Upcoming Star Wars Outlaws patch will fix major 'mistake,' says developer

Three weeks following its release, Star Wars Outlaws will release a patch that will fix what creative director Julian Gerighty is calling a "mistake."

The player must complete various stealth missions throughout the game to achieve objectives and advance the story. Many players have found that, especially early on in the game when they're still learning how to play, it's too easy to get caught, making the missions extremely difficult to complete.

There's difficulty, and then there's unfairness. Gerighty thinks these "instant stealth fail" mechanics are the latter. He told GamesRadar+: "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."

In these stealth missions, the player has to get through an area without being seen while in stealth mode. Sometimes, this involves moving slowly around obstacles, and other times, it requires subduing potential enemies before you're spotted. As the game stands, as soon as you're seen, there's nothing you can do to stop things escalating from there. As soon as the alarm sounds, it's over.

According to Director Mathias Karlson, the patch is meant to add a mechanic between being seen and the sound of that alarm that might give players a chance to fix things before they escalate too intensely and make mission completion nearly impractical.

Both directors seem dedicated to listening to and responding to player feedback. If something isn't working and people aren't having fun with the gameplay, they want to do what they can to remedy that.

"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?" Gerighty said. "The context will change, just so that we can get people to enjoy those moments as much as possible."

Star Wars Outlaws follows Kay Vess as she navigates the complex and slippery crime syndicates, completing dangerous jobs in exchange for money and, maybe, her freedom. It's a game meant to challenge and intrigue anyone playing it. But a game should never be so challenging that players don't want to finish it -- and it seems the game's developers are working to make sure that's never the case here.

The patch is expected to release the week of September 15.