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Star Wars Outlaws director agrees the early instant-fail stealth missions are "incredibly punishing," patch coming in about 10 days

ManaByte

Member

We asked creative director Julian Gerighty about the game's controversial instant-fail stealth missions. "So especially, I mean, you're probably thinking of one of the early missions in Mirogana, which is incredibly punishing," Gerighty tells GamesRadar+. "And for me, that is a mistake, and this is something that we're going to work on improving." He goes on to say "I don't think it means removing the fail state completely, but I do think there are millions of low hanging fruits where we can make it so much more enjoyable and understandable."

Difficulty comes in all forms, and Gerighty wants to create a "sort of tension" in these moments. However, things are currently not tuned how the team intended. Gerighty tells GamesRadar+ that "we just don't want it to feel unfair. And today, I think it feels unfair. And believe it or not, this wasn't our intention. This is more of something that crept in in the last week or so, and that we're correcting already for a patch that's coming out maybe in 10 days."

The team is already working to retool certain early missions and create what they believe is a fairer version for players to enjoy. Director Mathias Karlson says that the devs want players to be "in that knife edge range between, 'okay, I'm completely in stealth, oh shit: They're about to see me. They saw me, but I can still do something about it, as long as I don't raise the alarm. I can create chaos locally to be able to avoid that happening.'" He goes on to say, "However, if that turns out to not connect with its current tuning and with enough people, it's, of course, something we take very, very seriously, and we'll consider."

The team is open to exploring other options for later points in the story too if it's preventing players from enjoying the game. Gerighty mentions "if you tell me today that that's a blocker for people enjoying the game, then we're going to tweak the narrative context, right? We'll have an announcement on the PA saying [does pretend PA voice] 'well, stormtroopers have gone down Toshara and now we have the skeleton crew on site.' The context will change, just so that we can get people to enjoy those moments as much as possible."
 

Hrk69

Gold Member
However, things are currently not tuned how the team intended.
Lies No GIF
 

RoboFu

One of the green rats
Huh they suck but they are not hard. 😵‍💫

The story sucks and characters suck. The sub plots to each mission sucks. The modern Star Wars "make her gay and lame" is oozing from this title.

It will take more than a simple tweak to fix this game.
 

cormack12

Gold Member
Which notorious mission is this?

Is it the first imperial fort? Or the imperial space station? Because I managed both without much issue.

The fort was harder, but once I realised I could basically walk in the front door from the side and the stormtroopers didn't see me, it was simple.

The escape was harder.
 
I do wonder whether Ubi deleted some story content in this. Vess makes way more sense in the game as a lesbian and they left in the bit where she flirts with that female mechanic about there being space on her speeder for two.

I reckon that South Park episode fucked them up (put a chick in it and make her gay) and they had to cut 90% of it.
 

StereoVsn

Member
This game screams “come back in 12-18 months”, when they’ve patched out all the bugs, addressed user complaints and implemented QoL updates, when all the inevitable expansions/dlc are out, and the price has dropped.
Yep, come back in a year and see if it’s worth $20-30 then.
 

Bernardougf

Member
This game screams “come back in 12-18 months”, when they’ve patched out all the bugs, addressed user complaints and implemented QoL updates, when all the inevitable expansions/dlc are out, and the price has dropped.
And mods that changes gollum to a normal woman
 

The Cockatrice

Gold Member
As much as shit the game has, Im actually agains this if they nerf the already dumb AI or make it easier. Modern gamers have the attention span and the patience of a toddler that they can't wait for 10 seconds for a patrol to pass to reach an area thats incredibly easy to reach? Fucking lmao
 
Which notorious mission is this?

Is it the first imperial fort? Or the imperial space station? Because I managed both without much issue.

The fort was harder, but once I realised I could basically walk in the front door from the side and the stormtroopers didn't see me, it was simple.

The escape was harder.
i pretty much agree. sure, a checkpoint or 2 would be fine. but what the game really needs, at the very beginning, is a show & tell nix guide. nix pretty much fixes the game's stealth gameplay, imo...
 

StreetsofBeige

Gold Member
Yes, leading with insta fail stealth missions, especially before you have any of the abilities or equipment that helps stealthing, was bad game design.
Sounds boring as hell, then again I dont like stealth games and actually agree if you fail sleuthing around getting caught it should be an instant fail.

As for fixes, it makes sense some of the quirks I saw should be fixed like the video I saw Vess choking a guard, but still instant fail. Game logic screwed up. It should be the guard alerts others and then make it insta-fail. A guard cant call for help if he's being strangled in isolation.
 
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adamsapple

Or is it just one of Phil's balls in my throat?
Sounds boring as hell, then again I dont like stealth games and actually agree if you fail sleuthing around getting caught it should be an instant fail.

The game is a weird mix.

Some stealth missions are insta fail, some are ok for guns blazing if you get caught and in some you start as insta stealth but after some arbitrary point Key just goes 'ok I can kill shit now'.
 

StreetsofBeige

Gold Member
The game is a weird mix.

Some stealth missions are insta fail, some are ok for guns blazing if you get caught and in some you start as insta stealth but after some arbitrary point Key just goes 'ok I can kill shit now'.
Is there any kind of logic to it?

Like guns a blazing is due to just 20 enemies coming after you (with nothing else to consider)? And insta-fails are due to another factor like if you get caught the plot means a guard presses a button and kills a hostage, so you failed or something like that.

Or is it completely random trial and error what is what?
 

adamsapple

Or is it just one of Phil's balls in my throat?
Is there any kind of logic to it?

Like guns a blazing is due to just 20 enemies coming after you (with nothing else to consider)? And insta-fails are due to another factor like if you get caught the plot means a guard presses a button and kills a hostage, so you failed or something like that.

Or is it completely random trial and error what is what?

No no, sorry maybe I didn't explain properly.

There are some missions and regions where it's an insta-fail if you get caught, you are either transported out of the stronghold if free-roaming, or if its in the middle of a mission, it's like dying and you restart check-point.

There are some scenarios more closer to what we see in games like Deus Ex where stealth is encouraged but if you get caught, it's not a mission fail and you can blaze through the rest of it.

And there has been at least one or two mission that start off like an instant fail on getting spotted, but after you go through a story checkpoint or two, your character just goes 'alright i think i'm safe to fight now', and from that point onward in that mission, you are free to get into open conflict.

The main issue, that even the director agrees with, is that you're given a couple of instant-fail stealth missions at the very start after finishing the prologue and they feel a little too unfair because that early in the game you have none of the equipment that you can get later that makes it easier to stealth around, disguises etc. So it hits extra hard when the game leads with those kind of instant fail missions.

There's also some other QoL things lacking like you can't hide bodies you've knocked out, so they might get spotted by other patrolling guards.
 
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I don't really believe this, but ubi has always tried to put a lot of options in the games so everyone can enjoy it, so now they are going to adjust it since people seem to be struggling with it.
It wasn't that hard for me personally, haven't been caught once, so I don't even know what the fail state looks like, but with such a wide demographic they are trying to reach with this game, they probably didn't expect that a large enough group would approach and experience it in such a way that would warrant adjusting.
 

salva

Member
I'm shelving Outlaws for a few months. I got up to Toshara when it opened up a bit. But after only a few hours everything felt really repetitive and clunky. I wanted this to be an open world i could get lost in, but it's too broken to make me feel immersed. My extremely unpopular opinion is that Starfield gives you that immersible space exploitation feeling 10000000 times better than this, despite it's own flaws.
I'd gladly come back to this, but perhaps i'll wait it out and see what they're able to patch in ~6 months or so.
 

StereoVsn

Member
Yes, leading with insta fail stealth missions, especially before you have any of the abilities or equipment that helps stealthing, was bad game design.
And it should have been obvious to the dev team. And get now they are making surprised pikachu faces. Wouldn’t it make sense to do this right in the first place?
 

ClosBSAS

Member
Just let me go guns blazing in all the stealth segments and I’ll play the game. Y’all are shit at making stealth gameplay, so just don’t make stealth gameplay. Why do so many devs refuse to accept this?
Seriously. The stealth is absolute crap. Makes me hate the game. No lightsabers, no force ina star wars game...so annoying already and on top of that, a badly designed stealth game woth instant fail...hahahhaa
 
Why pay playtesters to flag this when customers will happily pay to figure it out for you instead?

It clear Ubisoft does not do proper playtesting but focus testing instead. They difference in the latter is when players are engaged in that particular feature(s) and they build a game around it instead of observing how the play and adjust until they get the right mechanics to their intended design.
 
Serious question, from reviews and early opinions they said stealth was more of a joke but it seemed easy or barely a mechanic. Is the instant fail a particular mission affecting bug or part of the whole easy stealth mechanic issue? I want to play this but it just seems like it’s typical ubitrash of the last decade :(
 
Instafail missions make sense never.

Narratively the story may call for it, but give me a way to skip it...

Especially when you know your stealth mechanics aren't well-defined .

Sadly, I almost didn't make it to where Toshara opens up due to these intro missions.

Would've been a shame, too, cause it's starting to get good.
 
Have any of the decision makers at this studio ever played a video game before? I can't accept that these are happening in 2024. With all the time and money going into making these games, there is no way these segments didn't pass through multiple phases of storyboarding, playtests, and management approvals. They don't have the right people in management, or everyone involved is asleep at the wheel.
 

The Saint

Member
I was watching a streamer play this game on YouTube and one of her complaints was that it feels like the game is 90 percent stealth, 10 percent combat. Is there any truth to this? She also said it should have been upped to 25 percent combat instead for better balance.
 
Serious question, from reviews and early opinions they said stealth was more of a joke but it seemed easy or barely a mechanic. Is the instant fail a particular mission affecting bug or part of the whole easy stealth mechanic issue? I want to play this but it just seems like it’s typical ubitrash of the last decade :(
The biggest thing I’ve heard from gameplay impressions is that the stealth is too inconsistent. Some guards are blind and dumb. Others have superhuman sight and will spot you at the oddest angles and furthest distances.

It sounds like instead of taking the time to fix the AI, they are simply removing the fail state. A funny side effect could be alerts and random enemies seen during cutscene moments.
 
The biggest thing I’ve heard from gameplay impressions is that the stealth is too inconsistent. Some guards are blind and dumb. Others have superhuman sight and will spot you at the oddest angles and furthest distances.

It sounds like instead of taking the time to fix the AI, they are simply removing the fail state. A funny side effect could be alerts and random enemies seen during cutscene moments.
Thank you for that. I’m not sure if that still encourages me to try it on sale after that lol.
 

The Cockatrice

Gold Member
I was watching a streamer play this game on YouTube and one of her complaints was that it feels like the game is 90 percent stealth, 10 percent combat. Is there any truth to this? She also said it should have been upped to 25 percent combat instead for better balance.

Nah, you can tell the director and most ppl here havent played the game. The insta fail stuff is in the factions bases, they kick you out which is perfectly normal if u get caught and its really not that hard to avoid it. Outside of that, I think there were 2 missions with insta fail in the first hour and thats it. There hasnt been any mandatory stealth missions ever since, even tho its preferred.
 
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Cyberpunkd

Member
Yes, leading with insta fail stealth missions, especially before you have any of the abilities or equipment that helps stealthing, was bad game design.
Not if you advertise the game as a stealth game, which this game very heavily is. However stealth games do not sell, so I understand why they lied lol.
 

RCX

Member
"Big thanks to everyone who bought it at full price for being unintentional beta testers"
 
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