The folks at People Can Fly are going big now that they are independent again. Their next game is a Square Enix-published third-person shooter with RPG elements: Outriders.
At first glance, this looks like another looter-shooter in another drab aesthetic. Thankfully, the free demo paints a much better picture: underneath its very familiar and unexciting proposition is a looter-shooter that stands apart with an unorthodox style of play, with a well-thought-out RPG system to support it.
And amazingly, a captivating beginning of a story that will make you heavily invested from the minute one.
A Drab, Barren World Worth Caring
Here’s one bit I didn’t expect coming into the Outriders demo: there’s genuinely good storytelling and writing being showed off here.
Earth is screwed from pollution and war, so the planet sent colony ships to colonise a new planet: Enoch. You are an Outrider, a team of mercs whose role is to explore the planet and help rebuild civilisation.
The first minute has you spent talking with a few characters, having meaningful conversations with them. Your outrider is not a mute blank-slate like in most looter-shooter, they are voiced, have character, and more importantly, have genuine conversations with the other characters. The oddly serene start has you share with the naive and optimist engineer Shira, and banter with your old mate and fellow Outrider Jakub.
With the whole planet colonising theme, the start of Outriders feel like what I imagined Mass Effect Andromeda if it had better writing. I am geniunely invested.
And then things turn to hell. You discover that Enoch has a weird anomaly going on. People die. All hell breaks loose. You enter into cryo sleep and the time skip shows a barren, more depressing look of the world: now the game starts.
This effectively makes you a fish out of water, and the game handled this scenario well. The player character is as confused as you are, and whenever an explanation of lore is dropped it is delivered in normal conversation. Simple explanations, not long wordy-gurdy exposition. Definitely better than Fallout 4, though that’s a low standard to compare with, in fairness.
And there’s plenty of cutscenes that highlights the really decent performance capture work in the story bits. You’ll meet Shira and Jakub again, now starkly different people (and older), but the chemistry in the conversations are still a delight to see unfold.
The world of Outriders is drab, barren and look like something you’ve seen before in some shape or form. It would’ve been forgettable already if it were not for the strong characters and writing (so far).
And it’s not all broody-serious either. Some of the side-quests in the demo show a more lighthearted (but still grimdark) side of the world. If you like tonal whiplash, you will like what you see.
Quality Gunplay
As much as I love what I see of the narrative so far, that’s not why you play Outriders. It’s a looter-shooter. How’s the shooting?
There are quite a spread of gun choices from conventional sniper rifles and shotguns to… double guns and auto-shotguns. Good news: all the guns feel great to shoot. Especially the shotguns, there’s oomph to each shot. As it should. People Can Fly know their guns.
At first glance Outriders looks like The Division with the third-person cover shooter married with RPG elements. But the combat flow feels more like Gears Of War (something People Can Fly have experience in) as you’re constantly moving. And you move fast.
Combat usually takes place in wide-open areas, with scarce cover points scatter apart. Because Outriders isn’t about the stop-and-pop shooting. You want to be in the enemies’ face. It’s by design.
Gung-ho Cover Shooter
Each class in Outriders have a unique health regen system, and all of it are based on dealing damage. And it’s also organised in order of “you can play this game like a cover shooter” to “what cover?”.
Technomancers, the most traditional of the classes, just leach health in proportion to your damage. They can conjure ice and elemental things… that are essentially grenades and turrets. It’s a familiar playstyle close to The Division.
Then you have the Pyromancer, who relies on making sure enemies got tagged in their fire skills. Because they only get health from an enemy died after getting damage from their skill use, regardless who deals the final blow.
Tricksters are the hit-and-run rogue class that heal from close-range kills, which also grants them shields. You barely need cover as Tricksters, they just run a lot and deal non-stop damage via teleporting and time-slowing powers.
Finally, we have Devastators. Similar to Tricksters, Devastators don’t play this game like a cover shooter. But for them, they are the cover. The tank class heals with any close-range kills that occur, incentivising you to always be on the frontline and take the hits for the team. You can also withstand more damage thanks to extra armour, and a lot of protection skills.
Depending on which class you pick, their playstyles are distinct to make them stand out and have potentially different builds you can run them as. Playing through the demo as a Technomancer and then as a Devastator caught me off guard- they require different mindsets of play to be effective.
Each class gets three ability slot, utilised by pressing the bumpers (ala Mass Effect/Anthem). And you’ll be using these skills a lot, the short-ish cooldown time helps.
On the enemies, they come in a few varieties, but boy do they like to come in hordes. I like that they are smart enough to quickly throw grenades if you hang under cover without waiting too long to do so. And some of the bigger enemies will part their life with one last live grenade drop. It can be overwhelming, but your class skills really can turn around the odds once you know what you’re doing.
And the enemies will explode into gibs. Satisfyingly gross.
Promising RPG Systems
Another thing I like about Outriders is how well thought-out the RPG elements are, at least from what I can glimpse of the demo.
Keywords are being used a lot, making it easier to internalise what the active ability does at a glance. And there’s a three-prong passive skill tree (the class tree) where you can spec out your character in different ways. With the ability to respec those points at any time for free.
The loot is also interesting. Not from a visual standpoint- the early game gear looks understandably not exciting.
Rather, rarer gear can have mods that alter abilities (for armour) or have unique properties (for guns). I found an assault rifle that leeches heal from damage dealt, which pairs well with a gung-ho Devastator that attracts all the enemies around. And I’ve seen ability mods that not only adds a status effect but also ones that completely change the way you use it.
There’s potential for different builds focusing on different mechanics that can complement each other, or so specialised to do just one thing. That’s a promising proposition.
Stop-And-Pop Presentation
The thing that is holding Outriders back for now, for me at least, is the small little things. It bothers me how much the game likes to fade out. So. Many. Times.
Enter a new location? Fade out. Load a new cutscene? Fade out. Open the inventory screen? Fade out.
Some of the fade-out effects also fade out too quickly. There’s a cool pose this big boss is doing, but you can appreciate it long enough because it’s already fading out. Sometimes sentences can get cut off from the fade-out.
Area transitions are the worst. Fade out. See your Outrider opening a door or leaping a gap for less than 10 seconds. Fade out again.
It’s such a weird choice. I understand the ones used to load in cutscenes. But for the ones that don’t, I have no idea why it’s there. It’s a momentum-killer for me.
There’s no open world in Outriders, as far as the demo shows. You’re be visiting inter-connected small areas that has these many fade-out effects. But you’re also limited to the way you fast travel. You need to be at a specific place- marked by your customisable banner- to do so. Or, at the end of a mission, you go to a… floating, rotating Outrider symbol to fast travel. Not something you’d expect to see in a 2021 game, but I’m not complaining- it’s just an odd choice.
Traversing the world as a result can be more of a hassle than it should be, considering how small it is really. Also, it’s hard to orient yourself using the map and mini-map.
Also, the subtitles are not appearing in sync with the dialogue in some scenes (the one in the side quests is pretty apparent). And cross-play is still in a rough state (no wonder it’s labelled as still in beta). Though I suspect such small issues will be fixed by launch.
Closing Thoughts
It’s easy to dismiss Outriders for being another live service game. And that’s fair, we’ve gone jaded with games that requires time (and additional money) investment. And many of which have seen high-profile failures.
But when you judge Outriders for its core gameplay as a looter-shooter, it stands out against the competition or at the very least, can carve out its own niche.
It may not look like it, but Outriders feel amazingly different in the hands. Once the gameplay clicks, it’s a blast. And when you take a rest to see the narrative unfold, you’re invested like no other game of its kind.
The last time Square Enix released a demo around this time of the year, it turned out really well. We will see if the full package of Outriders can live up to the strong 3-hour opening presented here in this excellent demo.
The Outriders demo is now available on PS4, PS5, PC (Steam), Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S and Stadia.
Impressions based on the PC version
