The lukewarm reception of Star Wars Outlaws was the straw that broke the camel's back in Ubisoft's worst year ever.

The game has you play Kay Vess as she navigates the innards of the galactic underworld after leaving Cantonica.

Ubisoft expected the release of Outlaws to finally break its bad streak, in a year that saw the Concord saga, the postponement of Assassin's Creed Shadows, and a possible takeover.

When sales did not match expectations, the company did an emergency reshuffle, moving Julian Gerighty to The Division 3 and installing Drew Rechner instead.

Rechner made a name for himself in Tom Clancy's The Division franchise and started his tenure as creative director in Star Wars Outlaws by releasing the franchise's very first dev update.

Titled "Pushing Into Hyperdrive," the post discusses the road from launch to today and what players can expect from the 1.4 update scheduled for November 21.

According to Rechner, the team's priority is to improve the game's combat mechanics. The director hopes to reward the player for using "tactics and precision" when going guns blazing, addressing complaints that the combat in Outlaws is too bland.

Stealth is the second item on the update's list. Players almost unanimously rejected the Star Wars Outlaws execution of stealth segments as it was both too punishing and not particularly rewarding if you got it right.

The previous three title updates have addressed those problems to some extent. Still, Rechner wants to improve the "readability and consistency of enemy detection," while giving the player more autonomy over how you approach stealth missions.

Last but certainly not least is the character movement. The new creative director said the game should get more responsive controls for climbing and crouching, improved cover logic, and more consistent outputs overall.

Rechner and Ubisoft hope that the changes in update 1.4, which is out on November 21, will make the game a more fun and rewarding experience across the board.

The date also marks the planned release of the first story pack in the series,Star Wars Outlaws: Wild Card.

Ubisoft plans to release similar development logs going forward, which hopefully will increase players' confidence in the game's direction as it tries to overcome the 2024 disaster.

Posted: Nov 08, 2024 10:22 pm
Related Forum: Gaming Discussion

Source: https://www.dualshockers.com/star-wars-outlaws-new-director-november-patch/