It's not unfair to say that Star Wars Outlaws launched to a fairly lukewarm reception, especially from fans. While it received some pretty positive reviews from critics, the general consensus was that something was missing from Star Wars Outlaws and that what it did feature simply wasn't enough. Many criticized it for feeling a little mediocre - nothing truly awful, but nothing particularly special - and, almost immediately afterward, Ubisoft began to panic.

While talks of Ubisoft going private have been doing the rounds, the hardworking folk at Ubisoft Massive have been putting in the legwork to release massive patches for Star Wars Outlaws. What started out as some minor tweaks to the game's stealth mechanics looks set to become enormous changes for the entire game. Ubisoft Massive has promised to overhaul the stealth and combat in Star Wars Outlaws, as well as implement some much-needed quality-of-life features, which is setting it up to become the next No Man's Sky-style redemption story.

Star Wars Outlaws Updates Are Completely Transforming The Game

It May End Up Feeling Like A Whole Other Experience

There were several key issues with Star Wars Outlaws at launch, the worst offenders being its lackluster stealth and confoundingly bad combat, alongside some minor issues such as the game's coolest feature being completely pointless. Perhaps unsurprisingly, Ubisoft wants its multi-million dollar Star Wars game to sell well, and so it's putting in the effort to turn it around with its pretty impressive Title Updates. The first of these launched just shortly after the game, and tweaked the difficulty of stealth, making it a little easier to avoid getting detected.

Ubisoft wants its multi-million dollar Star Wars game to sell well, and so it's putting in the effort to turn it around with its pretty impressive Title Updates.

However, not long after that, Ubisoft Massive dropped the hefty Title Update 2, which improved performance, Kay's animations, the enemy AI, including its pathing and how it detects the player, and so much more. The aim of the update was to make stealth feel significantly better, ensuring that the awkward encounters in which Kay gets spotted immediately by something off-screen are a thing of the past. Fortunately, this update is only the beginning, as Ubisoft aims to release the Title Update 4 in November, it's biggest and most substantial Star Wars Outlaws update yet.

Title Update 4, which releases on November 21 - shortly after Title Update 3, which is focusing on quality-of-life-improvements - will be addressing issues with combat and stealth, further tweaking how players approach these mechanics. While details about how this update will improve these features are scarce, if Ubisoft plays its cards right, this update could turn the game around. Giving players the option to carry weapons other than their blaster, more options for stealth, and generally not forcing them to rely on Star Wars Outlaws mods to fix the game will help improve the game's standing with fans.

This is not to say that Star Wars Outlaws will become a different game entirely, but, much like No Man's Sky, it could become the game that was promised initially. Naturally, there will still be those who have issues with Star Wars Outlaws' story, and that can't really be changed with a handful of patches. However, for those who enjoyed Kay's journey, or are just happy to exist within the Star Wars universe, then these updates could make Star Wars Outlaws the perfect game.

Star Wars Outlaws May Just Save Ubisoft's Reputation

A Redemption Arc Has Worked For It In The Past

Ubisoft is no stranger to redemption arcs, as, after all, it had one of the biggest when it managed to make Rainbow Six Siege an incredible eSports sensation thanks to the dedication of Ubisoft Montreal and its hard work on updating the game post-launch. That effort helped ensure the game's long-term survival, and helped it become a title that fans frequently return to. Star Wars Outlaws has that same opportunity if Ubisoft Massive manages to successfully pull off these updates and turn it around.

Of course, it's worth stating that no game should go through this, and, in an ideal world, developers would release a complete product with absolutely no flaws. Unfortunately, this is not an ideal world, and Ubisoft is not an ideal developer, as it frequently makes mistakes, mediocre experiences, and bad game design decisions. However, much like with CD Projekt Red with Cyberpunk 2077 and Hello Games with No Man's Sky before that, it's refreshing to see Ubisoft care enough to put in the effort to turn their creative-driven art around and make Star Wars Outlaws what it's supposed to be.

Source: X/Star Wars Outlaws