In a bold and unusual move for publisher Ubisoft, its open-world Star Wars game Star Wars Outlaws now has a new creative director. And his first message to the community this week reveals an expanded approach to Massive Entertainment’s plans to turn the game into a big holiday hit.
The game’s new creative director is 10-year Ubisoft veteran Drew Rechner, according to an update posted on Outlaws’ website. Rechner is replacing former creative director Julian Gerighty. Ubisoft and Massive did not elaborate on why Gerighty was replaced. Ubisoft did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Rechner wrote that he is “very excited” to be stepping into the role and to work “with the incredibly passionate team here at Massive Entertainment along with our talented co-development studios around the world and Lucasfilm Games.”
Since its launch in August, Ubisoft has expressed disappointment with the state of Star Wars Outlaws. By the publisher’s own admission, the game did not sell as well as it hoped despite the brand recognition. It’s also been used as a touchstone of what the game company wants to avoid with future releases. The buggy state that Outlaws launched in is also why Assassin’s Creed Shadows was delayed into next year.
It’s unusual for a game’s lead to change after its launch. Typically, lead developers stay on board to see production to completion. With Outlaws getting two expansion packs between now and early 2025, and the publisher’s promise to improve key aspects of the game, it's especially strange to see Gerighty move on from the project.
With the announcement of his new role, however, Rechner gave players a better idea of what improvements are coming when patch four lands on November 21.
“The first key area of improvement to the game is combat where we see a real opportunity to add more depth and excitement to the experience, further rewarding your tactics and precision,” Rechner wrote.
“Our second key area is stealth which is not only about improving the readability and consistency of enemy detection, but also providing choice in how you want to approach each encounter,” Rechner said.
Both of these aspects sound like promising ways to make the game deeper than it currently is. Combat, while passably fun, often discourages variety. For example, protagonist Kay Vess automatically drops weapons she can pick up when climbing ladders. Players end up using the default blaster for the majority of encounters, which makes things feel more repetitive. It’s especially tragic since using weapons like the Stormtrooper standard issue felt so good.
Giving players more ways to approach stealth missions is also welcome, though it’s likely a heavier lift for developer Massive. Adding alternate objectives and methods to complete missions seems like a big change for a game jam-packed with stealthy side missions, objectives, and main quests. It will be interesting to see how the team elaborates on these sneaky sections in such a short amount of time.
The last change will be how Kay responds to players' input. Rechner says the team is focused on improving the reliability of cover, increasing the responsiveness of climbing and crouching, and generally improving the consistency of the controls overall.
I haven’t had too many issues with the game’s platforming sections or cover system. These sections often feel like a simpler version of the excellent 2013 stealth game Splinter Cell: Blacklist. But if the developer wants to improve aspects of the game it sees as lacking, then it's a welcome change. CD Project Red famously added alternative movement controls shortly after the launch of The Witcher 3.
Star Wars Outlaws is one of the year’s most divisive games. While its sense of place is unmatched by any other Star Wars video game available today, its fairly simple open-world gameplay loop and mechanics left some players wanting more. The extensive post-launch support for Star Wars Outlaws may seem like an oddity, but this is par the course for developer Massive Entertainment. Their last game, the surprisingly solid Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora, also received big game-changing improvements months after release that made an already good game even better.
