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Did GAF pass on Outlaws because it was woke?

Why didn’t you buy Outlaws?


  • Total voters
    406

SlimySnake

Flashless at the Golden Globes
I was going to make a thread about this last night, but here it goes.

Spiderman 2 is the most woke game ever made. Sold 5 million in a week. 11 million in a few months. GOW ragnorak might not be woke woke but definitely more woke than Outlaws.

The problem with outlaws isnt wokeness or the female lead, it's MASSIVE. The studio has proven twice in two years that they are not a very good studio. They dont know how to make fun games. They dont know how to tell good stories. They dont know how to implement the basic Ubisoft formula which even after all these years can be fun. This game is NOT fun. Avatar wasnt fun.

The stealth is bad. The mission rewards are bad. The skill upgrades are inconsequential. I spent hours trying to unlock all the upgrade dudes and all their abilities and yet im on the final mission and still using the same old sneak behind people and taking them out. A game with stealth mechanics should not come with just one stealth takedown mechanic. It's so basic it might as well have been a PS2 game. AC games had better stealth mechanics than this in the PS3 era.

Combat has the same limitations. You get one weapon. One. The rest you have to pick up. Why? Why not let me upgrade those weapons and let me play the way i want to play? Whats the point of the open world if its not a sandbox for me to enjoying some combat?

Their worlds are beautiful. They have the most talented graphics designers and programmers. They are let down by awful creative leads and even worse gameplay designers. They will be shut down. Ubisoft gave them two massive hollywood IPs, 6 year dev cycles, next gen only mandates and they fucking blew it. Twice.

Massive should be a support studio. Have AC teams make games for this studio while this studio works on assets and tech behind the scenes.
 
I have up on ubi a few years ago, didn't even check the trailer nor the internet discourse for the game. Couldn't be bothered at all. Doesn't help that I am not a big starwars fan. I did see some clips of the game while browsing YouTube shorts, and honestly felt reinforced in my decision to ignore all things ubisoft.
 

Retrofluxed

Member
A multitude of reasons for me:

Not on Steam
It's Ubisoft, I'll be able to get the complete edition for $10-$20 in less than a year once it does release on Steam
Sort-of ugly protag.
 

Radical_3d

Member
Let's all be clear though .. the woke part isn't just the ugly female main character. It's everything.. to put it simply ... of course she's gay, all " good " men are feminine, cowardly, and weak, all the " bad " men are masculine, strong , and of course white, most of the main characters are girl bosses who are all the smartest, and/or strongest of all.

Even then it's not a big deal but add to the trash game loop and it's more trash than there needs to be.
Ew. It’s worse than I thought.
Wouldn't it be better if they fixed both
Of course but social activist in every side can be very vocal and would be tragic that Ubi had the money to make one more game (Shadows is lost, I’m speaking of 3 years worth of money) and they’d just fix the woke part only to find out that even the more right winged from its target audience won’t buy again a “crouch behind a guard to knock it down” simulator.
 

HogIsland

Member
I was never very interested in this game. It's not on Steam. I really don't care about the Star Wars brand at all. Something about the dev cycle / previews gave me the impression it was coming in with problems, and I guess the launch turned out ok in end. But by that point I was already totally tuned out.
 

Three

Member
None of the above

I just haven't given it a chance to know if I would enjoy it or not (if it's 'ubicrap' or not) and I don't particularly care if the MC is not a looker. I just have other games to play and wasn’t willing to drop the asking price on a gamble. Maybe when it goes on sale or comes to some sub I'm on then I might give it a look on impulse but for now neither of those listed poll choices have stopped me from playing it, it's more just a general disinterest in the game so far to give it a chance.
 
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StueyDuck

Member
Ew. It’s worse than I thought.

Of course but social activist in every side can be very vocal and would be tragic that Ubi had the money to make one more game (Shadows is lost, I’m speaking of 3 years worth of money) and they’d just fix the woke part only to find out that even the more right winged from its target audience won’t buy again a “crouch behind a guard to knock it down” simulator.
i mean i would like to say yes in the scenario gameplay is king.

but look at two of the biggest sellers of 2024, stellar blade and wu kong, both were pretty average games, not bad games, just nothing special but definitely bumped up the culture wars and look how well they sold.

but look at BG3, a great game, but one could argue pretty woke too. Also extremely successful.

So the answer is that both sides of the criticisms play a role in what essentially is the most important thing to a publisher... sales.
 

King Dazzar

Member
I passed on it for numerous reasons. But if it gets improved technically with the Pro patch. And they also deliver on a lot of the gameplay patches and QoL updates promised. I may give it a try at some point in the future.
 

PaintTinJr

Member
Online requirement was the original reason for me and only becomes a non-barrier if they remove the requirement in a re-release as a PlayStation platinum SKU, or the price goes dirt cheap £5-10.

I don't pay for games I can't own unless they are genuinely a service game. The woke uglification of the main character just removed the last trace of FOMO, and the in-depth Eurogamer review confirmed it was a dodged bullet purchase I could have still fell for later with the big budget and SW ip attached.
 
Yes, it’s partly that and it doesn’t help that it’s also lame in many ways.
But I would also add that even if it was good but woke I wouldn’t have bought it even then because I’m boycotting every game that wants to feed me shitty propaganda and at best I only play a used copy.
 

RickSanchez

Member
Short answer: no

Long answer: copy pasting my comment from another thread -

The funny thing is that Ubisoft's reputation itself will be a roadblock for many normies (myself included) to buy this game.

Ubisoft open world games are famously copy-pasted from the same formula. The Avatar game basically turned out to be Far Cry: Pandora. So people who are used to the Ubi formula are expecting Star Wars Outlaws to be the same way. Which means they'll just wait a few months to get the game on a decent discount.

The reason they are not buying right now has nothing to do with politics or the main character's looks. The reason is simply Ubisoft's track record. Many people who buy this game on a discount later may even end up liking it, but will still think it was never worth full price, which it looks like it isn't.

I am in the same boat. I actually want to play this game, and i will probably enjoy it, but only when i get it for much cheaper.
 

MLSabre

Member
Why would I buy a mediocre, typical open world game from a publisher well known for discounting their games in months? Extra points for their games, and by extention most other publishers, being buggy at launch.
 
Yes, absolutely passed because its woke. Imagine the upcoming Indiana Jones game but instead of using Harrison Ford for the model and to be Indiana, they used Phoebe waller-whatever. No one would have bought it. But MS is not that stupid. Ubi is. Game should have been Han-Solo and it would have sold very well.
 

STARSBarry

Gold Member
I think it's alot of column A and a little of column B.

The thing is I don't think it being woke and it being Ubicrap are unrelated. However it just looked cheap, but was being sold for AAAA prices.

I got bitten by their Avatar game, so I'm not making that mistake again.
 
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Sakura

Member
I don't like Ubisoft games and I'm not a Star Wars fan. Even ignoring that the game looks stupid as hell with a chick just running around slapping stormtroopers.
Whether it was woke or not I still wouldn't have bought it.
 

Majormaxxx

Member
I was super excited but:

- the combat seems super silly - punching stormtroopers with your bare knuckles? Come on - boxers know not to punch the forehead or skull. But she lands knockout blows through helmets? She'd break her hands.
- numerous immersion breaking glitches - are they gonna fix em?
- a protagonist that looks like a labradoodle for no reason other than the "male gaze"? She is fit, has a sense of style but when it comes to her hair, she said "F it".

eZXlHzf.png


For comparison:

Star-Wars-Outlaws-@Nick_Marseil-@GiveMeBanHammer.png
 
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kondorBonk

Member
A) Never really saw it advertised or much hype around it.
B) From what I did hear it was monetizing on locked content at launch.
C) Not coming to Steam.
D) Overall Ubisoft has a poor track record for the style of game I enjoy.
E) The people currently behind the reins of Star Wars don't know how to tell a good story.

Those were my reasons as a big Star Wars fan who wants a game.
 

PeteBull

Member
Voted woke, but its actually combo of it being bugfest, not exciting copy paste game(so usual ubisoft product) and woke, all 3 can be spotted in this game, and even with all this i wanna buy it, just not at lauch, at full price, but with all dlcs with deep discount in a year or two, since im big SW fan(yes despite all the nasty moves disney made/keeps making with the ip, im 80s kid after all, we love Star Wars :p).
 

MonkD

Member
I'm a massive Star Wars nerd, but this shit wasn't appealing at all. Probably could've played it if it let me create my own character. But the protagonist paired with bellow average gameplay wasn't enough for me.
 
I got it free with my new CPU. Playing it, and enjoying it, but I wouldn't have bought it at full price (I rarely buy anything at full price tbf).
All this uglification crap is ridiculous - the character is fine (as in acceptable lol). It looks great for the most part. Is it a great game? Far from it. The AI is very poor, and the stealth takedowns are terrible (not because of the 'a woman couldn't do that' nonsense, I don't give a shit about that, but it's the same process over and over, and when you do the takedown they simply freeze while you do it).

That said, the story is keeping me interested, there's enough stuff to do and I quite like the reputation system. I also like that you improve your skills through actions and collecting/stealing/buying stuff, not counting up levels and experience points - I think more should follow that path. I'm getting more than my money's worth, but that's not hard when it's free. Interestingly I had to choose between this and Shattered Space last night and I chose this, although that's in part because I like to finish something once I start it, unless I'm just going to drop it.
 

tkscz

Member
I never liked Ubisoft's open world games. Even when I hear they are good, I can never get far into them. Got AC: Valhalla when it was on sale and it started off good but then I got bored of it less than half way through. Ubisoft open world games never have a good sense of exploration. It never makes me want to explore things, often I feel like I won't find something that made exploring worth it and just stick to the main quest.

I knew I wouldn't like Outlaws the moment they said it was open world and from what I'm hearing, the game loses it's luster less than halfway through. Even their system of being a good smuggler or a scumbag is meaningless as the main character acts the same way and is treated the same way in missions either way you choose. The world is big but mostly empty and the side quest aren't that exciting.

Also, no Steam release. Not sure why Ubisoft would do that considering how broke they're going right now.

The game, from what I can see, isn't that woke outside of "make woman character masculine" and the jabber of the development teams. So wokeness wasn't really on my radar with this one.
 

intbal

Member
I have no idea if the game is woke. These are the reasons I didn't buy Outlaws:

-It's Star Wars
-It's Disney
-It's Modern
-It's Ubisoft

I don't necessarily have a problem with a game made by a Ubisoft studio, but this one looked like the Assassin's Creed formula, which doesn't appeal to me.
 

BigBeauford

Gold Member
Not even bothered by the MC being female. More bothered that it's clearly a role and character meant to be a man with a female coat of paint thrown over it. This inauthenticity combined with the fact that you aren't even an outlaw made it an easy pass.
 

Varteras

Member
I passed on it for a few reasons.

First, I didn't care for the intentional "downgrade" of the looks of the main character. The model they used for her was attractive. They seemed to go out of their way to tone that down for no good reason. The blatant bullshit excuses of it being hard to properly transfer real life looks to in-game characters or that it was "just lighting" further put me off.

I didn't care in the least bit that the main character was a woman. That never bothered me.

It's a Ubisoft game. That automatically puts me on the defensive for how the game will play out. So, I was never going to Day 1 this title. It was going to be wait-and-see. Glad I did.

When I saw actual gameplay I was just bored watching. Nothing about it made me want to play.

It's also Star Wars. Where in the past that would have had me as hard as the ass cheeks of GymWolf GymWolf and Banjo64 Banjo64 , now I just can't get excited. Disney has ruined the IP for me. You can't get me in line for that anymore with mediocre effort. Now it's going to take much more than it ever has and this game damn sure ain't it.
 

Regginator

Member
Imagine unironically using the word "woke", lol. Especially when the "woke"-ness of this game was pretty much just having a female protagonist and some non-white characters. The horror!!!:messenger_ghost:
 

ReBurn

Gold Member
I passed because of weird gameplay decisions. Like forcing you to drop weapons to climb ladders.

It's also dumb to buy Ubi games at launch because they're usually 40% off in 2 months.
 
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kyussman

Member
Oh boy,all you incels coming up with extravagant excuses for not buying the game......you're not fooling anyone you know,lol.
 
As a right winger often flabbergasted on how right wing this forum is I’m curious. I know that this is not representative of most of gamers but I think that given the recent turmoil around Ubisoft and its failing strategy and finances it’ll be interesting to know what our side of gaming thinks about it.

Personally I’m not happy to play a game where a flimsy woman knocks out trained soldiers with helmet. Even the game acknowledges this and later on gives her a tasser. But I’m ok with the uglification of the actress. I’m not 20 anymore and I don’t need hot girls in my games. But I do respect people who want what I already had in my non woke 90s.

But the reasons why I’m not interested in Outlaws are none of the above. It’s the same Ubisoft game all over again. It’s repetitive. Uninspired. Not original. The disk in the box has no value. It has DLCs programmed since before launch. It’s modern gaming in a nutshell and while I think is the best representation of the SW universe on a videogame that’s not enough to endure a snooze fest. So, what do you think?
I passed because of star wars fatigue, and because I don't buy games day 1 if $70 with a few exceptions (Astrobot was $60 so got that and silent hill I am a huge fan of since the start, of course I will be buying that).

I wouldn't say we are all "right wingers" here (independent, but I will leave it there as don't want to go down that rabbit hole). That is a personal decision and it there are left wingers that are anti-woke too, I can name a bunch, they just aren't represented in mainstream culture and more on podcasts etc, and in fact used to be more prevalent.

For me its not the woman, I didn't even think she looked that bad, except for a few bad screencaps. I also don't have any problem with feathered hair, as I am in my 40s and remember fondly the 70s and 80s. Some on here and elsewhere ragged on about that. Like wtf... its a hair style chill out. She wasn't even that bad, it wasn't like they made her have the modern half shaved head have long, died pink/blue etc.. with a big ol bull nose ring and big ear disc gauges. Now that would be ewww and an instant nope out of me.

For me it was the trend. Star wars by Disney made me sad, all from the first new movie. Walking out after the movie and feeling depressed/sad from star wars was a major red flag. Rouge one was the only real feeling one and that was kinda boring. Ironically, I though the Solo movie was pretty good from what I remember, and it got panned as woke, yet I didn't catch the bad vibes like I did with TFA, also never finished the movie either so who knows. But we seen this with film after film and it's not just star wars. Of course, Disney would push the woke shit on to games. So that being said, I remain(ed) cautious about this game. I was not going to get it day 1 for sure, and would wait it out for user reviews , gameplay videos and sales, like I do for any game (not named silent hill, dragon quest, civilization, or y's).

I like stealth, so that element would appeal to me if done right. I don't think star wars needs to always be light saber duels or extreme situations. There is room for politics, ala episode 1. There is room for subtlety and subterfuge. A star wars spy game would be cool, but this wasn't that. This was han solo as a woman, that is where I think they may have gone wrong. If they wanted to do that they really needed to nail down where she is from, show her humble beginings and introduce people to the character in a cool way to draw people in. They didn't do this. They explained it briefly and tossed in the gameplay trailers "look more star wars". People are tired and exhausted by star wars now. Disney just keeps pushing them out and makes them woke. People are fresh off the woke accolyte, that got panned, of course people weren't hyped for this.

Gameplay wise, its a ubisoft open world game. You know what to expect. Cool looking environments, unlock mechanic and map markers. Nothing wrong with that, I enjoy it. I don't enjoy woke politics, and other than her being a woman, and with an uglified face (par for the course these days unfortunately) So I will check that off as my reason, although the real reason is I wait for almost every game to get reviewed and have a sale.
 

Sorcerer

Member
The game is currently not on Steam? I'm sure that did not help Ubisoft's cause, and with that Ubisoft probably lost initial hype for a majority of PC players who won't touch it when it is available. I hope Epic money hatted them well.
 
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bundylove

Member
Waiting for sale and pro upgrade.
I do the same with most new games right now.

Plus ubisoft games go on sale very quick so by black friday you will get it 50 percent off.

Otherwise i dont care about the character as long as the game is fun.
 

Jigsaah

Member
I wasnt very interested in a Star Wars game that doesnt feature playable Jedi or bounty hunters. I dont even know what to call the MC in this game. A smuggler? Ohhhh wooptee dooo
 

Boss Mog

Member
There's a lot of factors. Star Wars going to shit as a franchise has a lot to do with it. The license does nothing for me anymore, in fact I'm wary of it.

The game itself is somewhat woke since it's trying to put a female character in the role of the charming rogue, but I feel like that role just doesn't work well for a female character, they lack the sexual energy/testosterone. Han Solo is Han Solo because he's a guy. A female trying to convincingly act like that is hard to pull off. The closest thing I've seen to a successful female rogue is Chloe from Uncharted but I don't think Vas comes close to Chloe from the footage I've seen. She just doesn't have that charisma. Also she goes around knocking out storm troopers with her bare fist against their helmets. I feel they do that just because she's woman. It reminds me of how in Spider-man 2 the Spider-men have to fight hard to knock out enemies but MJ just one shots everything with her stun gun.

Then, the other big part is that it's a mediocre third person shooter, with garbage stealth mechanics and a boring and soulless open world. If the open world you're making isn't the star of the show then don't make your game open world.

Combine these things and you got a recipe for poor sales.
 

Trunim

Member
I’m neither left or right, and i didn’t buy it because 1. It’s ubisoft and they stopped making good games a long time ago. 2. It’s disney era star wars which is utter kid-friendly shit in terms of world building and characters.
 

YOU PC BRO?!

Gold Member
I would’ve bought it if it was a Han Solo game like it clearly was meant to be.

Instead of Han Solo we got Ma'am Solo...

I'm a simple man, I see the masculine boss babe with the square jaw and I completely lose interest. Less because the character is ugly but more because of the insufferable woke messaging the game likely contains.
 
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StreetsofBeige

Gold Member
Combo of 1 and 2. You got a crap lead character which can look retarded in memes (when the real actress is good looking), plus a buggy open world game which had absurdly bad AI, one hit helmet KO punches, and as a last pisser gamers had to restart their game if they had early access saved files because a patch messed up the prior save. Lol

Also the game is heavy in stealth gameplay. Similar to LOTR fans avoiding the Gollum game, name one Stars wars fan itching to buy a SW game where you run around hiding behind walls and boxes so you can sneak up on stormtroopers instead of slashing them with lightsabers or using the force.
 
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Unknown?

Member
As a right winger often flabbergasted on how right wing this forum is I’m curious. I know that this is not representative of most of gamers but I think that given the recent turmoil around Ubisoft and its failing strategy and finances it’ll be interesting to know what our side of gaming thinks about it.

Personally I’m not happy to play a game where a flimsy woman knocks out trained soldiers with helmet. Even the game acknowledges this and later on gives her a tasser. But I’m ok with the uglification of the actress. I’m not 20 anymore and I don’t need hot girls in my games. But I do respect people who want what I already had in my non woke 90s.

But the reasons why I’m not interested in Outlaws are none of the above. It’s the same Ubisoft game all over again. It’s repetitive. Uninspired. Not original. The disk in the box has no value. It has DLCs programmed since before launch. It’s modern gaming in a nutshell and while I think is the best representation of the SW universe on a videogame that’s not enough to endure a snooze fest. So, what do you think?
Stop using the term right wing or left wing. They are archaic and not a good indication of points of view since both often morph into the other.

A better way to describe different points of view are Libertarian or Authoritarian. You either value freedom or power over others.
 
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