen order games were so much more compelling. I don't get who would look at those and go "make a game in this world, but without all the cool space magic and energy swords".
 
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No love for Far Cry 2 lol.




Although it reminds me that I’m still half interested in trying out FC5, if for nothing else than the western wilderness setting and insanity of the hijinks that take place therein. More-so the latter though since RDR2 set the bar so high on the former.
 
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Ezekiel

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As I watched the beginning of this video, I wondered why the modern stealth-action game doesn't simply let the player shove people. So many enemies could be dispatched by throwing the protagonist at them. Would largely solve the problem of a little woman against stronger men. Don't know if the last screenshot has her above a drop, but included it anyway.


 
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BrawlMan

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I gave it an honest try back in the day but it had too many pointlessly frustrating mechanics for me. I can't speak for its actual virtues, I just didn't have fun.
Same.

If anything I feel like it's 4 that most people are kind of dismissive of and 6 that a lot of people actively dislike.
FC4 people enjoy, but to many, it just felt like more the same or a mission pack sequel. Ironic, because FC5 & 6 aren't so different in that regard.