New Star Wars Outlaws patch overhauls forced stealth missions

Along with the launch of Star Wars Outlaws‘ latest premium expansion, Wild Card, Ubisoft Massive has released a patch which substantially alters the game’s previously mandatory stealth sections. This change will remove nearly all forced stealth areas, including story missions and guarded Syndicate territories, in response to negative response to those mechanics in reviews and player feedback.

In a blog post on Ubisoft’s website, the game’s new Creative Director, Drew Rechner, explains why Star Wars Outlaws is losing its forced stealth sections. “Player choice has always been a core focus of Star Wars Outlaws, but after listening to your feedback, we’ve realized there’s more we can do to give you even greater freedom,” he stated. “Restrictions like ‘Do not raise the alarm’ or ‘Do not get caught’ in quests were forcing players into stealthy playstyles, limiting the ability to choose whether to use combat or not. As a result, some quests could feel frustrating or unfair. We also found that detection mechanics could be unpredictable and inconsistent as well.”

Consequently, nearly all quest objectives in Star Wars Outlaws will now make the stealthy approach simply an option. Scoundrel protagonist Kay Vess will now be able to take on objectives blasters blazing if the player prefers. In missions where players would ordinarily be booted back to the last checkpoint upon being discovered by guards, Kay can then try and shoot her way out of the situation rather than let herself get arrested. In addition to the story missions which enforced stealth, hostile Syndicate territory (which you must sneak through unseen if you are not on good terms with that faction) will now allow Kay to infiltrate in a more…overt manner rather than requiring her to remain out of sight.

This is not the first patch that Star Wars Outlaws has received which moderates the game’s difficulty. The first major post-launch patch the game received was focused around making the early stealth-focused missions less challenging. Considering the extent to which critics (including myself) highlighted how unpredictable, slow-paced and frustrating those forced stealth sections were, making those sections line up more with most of the game’s other missions (in which stealth is a useful tool, but not the only one at the player’s disposal) is a change for the better which should make Star Wars Outlaws more approachable and enjoyable.