When you hear “looter shooter”, you immediately imagine a game that will constantly receive updates over the course of a year or several years. It may not have an ending – it will be added in some raid. There is little quality loot – buy add-ons or wait for seasonal events. The gameplay mechanics in it are not ideal – everything will be fixed in the sequel at full cost. Well, microtransactions, where would we be without them?. But Outriders not like that: this is a finished product, the development plans of which are still unknown – maybe the game will remain like this. And in its current form, it evokes much more positive emotions than negative ones.
Jack of all trades
Basically, the combat system leaves a vivid impression – what the whole game rests on and because of what it is difficult to tear yourself away from it. It combines the best ideas from other looter shooters (with a dash of familiar style People Can Fly, creators Bulletstorm), but it still feels very fresh. It doesn’t matter at all which of the four classes you choose. This could be a technomancer who uses all sorts of devices in battle, a pyromancer who sets fire to the ground and enemies, a fast and dexterous trickster, or a destroyer whose name speaks for itself.
All classes have eight active abilities, most of which are unlocked quite early. Outriders does not force you to wait until the last minute and leave them until the most opportune moment. Skills are restored very quickly by the standards of looter shooters, but they don’t seem any less useful. My main class was the technomancer, whose skills are related to poisoning and freezing, and one of his abilities summons a turret that freezes enemies. If in The Division the turret was restored after use for about a minute, here it happens three times faster – before the old abyss has time, the new one is ready.
Thanks to this, the game does not turn into a boring shootout with “sponges”. Having chosen your favorite skills, you begin to press L1 and R1 in different orders, quickly reacting to dangers and making the most of situations. If you want to slow down the wave of enemies, throw a turret. You see that a crowd of monsters is running towards you, from which it is difficult to escape, you use a gadget that instantly freezes all opponents in a small radius. You meet a dangerous opponent who has a lot of health, you activate a poisonous clip and poison him by shooting from a machine gun. Each class has different capabilities, but the essence remains the same.
An extensive leveling tree not only strengthens the main character, but also makes his skills more powerful. By gaining new levels, you can reduce the cooldown time of the ability or somehow improve it. In the case of a technomancer, the player is allowed to increase damage to enemies when frozen, or apply an additional negative effect when poisoned. And the best part is, at any time you can reset the tree and redistribute the points in order to try something else, and this greatly simplifies the search for your ideal build.
Faster, higher, stronger
And this process is not limited to the choice of abilities and perks. Helmets, jackets, headbands, gloves and shoes worn by the character grant bonuses to attack power, melee damage and ability power. In addition, high-quality items (blue, purple and gold – all according to the canons of the genre) have even more improvements for abilities that cannot be unlocked in the tree. These modifications increase damage and apply additional effects to enemies when using skills, and do much more. Weapons also have slots with modifications, but they are completely different.
Here Outriders gives the player even more freedom to customize the character. As soon as you disassemble an item with one or another modification, it goes into the list of mods at the local “blacksmith”, and it can be applied to any item in the wardrobe. Do you want the bullets from the new machine gun to inflict freeze or poison?? Want your bullets to ricochet off wounded enemies and set their comrades on fire?? Everything can be done with a couple of clicks, returning to the base.
At first, of course, there https://cryptowinscasino.co.uk/ is no need to delve into all this – as in other looter shooters, at first you only pay attention to armor and damage indicators. And when you get blue things, your eye is already drawn to the bonus perks – you look at how they affect the gameplay, whether they are useful, and whether it is worth applying them to equipment when changing clothes or weapons. Well, the appearance of the things is mostly pleasing – there are very stylish pieces here that it’s a pity to even part with. You can invest resources in them and increase levels, but this seems like a waste of materials.
Another important feature of the combat system is the lack of first aid kits. Each class is healed by killing enemies – some need to destroy enemies in melee, some are healed by shooting, and some must use a skill and only then eliminate the target. Therefore, sitting behind cover and shooting from time to time is simply unproductive: they will throw grenades, and the cover may collapse. Outriders encourages aggression – since there is no magic button that restores health, you need to constantly be on the move.
Everything described above makes every shootout very fun and dynamic. Seemingly simple mechanics, some of which were implemented somewhere long ago, are intertwined here almost perfectly. There are enough types of weapons, and there are enough cool moments when you survive at the last moment, having been cured thanks to a successful kill. Add in the ability to experiment with a variety of combinations of abilities, upgrades, and passive perks, and the result is addictive gameplay that will Outriders looks like one of the most fun looter shooters in recent years.
It’s better to travel with friends
But it’s worth clarifying that much of this is true primarily for cooperative play. There is a selection of allies, and it’s easy to invite friends to the team. When opponents are distracted by one or the other, the rest have more freedom – they can attack more aggressively, combine abilities, run up with a shotgun and hit close.
IN Outriders difficulty is determined and changed on the fly by you – you can gradually increase it, allowing you to customize everything in the game and get better and better loot, or you can reduce it. It will be difficult to constantly stay on maximum difficulty alone, especially because of snipers, who only need two shots to kill a player. Yes, and there will often be not enough cartridges. In playing together, we never had any difficulties with increasing complexity – it was always just right. So in co-op Outriders, one might say, it opens up and acquires new virtues.
The design of the locations matches the gameplay – with such a wide arsenal of possibilities, it’s fun to fight with a bunch of enemies in the arenas, and that’s what all the regions consist of. Some will consider this approach archaic – there is no big open world here, invisible walls are found here and there.
What Outriders What can really be reproached is the lack of verticality of the cards. Occasionally there are places where snipers or ordinary attack aircraft sit behind cover on dilapidated bridges or in turrets, but generally you don’t have to raise your sights high. However, during the game I did not pay attention to this.
Ups and downs
But technical roughness irritates from time to time. Either you see extra videos before loading screens, then the story cut-scenes end abruptly, or the navigator shows the target not where it actually is located. If, due to the plot or for the sake of side quests, you want to return to another region, you must first find a flag, use it to go to the base, approach the right person there, ask him to organize a trip, and only then select the area on the map. In other looter shooters, I’m already used to fast teleportation through the menu, but here everything is far from so modern.
The plot also lacks stars from the sky – a classic story about people who escaped from Earth to another planet in search of a new home. There, as usual, everything goes awry: the main character is frozen for three decades, and at this time a war begins. But the protagonist gets superpowers and can fight back against aliens. The plot is unlikely to surprise, but it is interesting to watch, including thanks to the convincing characters. And in general, studying details about the universe is entertaining, if reading notes in video games doesn’t make you sleepy yet.
The most pleasing thing is the variety of locations. Throughout the story, the heroes travel around the planet, visiting new areas in almost every third mission. There is everything here – from jungles and snow-capped mountains to dark caves and hot deserts. There are also plenty of types of enemies, even if for the most part they are standard for such games: some are dressed in armor and helmets, others are hiding with sniper rifles, others are getting into close combat, and so on. But there are also original types, and they all alternate often.
Endgame in Outriders also available – this is a set of 15 expeditions with increasing complexity separate from the “plot”. There are not only more enemies, but also different conditions for receiving rewards – the faster you complete the task, the cooler the prizes. That is, on expeditions you need to pay special attention to the build – choose the best equipment, invest resources in it to improve its characteristics, install the best modifications. If going through a campaign alone can still be fun, then expeditions are clearly designed for a team – it’s more fun and there’s more loot.
Please note that Outriders — it’s not a service game and it won’t entertain you endlessly, so the endgame can get boring pretty quickly. Thirty hours of fun from the main campaign are guaranteed, especially if you call your friends (cross-play between consoles and PC is supported), and how long you want to sit on depends on various circumstances. It’s a pity that first impressions were spoiled by unstable servers – the game requires a constant Internet connection, and the developers were not ready for such popularity.
Outriders can be called one of the best cooperative entertainments of recent years. When playing alone, some of its charm is lost and some mechanics do not work to their full potential. Despite the rough edges, technical flaws and lack of significant innovation, other looter shooters have a lot to learn from Outriders – for example, huge freedom in customizing your character and equipment. Thanks to it and the good combat system, I already want to continue the banquet – I hope the game will be supported with additions.
Pros: a fun combat system with different classes, unique abilities and a bunch of passive improvements; greater freedom in customizing your character and creating your ideal builds; visually diverse locations; enough types of enemies; an interesting universe in which a good story unfolds; in co-op the game becomes many times better, allowing you to more actively use all the features of the “combat”.
Cons: playing alone may not be as interesting as in a group; technical imperfections make you remember games from many years ago; Not everyone will like the endgame due to the need to complete tasks at speed; don’t play if the servers are down.