Before we start reading, I would like us all to ask ourselves one question: what is the requirement that every video game should have? If we were to identify a playful element that is essential to achieve success, what would it be? Over the span of my 34 years, I believe that the qualities to be able to even aspire to emerge, in an increasingly crowded market, are reduced to only two: identity and originality. If the second is now a rare commodity (and increasingly "sacrificial lamb" sacrificed on the altar of the current trend), the first condition is (or should be) the starting point for any work of genius. Whether it's a particular aesthetic or the simplest of labels, the consumer should be able to get an idea of the game with a single glance or a little more.
I'll get straight to the point: in certain respects, Outriders it put me in a lot of trouble. Be careful: I am not referring to difficult gameplay or difficult mechanics to master, but to the elusive identity of the title developed by People Can Fly.
By personal nature, I have always rejected any kind of label; however, I cannot deny that, on certain occasions, these can help us understand precisely what we are about to embark on.
In the following lines, I will try to best express the opinion I have about Outriders, trying to dissect its essence and scope, but emphasizing what the work published by Square Enix does best: entertain the player.
In the (not too) distant future ...
The Earth no longer exists. The control of raw materials and increasingly scarce sources of energy has led to a whole series of conflicts which, in the space of a few years, have devastated our planet, causing the onset of catastrophic seismic phenomena. It immediately becomes clear that humanity, if it intends to survive, must abandon its home and embark on a very long "journey of hope", which will lead it to a new Promised Land.
Of the departed spaceships, only one survives. The approximately 500.000 people aboard the Flores are what remains of mankind, forced to settle on the planet Enoch which, from the analyzes made, seems to have all the credentials to represent the much desired new beginning.
Our protagonist (who we will create through a rather sparse and decidedly not very varied menu) is the most classic of mercenaries with many battles on his back, but it will be up to him and a small number of soldiers (the Outriders, in fact) to lead the first explorations of Enoch, thus paving the way for the other occupants of the spacecraft.
It will take a few minutes to understand that this planet is not at all the quiet and peaceful place it was expected to be: in addition to aggressive creatures, the planet is plagued by mysterious electromagnetic storms that, in a few minutes, decimate our vanguard, generating a heated conflict on the next steps to follow. Due to his injuries, our hero will be "cryosleep", only to wake up to the beauty of 31 years later and discover that the situation is even worse than he could have imagined.
Despite a desperate situation, however, our soldier will be able to count on new powers, generated after exposure to the aforementioned magnetic storms. It will be from this moment that the Outriders plot will take hold, which will see you rejoin your previous team and try to give new hope to what remains of the human race.
If you have had a weird feeling of déjà vu during these lines, don't worry: it is absolutely normal. The plot of Outriders does not represent anything that you have not already seen elsewhere: an almost monolithic protagonist, catapulted into a world full of dangers, in the company of characters often characterized approximately and whose presence on screen will last little or nothing, with jokes, dialogues and scenes that appear to come from a movies at Michael Bay.
Despite a couple of twists as cute as they are hasty, and a large number of collectibles capable of revealing fragments of lore, there is nothing in the history of the title in question that makes you cry a miracle. In this respect, therefore, no trace of originality.
A thoroughbred TPS aggressive gameplay ...
If the Outriders plot is not to be framed, the speech totally changes for the gameplay. In the next paragraph we will better address the hybrid nature of the game, limiting ourselves for now to categorizing it as Third Person Shooter (TPS). As fans surely know, the genre in question seems to be a bit out of fashion, with practically only one franchise dominating: Gears of War. However, People Can Fly is a team closely linked both with the shooters (from Painkiller to Bulletstorm) and with the series now in the hands of The Coalition, of which it has created the spin-off Judgment.
Considering the pedigree of the Polish development studio, a "caciarone" and frenetic approach: so it was, with the addition of a small, decidedly original feature.
Like any self-respecting third-person shooter, the heart of Outriders consists in giving free rein to our guns (many and well customizable), taking advantage of the strategic shelters present in the various stages that we will be called to face. However, walls, pillars, railings, etc. they will have a decidedly different value than what was seen in Gears of War. First of all, don't expect the polished and refined gameplay that the Microsoft franchise has accustomed us to; secondly, the aforementioned repairs they will not be synonymous with "eternal protection": enemy shots can easily destroy them and, if you stay too long in the same position, you will see a red area appear around you, a sign that a grenade is about to explode.
I'll make it short: forget the tactics of The Division, in Outriders you will be forced to always stay in motion.
However, what Square Enix's work stands out in is the recovery of the health bar. In fact, both the healing objects and the comfortable and gradual regeneration of the Life Points are absent; in this case, the only way you will have to restore your character's HP is to ... damage the opponent! Each hit you land will help fill (proportionally) a part of the Health Bar and, in this respect, great importance is covered by the special powers that Enoch has granted you.
Immediately after completing the prologue, you will be asked to choose one of the four classes that the game will put at your disposal: Technomancer, Pyromancer, Mystery and Destroyer. Whatever your choice, you will never be able to avoid always staying in the heart of the action, taking advantage of your character's special abilities (you will unlock new ones as levels progress) both as a way to regain health, and as a method to stop attacks load up on the bosses you will encounter.
In other words, it is a bit as if the mobs present in the various arenas were "walking healing packs", usable only when they are knocked out
In this respect, People Can Fly has managed to guarantee an element of novelty that really contributes to building an identity for its Outriders.
… With some GaaS “contaminations”
Remember when I mentioned the hybrid nature of Outriders? Well, now is the time to talk about it. Be honest: what kind of video game did you think of the first time you saw the game's presentation trailer? As for me, I could not fail to reconnect what I saw to a "Destiny in the third person", with missions to play in the company of your friends, a large endgame, perhaps with many limited-time events and, finally, constant support in the time. In four words: Game as a Service (for friends, GaaS).
Well, both People Can Fly and Square Enix (perhaps also due to what happened with Marvel Avengers, of which you can read our review here) immediately distanced themselves from this product category, stating that Outriders was a game "done and over", designed to be played alone (but allowing the user to choose two "travel companions") and which, above all, will not receive the amount of updates received by videogames conceived as services.
All clear so far? Because it is precisely from this point on that the accounts do not add up.
Undoubtedly Outriders is a title that can be played safely alone (as long as you die the right number of times): the more than 30 hours necessary to get to the credits confirm the desire to keep the focus on the single player as well. Despite what has just been said, however, it is not explained why, for the purpose of an experience of this kind, it is necessary to be constantly connected to the Internet; in this respect, then, the netcode has literally devastated the first days of launch, preventing many from even being able to access the game. All this without wanting to talk about the problems related to the crossplay, boldly announced and hastily returned to beta, due to technical problems.
Secondly, if it is true that the videogame can be safely played alone, it is equally true that playing it in company will make your life a lot easier. The reason is obvious: every time you die in single player, you will be catapulted to the last checkpoint; if, on the other hand, you die in multiplayer, you will be able to "exhume yourself" the first time, and let your allies resurrect you all the following times. What has just been said has a relative impact in the main quest, but becomes of fundamental importance in the missions following the endgame (we will talk about it later): in this case, going KO means facing the entire mission from the beginning.
All in the name of wild looting
If the similarities with Destiny are clearly perceptible (just look at the same similarities between the two game menus), the core of the Outriders gameplay is more comparable to what can be seen in Diablo and in Doom. The frenzy of firefights may actually remind us of the idSoftware shooter, but the looting seen in the Blizzard RPG is the closest to the experience lived in Outriders.
In addition to the level of our character, we will be able to find the indicator of the World Level. Depending on the kills made and how many times we have been knocked out, the world level bar will be able to empty as well as fill up and, as it levels up, we will be able to access rewards of greater rarity. A higher World Level will automatically imply better loots (coming to the classics Epic and Legendary gear).
What has just been said will sublimate into the Shipping. These are 15 missions, which can be tackled after completing the main quest, in which you will be called to find the objects mentioned in the end of the game and in which, needless to emphasize, you can unlock the rarest rewards. However, the main requirement for obtaining the most valuable loot is the complete the mission as soon as possible, sending most of the group strategies to be blessed, exposing some classes to failure more and, above all, limiting the choice of equipment to those few solutions that will allow us to "save time".
The latter aspect is a real shame, as the customization of equipment and weapons (with upgrades and mods) is one of the positives of Outriders.
Outriders: what do you want to do when you grow up?
Wanting to focus briefly on the technical sector, we cannot fail to notice how fluctuating this is. If on the one hand we find landscapes that are always quite different and decidedly cared for landscapes (here too the reference to Destiny is clear), on the other hand, on the other hand, there is no possibility to explore them completely; if on the one hand we find a good variety of enemies, on the other, however, we come across gods rather bare internships, with very few environmental interactions and, above all, with a slew of loading times more or less hidden. It is amazing to see, in a 2021 title, that opening a door triggers a cutscene of just a few seconds, just as it is incredible to see equally short transitional filmed scenes.
Dwelling on the graphics, Outriders holds up pretty well 60 fps on Playstation 5, but the previously mentioned features make its cross-gen nature obvious.
Even the purely playful aspect is not without gaps. The frenetic nature of the video game makes weapons such as sniper rifles almost superfluous, while some classes are unbalanced (especially in the Expeditions), as they are free of area attacks.
Finally, the question that worries us most concerns the type of support that the game will receive. At present, after having tried the various classes, having obtained the various Commendations, having upgraded our equipment to the maximum and having completed all the Expeditions, there will be very little to do, if not perhaps repeat the missions in the company of our friends. In the opinion of the writer, Outriders will certainly receive fixes and expansions (the very high prices of the arms dealer make it clear that the game will not be abandoned) but, as Lorenzo de 'Medici said, there is no certainty of the future.
What we can say so far is that Outriders is a splendid one Horde mode in continuous jet, who had all the credentials to carve out his space, but who for various reasons just can't take flight.
Final judgement
Outriders is a very fun game experience, which manages to entertain for a good number of hours thanks to a frenetic gameplay focused on finding the best pieces to upgrade our equipment. In this respect, the title developed by People Can Fly is the breath of fresh air that the genre of third person shooter so damned needed.
Analyzing the other side of the coin, however, the videogame seems to be prejudiced by a "communication misunderstanding", which placed it halfway between a single player / coop experience and a GaaS, presenting some characteristics of both other category. What leaves a bad taste in the mouth is the enormous unexpressed potential of the game, which never manages to result in repetitiveness, but which quickly runs out of all the arrows in its bow. If you add to all this a technical sector in alternating phases, you can easily understand the reason behind the evaluation at the bottom of the article.
However, I feel I recommend the purchase to all those who are looking for a third-person shooter without too many frills, capable of entertaining for a good number of hours and that, above all, is not called Gears of War.
