Re: the weapons, those pickups are temporary, there are a lot of different ones that vary by faction and they all are fairly strong. Some outfits and abilities are geared toward improving your effectiveness in using those, to support an open combat playstyle, but you're not building up an arsenal like in the Dark Forces/Jedi Knight games. It's modeled after Han Solo in the films where you'll gladly exploit an opportunity to grab an enemy's rifle, yet the trusty blaster pistol is what you're relying on most of the time. It's upgradable and customizable, with three different primary fire modes you can swap between at will (there's also the stun shot, but that's on a fairly long cooldown as a stealth tool), and each of those have at least a couple of subsets you can spec into. I.e. instead of the standard single-fire plasma, you can make it an automatic that shoots faster but does a bit less damage with each hit. If you're fighting droids or someone with an energy shield, you wanna switch to ion projectiles, etc.

Grenades are pretty fun, too, though, and I just today started unlocking a whole bunch of stuff that improves their effectiveness. So I'll definitely be trying out a bombardier playstyle soon.

The Half Elf wrote on Aug 30, 2024, 13:06:
...
If anyone has any questions about the game I'll try to address them honestly.

Half Elf, a few questions for you. I saw some complaints in video reviews that weapon variety is a bit lacking. Kay drops her pickup weapons when doing 'things' such as climbing ladders, crawling or opening doors. How's the weapon variety?

Also, how is the performance/framerate on your hardware?

Thanks.

Frijoles wrote on Aug 30, 2024, 17:09:
How bad is the "restart at checkpoint if you failed a mission"? I hate that shit, and I hear it's pretty bad in Outlaws.

In the beginning, manual saves are locked until you get past the first major mission. After that, you unlock the ability to manually save. The only time you can’t manual save is when you’re in an enemy area, which is another console-related practice I really dislike.

Jonny wrote on Aug 30, 2024, 17:01:
I'm kinda enjoying it so far, it really nails the Star Wars aesthetic and the locations are a joy to wander around, but damn is Kay Vess the most wooden and characterless main character. Her animations are wooden and lack any flow, especially melee combat and swinging from the grapple. She has no personality, no charisma, has no actual motivation beyond "vague big score" and is pretty unlikeable, almost like they were going for a blank slate-ish like V in Cyberpunk for you to create your own character and then... didn't. She also can't be customised to the extent someone like V or Arthur Morgan can, which is an issue when her hair is a monstrosity from the 80s and you're looking at it for hours.

The other game mechanisms are also kinda flat, enemy AI is non existent, combat a little dull, the minigames are tedious and there's even one for eating street food. It's almost like they built a fantastic world that oozes Star Wars and then didn't really know what to do with it, didn't have a particular story to tell, didn't have a great character in mind and stopped at the bare framework of game mechanics.

Completely agree. Worst thing? Where's the story? I'm 4,5hours in now and there's no story 😂 It feels like I'm still in the tutorial and the game is guiding me to all the early unlockable abilities. Where's this big haul where shit actually hits the fan and you're being pulled into some larger than life plot to save the fucking galaxy or something? Like you eavesdropped some Darth Maul like bastard and got the intel that the Rebel army needs or something?

I need a story. I need something big. Fuck the scoundrel life. Anyone a scoundrel can be! But a hero, I must be!

1badmf wrote on Aug 30, 2024, 18:33:

The Half Elf wrote on Aug 30, 2024, 17:26:

Frijoles wrote on Aug 30, 2024, 17:09:
How bad is the "restart at checkpoint if you failed a mission"? I hate that shit, and I hear it's pretty bad in Outlaws.

So it's not quite like that. So lets take a faction like Jabba. As you get decent rep with them you can enter their areas on other planets. If ya go in sneaking into a place ya don't "fail" but if ya get caught ya get thrown out and have to try again. Even in a super friendly faction you can take rep hits for doing stupid shit like stealing in front of other faction members or starting fights. What ya do and the severity affect your rep.

so what happens when/if you die? or can you not? defo sounds like ima wait till after xmas to play this one.

If you die, you reload the last checkpoint. Same for if you get caught in certain stealth missions where it makes it clear you cannot get caught -- which is kinda rare but is mandated early on by the story, so everyone gets exposure to it (seemed some reviews were down on the stealth because of this, especially if they hadn't quite grasped the many tricks you're given to succeed at it). Other stealth missions only require you avoid raising the alarm, meaning detection is not an instant fail, you just have to prevent them from alerting the whole area/calling for reinforcements. As with any game with a checkpoint save system, some people will invariably complain about having to re-do portions of a mission after reloading a checkpoint. You can save manually when you're not engaged in a mission.

The Half Elf wrote on Aug 30, 2024, 17:26:

Frijoles wrote on Aug 30, 2024, 17:09:
How bad is the "restart at checkpoint if you failed a mission"? I hate that shit, and I hear it's pretty bad in Outlaws.

So it's not quite like that. So lets take a faction like Jabba. As you get decent rep with them you can enter their areas on other planets. If ya go in sneaking into a place ya don't "fail" but if ya get caught ya get thrown out and have to try again. Even in a super friendly faction you can take rep hits for doing stupid shit like stealing in front of other faction members or starting fights. What ya do and the severity affect your rep.

so what happens when/if you die? or can you not? defo sounds like ima wait till after xmas to play this one.

This game looks like it has some potential but needs a lot of work. I can't get over the feeling that it sort of looks like Assassins' Creed or Far Cry, but Star Wars.

I would have been happier if they just reskinned Ghost Recon Wildlands and put in the four Republic Commando guys.

Frijoles wrote on Aug 30, 2024, 17:09:
How bad is the "restart at checkpoint if you failed a mission"? I hate that shit, and I hear it's pretty bad in Outlaws.

So it's not quite like that. So lets take a faction like Jabba. As you get decent rep with them you can enter their areas on other planets. If ya go in sneaking into a place ya don't "fail" but if ya get caught ya get thrown out and have to try again. Even in a super friendly faction you can take rep hits for doing stupid shit like stealing in front of other faction members or starting fights. What ya do and the severity affect your rep.

How bad is the "restart at checkpoint if you failed a mission"? I hate that shit, and I hear it's pretty bad in Outlaws.

I'm kinda enjoying it so far, it really nails the Star Wars aesthetic and the locations are a joy to wander around, but damn is Kay Vess the most wooden and characterless main character. Her animations are wooden and lack any flow, especially melee combat and swinging from the grapple. She has no personality, no charisma, has no actual motivation beyond "vague big score" and is pretty unlikeable, almost like they were going for a blank slate-ish like V in Cyberpunk for you to create your own character and then... didn't. She also can't be customised to the extent someone like V or Arthur Morgan can, which is an issue when her hair is a monstrosity from the 80s and you're looking at it for hours.

The other game mechanisms are also kinda flat, enemy AI is non existent, combat a little dull, the minigames are tedious and there's even one for eating street food. It's almost like they built a fantastic world that oozes Star Wars and then didn't really know what to do with it, didn't have a particular story to tell, didn't have a great character in mind and stopped at the bare framework of game mechanics.

jdreyer wrote on Aug 30, 2024, 16:33:

Cutter wrote on Aug 30, 2024, 15:43:
Why don't they make a Star Wars Bureaucrat game where you play a faceless bureaucrat in a small town on backwater planet in the outer rim? Now that sounds interesting.

Have you watched Andor?

Hah! That's what made me think of it. The banality of evil. What it must be like to be a faceless cog in the Empire or Rebellion - because they both need their faceless cogs.

Cutter wrote on Aug 30, 2024, 15:43:
Why don't they make a Star Wars Bureaucrat game where you play a faceless bureaucrat in a small town on backwater planet in the outer rim? Now that sounds interesting.

Where "Order 66" means a boring meal combo from some mom-and-pop restaurant.

Cutter wrote on Aug 30, 2024, 15:43:
Why don't they make a Star Wars Bureaucrat game where you play a faceless bureaucrat in a small town on backwater planet in the outer rim? Now that sounds interesting.

Have you watched Andor?

yonder wrote on Aug 30, 2024, 13:37:

RogueSix wrote on Aug 30, 2024, 12:41:

The Flying Penguin wrote on Aug 30, 2024, 11:48:
A lot of ill will generated when early access players lost all their progression when the game was released.

Penny Arcade: Neogenesis
https://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2024/08/30/interior-dialogue

Honestly, does anyone who preorders a UbiSoft game even deserve any sympathy over this? Don't think so...

#schadenfreude

No one who gives Ubisoft any money ever deserves any sympathy.

That might be a bit extreme maybe . I have had quite good fun with many Ubi titles over the years. Yes, even Far Cry 5/New Dawn and Far Cry 6. And Immortals Fenyx Rising was pretty cool, too. I also liked Ghost Recon Wildlands and Breakpoint as well as The Division 2/WoNY.

However, I played almost all of those games after many patches and -if applicable- after there was a complete ('ultimate') edition. The exception was GR Breakpoint. I was stupid enough to play that one near release and it was a proper piece of shit.
When I returned to Breakpoint a year later or so, it was literally like a night & day difference and they actually managed to build a really fun game from the ruins of the release version.

Ever since Breakpoint (it's in the name! ), I have never even thought about touching another Ubi game near release and I will do the same with SWO. The game will be in a much better shape a few months down the line. As an added bonus, it will be available on Steam with Steam achievements (yes, Ubi is doing those now... Avatar, Skull & Bones, even Anno 1800 and The Division 2 have them now) and -most importantly- it will include the already announced two story expansions. Playing the release version is once again playing the most inferior version possible.

I agree with what Half Elf is saying, been having a lot of fun with the game. But I will say that I am very annoyed with Massive of all companies to put in a melee system that is so atrociously bad.

They could have given her some other way to take down enemies, but that bitch slapping knock out is so bad. SMH!!

Other then that everything else ha been good.

Why don't they make a Star Wars Bureaucrat game where you play a faceless bureaucrat in a small town on backwater planet in the outer rim? Now that sounds interesting.

Gotta admit, that spaceship design is pretty lame.

The Flying Penguin wrote on Aug 30, 2024, 11:48:
A lot of ill will generated when early access players lost all their progression when the game was released.

Penny Arcade: Neogenesis
https://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2024/08/30/interior-dialogue

Ha-Ha!

RogueSix wrote on Aug 30, 2024, 12:41:

The Flying Penguin wrote on Aug 30, 2024, 11:48:
A lot of ill will generated when early access players lost all their progression when the game was released.

Penny Arcade: Neogenesis
https://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2024/08/30/interior-dialogue

Honestly, does anyone who preorders a UbiSoft game even deserve any sympathy over this? Don't think so...

#schadenfreude

Fuck it. I agree with this statement.