Star Wars Outlaws...

[txa1265]

The games I’ll pay $70 are few and far between. So far 1, Starfield and I’m glad I played it for the exposure and experience, yet disappointed in it. The stellar games I repeat play, and I have no urge to return to it. That’s all I’ll say here, As I said plenty in the Starfield thread. 😉

Same ... I did pay $70 for Avowed in February because I like to support Obsidian, but Starfield I bought along with Redfall and something else for a total of ~$60. At this point it is incredibly rare I will pay full price for a game - I think BG3 in 2023 was the last time I did.

I will never pay $70 for a game. There are so many good titles on the market for a fraction such as the recently released Clair Obscur: Expedition 33. Produced by a small team of passionate developers that is completely embarrassing AAA priced at just $50.

Clair Obscur is a great example ... and I only paid $40 (there was a 20% off sale this week). But even though I am not a huge fan of the 'JRPG meets Souls-like' combat, the narrative design, graphics, world building and voice acting are all astoundingly good (love hearing Jennifer English aka Shadowheart again).

Similar is Blue Prince which is another highly regarded indie game that I would more quickly pay $30 at full price than something like Dragon Age Veilguard currently on sale for $30 (50% off).

 

[Queen6]

Same ... I did pay $70 for Avowed in February because I like to support Obsidian, but Starfield I bought along with Redfall and something else for a total of ~$60. At this point it is incredibly rare I will pay full price for a game - I think BG3 in 2023 was the last time I did.


Clair Obscur is a great example ... and I only paid $40 (there was a 20% off sale this week). But even though I am not a huge fan of the 'JRPG meets Souls-like' combat, the narrative design, graphics, world building and voice acting are all astoundingly good (love hearing Jennifer English aka Shadowheart again).

Similar is Blue Prince which is another highly regarded indie game that I would more quickly pay $30 at full price than something like Dragon Age Veilguard currently on sale for $30 (50% off).

The only way is to boycott studios & publishers who have predatory & anti-consumer practises and produce subpar games. Thankfully there are still some fair studios in the AAA space and they will prosper over the garbage...

Games at full price need to be complete on release, not broken, no microtransactions, loot boxes etc. DLC's should be substancial or free nor mandatory to complete the main game. The likes of Witcher 3 & BG3 are so very popular for good reason... Those that produce good content should be rewarded.

Wouldn't play Dragon Age: Veilguard if I was paid to. Absolute travesty, Dragon Age was a franchise you could print money with. Today we will be lucky to ever seen another due to sheer incompetence and devs making games for themselves not the players.

Pays to have a critical eye on films, games & general programming Support what's good and disregard the rubbish or you will only get more garbage. Can only suggest that the decision makers are incompetent due to falling up. How Sony ever thought for one second Concorde would be a smash hit and the circus called Disney expected Snow White 2025 to be a massive hit. I remember Ubisoft was bragging how Star Wars Outlaws was going to blow up and be the next "big thing" in gaming.

Clearly on the money... Far too many in the entertainment industry need to have a reality check... Same apllies to access media, which should be dismantled in the gaming space is just a cabal between them studios & publishers. Just paid for reviews giving glowing reviews to mediocre content by journalist's who likely cant or dont even compete the games or are blatantly lying.

Q-6

 

[diamond.g]

It didn't help that the game wasn't on the Steam store for the first 6 months of it's release. I guess Epic paid Ubisoft for exclusivity.

Ubisoft+ also skews the numbers some.

 

[Howard2k]

The only way is to boycott studios & publishers who have predatory & anti-consumer practises and produce subpar games. Thankfully there are still some fair studios in the AAA space and they will prosper over the garbage...

Games at full price need to be complete on release, not broken, no microtransactions, loot boxes etc. DLC's should be substancial or free nor mandatory to complete the main game. The likes of Witcher 3 & BG3 are so very popular for good reason... Those that produce good content should be rewarded.

Wouldn't play Dragon Age: Veilguard if I was paid to. Absolute travesty, Dragon Age was a franchise you could print money with. Today we will be lucky to ever seen another due to sheer incompetence and devs making games for themselves not the players.

Pays to have a critical eye on films, games & general programming Support what's good and disregard the rubbish or you will only get more garbage. Can only suggest that the decision makers are incompetent due to falling up. How Sony ever thought for one second Concorde would be a smash hit and the circus called Disney expected Snow White 2025 to be a massive hit. I remember Ubisoft was bragging how Star Wars Outlaws was going to blow up and be the next "big thing" in gaming.
View attachment 2508533
Clearly on the money... Far too many in the entertainment industry need to have a reality check... Same apllies to access media, which should be dismantled in the gaming space is just a cabal between them studios & publishers. Just paid for reviews giving glowing to mediocre content by journalist's who likely cant or dont even compete the games or are blatantly lying.

Q-6

The Steam release was much later than the Ubisoft direct release, but tragic numbers all the same.

And I agree. I don't pay full price for games, generally. Outlaws I did, as a rare exception (lol) but Shadows I waited for discounts. You get a patched game and pay less for it. It's literally win/win.

Also agree about Dragon Age. I loved the first games but was incredibly disappointed with this one. I actually didn't play it but do have a free copy via PS+. I'm just not interested in the "politics".

 

[Huntn]

The game is back on sale $35,ma patch game out, and I found someone who told me the problem I was having with the grapple hook in the demo is that I was not high enough. And, there is a climbable wall nearby that gets you high enough, and the grapple icon turns into a big "E" to deploy your grapple. So I was happy about that. Running around Tatooine is great, however, I read this review:

Star Wars Outlaws hits the walls of open-world games

A final word after finishing the new Star Wars game

www.polygon.com

I might wait for it to drop some more. 🤔
The critique is that the jobs get repetitive, with the same tools, and one example, you sneak into Jabba's palace and your reward is a paint job for your speeder or something along those lines. Hmmm.

 

[Howard2k]

The critique is that the jobs get repetitive, with the same tools, and one example, you sneak into Jabba's palace and your reward is a paint job for your speeder or something along those lines. Hmmm.

Yes, I'd critique Shadows a similar way. I loved both games, but both games I felt like the economy lacked depth. Either you waste your money on silly cosmetics, or... I just didn't feel like they got the economic balance right on either game. The entire economy, meaning valuation of commodities too.

Again, I really enjoyed both games, but it felt in both games that if you did the side quests the economics were overly favourable to the point where currency was somewhat irrelevant.

But to be fair, perhaps that was intentional and they didn't intend that people did so many side quests without buying cosmetics. I just found I ended up with a mountain of resources in both games.

 

[Huntn]

Yes, I'd critique Shadows a similar way. I loved both games, but both games I felt like the economy lacked depth. Either you waste your money on silly cosmetics, or... I just didn't feel like they got the economic balance right on either game. The entire economy, meaning valuation of commodities too.

Again, I really enjoyed both games, but it felt in both games that if you did the side quests the economics were overly favourable to the point where currency was somewhat irrelevant.

But to be fair, perhaps that was intentional and they didn't intend that people did so many side quests without buying cosmetics. I just found I ended up with a mountain of resources in both games.

The thing is I’ve spent close to 1000 hrs (multiple playthoughs and content mods) in Fallout 4 crawling though building after building, shooting adversaries that pop out predictably and being content doing that, so I should not be harsh with SWO, but would prefer something more than a cosmetic item, if that is a regular kind of reward. 🤔

Yeah, another example, Cyberpunk 2077, overly generous with the income flow, you can sell guns you collect on the street for $700+ each, I usually end up with $1m+, and fastest car in the game is free, along with a convertible 911, and Jackie’s bike, although here, I usually do buy a desert roadster, and the fastest bike. …and I don’t mind. 😁

 

[Huntn]

The thing is I’ve spent close to 1000 hrs (multiple playthoughs and content mods) in Fallout 4 crawling though building after building, shooting adversaries that pop out predictably and being content doing that, so I should not be harsh with SWO, but would prefer something more than a cosmetic item, if that is a regular kind of reward. 🤔

Yeah, another example, Cyberpunk 2077, overly generous with the income flow, you can sell guns you collect on the street for $700+ each, I usually end up with $1m+, and fastest car in the game is free, along with a convertible 911, and Jackie’s bike, although here, I usually do buy a desert roadster, and the fastest bike. …and I don’t mind. 😁

OK, you guys are gonna laugh, but I talked myself into getting Star Wars Outlaws because basically I’m in love with Star Wars. ☺️ … And so far I’m enjoying it. I might observe some of the elements are on the simplistic side like the manner of stealing a ship. And combat is on the easy side, I’m OK with that too because I’m enjoying the environment and mechanics of using my pet Nix to steal for me and distract people for me. And so far I’m in it more for the experience, story and environment, than for the challenge. But as I get acclimated, I might bump up the difficulty.
Now does the game have what it takes to hold my long-term interest? Honestly,that remains to be seen but so far so good.

Of note, $35 on sale is an acceptable price. $70-$120 (various versions) would be a solid no based on what I’ve seen, love it or not. 🤔 My impression is that the most expensive version includes two future DLCs, but to me that’s a huge gamble if you end up hating the game.

 

[Huntn]

I’m gonna use this opportunity to once again fawn about the brilliance of Cyberpunk 2077. The level of writing and staging in that game is phenomenal.

Now my goal is not to bad mouth, Star Wars Outlaws, but to highlight a difference. In SWO it’s “hey we want you to go do this job, you’ll make a lot of money” my answer “sounds good, let’s do it”. Proceed to job site to sneak in and get to the destination (sneaking, fighting required), grab the loot.

In contrast CP2077, “ there’s a guy who wants to talk to you about a job. You need to go meet him.” Arrive at limo get in the backseat and there’s a man. For a game, a fairly long discussion, about the heist, some of that while you’re driving around town. Then there’s the prep, talked to the people involved, get checked out on some gear, survey the target area, and acquire some different gear which involves some fighting. And then onto the job proper. This might sound like it drags, but let me assure you it does not. It’s all incredibly interesting and immersive.

And this is a future for video game storytelling and hopefully it becomes more of the norm, especially with the insertion of AI in Gaming. And I’m talking about the type of AI that facilitates how you communicate with other characters (npcs). 🤔

 

[Howard2k]

I’m gonna use this opportunity to once again fawn about the brilliance of Cyberpunk 2077. The level of writing and staging in that game is phenomenal.

Now my goal is not to bad mouth, Star Wars Outlaws, but to highlight a difference. In SWO it’s “hey we want you to go do this job, you’ll make a lot of money” my answer “sounds good, let’s do it”. Proceed to job site to sneak in and get to the destination (sneaking, fighting required), grab the loot.

In contrast CP2077, “ there’s a guy who wants to talk to you about a job. You need to go meet him.” Arrive at limo get in the backseat and there’s a man. For a game, a fairly long discussion, about the heist, some of that while you’re driving around town. Then there’s the prep, talked to the people involved, get checked out on some gear, survey the target area, and acquire some different gear which involves some fighting. And then onto the job proper. This might sound like it drags, but let me assure you it does not. It’s all incredibly interesting and immersive.

And this is a future for video game storytelling and hopefully it becomes more of the norm, especially with the insertion of AI in Gaming. And I’m talking about the type of AI that facilitates how you communicate with other characters. 🤔

CP2077 turned out to be such a masterpiece. All the more amazing given the shocking state that it was in at launch. Easily one of my all time favourites.

 

[Huntn]

The grapple hook issue I was dealing with in the demo has gone away, I have the full game and am enjoying myself with caveats, better said, somethings that could be better.

• Spoiler: The story besides establishing your character has you sneaking into a palace to rob it, turned out to be something else, you briefly meet up with the rebellion and steal a ship, crash land, and are now working to repair it and working with factions on the planet where you ended up.
• A wonderful StarWars ecosystem, and beautiful open world environment. @wonderings, this maybe bland as compared to Jedi Survivor, recently played Jedi Fallen Order and I hated all the platforming that game has in it. This game not so much, but I did travel to a wind station to steal some tech and it was rather harrowing, although the death penalty in this game, is my kind of death penalty, just try again! I'll have to look a Jedi Survivor after the price drops off.
• Stealth is a prime aspect of the game, but it's not difficult, actually to a point where is not really realistic, but for some reason I'm not bothered, I can sneak around and get'r done! Some of the scenarios are overly simplistic, like stealing a ship, but the story moves along, as if stealing the ship is just a quick device to get you where you need to be. The combat is rather easy, you can't take a lot of shots, but you can deal out much worse than you seem to typically get especially 1v1. If a group are shooting at you, you must be more careful.
• The Save System sucks. Maybe 2-4 saves which are autosaves. No hedging your bets manual saves. You have to go out of your way to make saves, copied and pasted outside the game or your may not end up where you want to be with reputation, and have to repeat a lot of content to fix it. There are multiple factions, I work with them against each other and the key to success is often stealth, getting in and out not being noticed. If you are noticed, your rep with the faction you are working against will go down, and if you are discovered, the best method of fixing it is to stand there and let them kill you. If you are discovered but succeed, your rep is damaged, and I'm not knowlegble about how hard it is to repair. I read there is a computer on your ship that allows you to pick up faction jobs for the purpose of fixing rep, but I've not tried that yet.
• More to come!

 

[txa1265]

A wonderful StarWars ecosystem, and beautiful open world environment. @wonderings, this maybe bland as compared to Jedi Survivor, recently played Jedi Fallen Order and I hated all the platforming that game has in it. This game not so much, but I did travel to a wind station to steal some tech and it was rather harrowing, although the death penalty in this game, is my kind of death penalty, just try again! I'll have to look a Jedi Survivor after the price drops off.

The ecosystem is what will eventually get me ... I have it on price trackers/wishlist and when it gets cheap enough I'll give it a shot. Also agree on Jedi Fallen Order - I've never been a fan of either platforming or 'souls-likes' and since Jedi Fallen Order / Survivor are basically Star Wars slapped on a souls-like platformer where the lightsaber combat is STILL not as good as Jedi Knight 2 / Jedi Academy ... it was somewhat disappointing. (actually to be fair that reads like I should hate the game and since I actually enjoyed it, just not in my top 10 Star Wars games, that is quite an accomplishment)

 

[maflynn]

It seems that the game has found its footing and now has a dedicated fan base
Star Wars Outlaws 2 Petition is Blowing Up

With Ubisoft in not the best financial position, having another franchise that is profitable would go a long way.

 

[Huntn]

The ecosystem is what will eventually get me ... I have it on price trackers/wishlist and when it gets cheap enough I'll give it a shot. Also agree on Jedi Fallen Order - I've never been a fan of either platforming or 'souls-likes' and since Jedi Fallen Order / Survivor are basically Star Wars slapped on a souls-like platformer where the lightsaber combat is STILL not as good as Jedi Knight 2 / Jedi Academy ... it was somewhat disappointing. (actually to be fair that reads like I should hate the game and since I actually enjoyed it, just not in my top 10 Star Wars games, that is quite an accomplishment)

What exactly is ‘souls-like’? Description: Soulslike games are a subgenre of action role-playing games known for their high difficulty.

Does this mean a harsh death penalty? Of note, I hated Elden Ring mostly for lack of a journal. damned if I’m gonna take notes. Some of the info comes at you pretty fast, it’d be nice to go back and review it.I think I could’ve gotten by without map markers if I had a journal.

Starwars Outlaws when you die, you revert back just a few steps. Because of it’s save system with limited save slots, there is a save button, but by the size of the save files, you are constantly overwriting your progress which I hate. The smart thing to do is once, or even twice a day, copy and paste your save file to a separate drive dedicated save folder.

Having at least a good rep with a faction is important because it means you can walk into their territory and it’s not hostile. You don’t have to sneak usually, although there are areas that are “restricted“ which still require sneaking. The thing about restricted areas is if you force your way in they shoot you, but if you sneak in and there’s always a way to sneak in, but then are discovered, and you have a good rep with them, they just throw you out… I think. An excellent rep gets your rewards from that fraction, but that’s really secondary in my opinion.

If you don’t care about reputation, don’t worry about it. But if your goal is to get through a stealth mission (from a rep standpoint most of them are stealth) the easiest thing to do when discovered is simply stand up and let them kill you. Usually you revert back just a few steps and try again. Now if you’re a serious gamer 😉, when discovered, you can just forge your head and take what you get in the end. I’ve discovered that you can zap individuals in the head if they’re alone and not set off the general alarm, but when the general alarm goes out and the “wanted” label appears, if you can find a place to hide and wait a few minutes they’ll give up pretty quickly and we’ll go back to normal status, which is a little mind boggling, but I’ll take it. 🙃

 

[wonderings]

It seems that the game has found its footing and now has a dedicated fan base
Star Wars Outlaws 2 Petition is Blowing Up

With Ubisoft in not the best financial position, having another franchise that is profitable would go a long way.

Since August 1st they have less than 2000 people who have signed the petition. I would hardly call this. "blowing up" as some articles describe it.

The game really is just boring and has offered nothing creative or new in the open world genre. It seems Star Wars games generally go for easy money opposed to actually trying to create something of quality. I renewed my Ubisoft Premium subscription to play Assassins Creed Shadows and during that time I jumped into Outlaws again to see if my not so fond memory of the game would change. It did not. NPC's that cannot be interacted with, some/many completely unlovable and are basically concrete statues. Nothing makes me want to care about the main character. They literally are just trying to make a female Han Solo and she does not have even a fraction of the charisma that Ford had.

The grapple hook issue I was dealing with in the demo has gone away, I have the full game and am enjoying myself with caveats, better said, somethings that could be better.

• A wonderful StarWars ecosystem, and beautiful open world environment. @wonderings, this maybe bland as compared to Jedi Survivor, recently played Jedi Fallen Order and I hated all the platforming that game has in it. This game not so much, but I did travel to a wind station to steal some tech and it was rather harrowing, although the death penalty in this game, is my kind of death penalty, just try again! I'll have to look a Jedi Survivor after the price drops off.
• Stealth is a prime aspect of the game, but it's not difficult, actually to a point where is not really realistic, but for some reason I'm not bothered, I can sneak around and get'r done! Some of the scenarios are overly simplistic, like stealing a ship, but the story moves along, as if stealing the ship is just a quick device to get you where you need to be. The combat is rather easy, you can't take a lot of shots, but you can deal out much worse than you seem to typically get especially 1v1. If a group are shooting at you, you must be more careful.

The stealth in the game is very bleh, especially when you mix it with the one punch knock outs she delivers to troopers wearing HELMETS. I personally struggle with story telling that does not make sense. Jedi Survivor series suffers from that a lot as well, but it is at least fun to button mash for some lightsaber slashing action.

 

[diamond.g]

What exactly is ‘souls-like’? Description: Soulslike games are a subgenre of action role-playing games known for their high difficulty.

Does this mean a harsh death penalty? Of note, I hated Elden Ring mostly for lack of a journal. damned if I’m gonna take notes. Some of the info comes at you pretty fast, it’d be nice to go back and review it.I think I could’ve gotten by without map markers if I had a journal.

Starwars Outlaws when you die, you revert back just a few steps. Because of it’s save system with limited save slots, there is a save button, but by the size of the save files, you are constantly overwriting your progress which I hate. The smart thing to do is once, or even twice a day, copy and paste your save file to a separate drive dedicated save folder.

Having at least a good rep with a faction is important because it means you can walk into their territory and it’s not hostile. You don’t have to sneak usually, although there are areas that are “restricted“ which still require sneaking. The thing about restricted areas is if you force your way in they shoot you, but if you sneak in and there’s always a way to sneak in, but then are discovered, and you have a good rep with them, they just throw you out… I think. An excellent rep gets your rewards from that fraction, but that’s really secondary in my opinion.

If you don’t care about reputation, don’t worry about it. But if your goal is to get through a stealth mission (from a rep standpoint most of them are stealth) the easiest thing to do when discovered is simply stand up and let them kill you. Usually you revert back just a few steps and try again. Now if you’re a serious gamer 😉, when discovered, you can just forge your head and take what you get in the end. I’ve discovered that you can zap individuals in the head if they’re alone and not set off the general alarm, but when the general alarm goes out and the “wanted” label appears, if you can find a place to hide and wait a few minutes they’ll give up pretty quickly and we’ll go back to normal status, which is a little mind boggling, but I’ll take it. 🙃

When some say souls like they mean more of the parry dodge mechanic. Starwars Outlaws doesn't rely heavily on parry dodge like Jedi:FO/Survivor do.

 

[Huntn]

Still hanging in with this game, although not playing it exclusively. I actually enjoy the easy sneaking this game has.