Outriders - Square Enix colonizes space

Games
505

I started to play this game. 4 hours and change for now.

The impression the game gives me is that is… repetitive. Yeah, i know action games are by nature repetitive, but this one is even more than usual. They key imo is how every class gain health. The horde of enemies are so numerous that the only way to survive is to be able to constantly gaining health back while fighting them, while at the same time you control your position to somewhat limit the number of people firing at your at a minimum.
For example, I got the ‘tank’ class that recover health with enemies killed at close-ish range, so yeah, the entire game is what I described, making sure I rush to them in every fight, while at the same time I avoid getting in the open battlefield flanked by several enemies. That’s all there is, with this class.
You can’t vary your behavior to another style, as then you will end up dead. The way to vary your playstyle is to pick another class, but for that you need to start a new game, they can’t be changed.
If the campaign would consist of playing with every class for 6 hours each, that would give you the variety I’m missing here.

506

Your selection of skills will make the playstyle different in an individual class. You only get these skills to unlock as you level up, so you still have to play through for some time with a limited set of skills. A Devastator (the ‘tank’) using Earthquake, Gravity Leap and Golem, plays pretty differently than one using Endless Mass, Impale and Reflect Bullets (for example).

You can get through the campaign in less than 6 hours if you keep it to a low World Tier and rush through. I took my time with the first class, but for a couple of the other classes I rushed through in order to get to the expeditions (end game).

I played all 4 classes and used different styles during my tuning of each build that I was using. Firepower v.s. Anomaly builds are very different within three of the classes (the Devastator doesn’t really have a viable Firepower build). With that said, sure it is repetitive. I think most games are and it is just a matter of you enjoying that game loop. If you don’t, it feels repetitive and if you do then you have fun. Maybe…

507

@TurinTur After a while your weapons and armor begin to matter, due to the way they interact with your class skills. Its very much a game about making builds work for you, and thats the variety.

billede

508

I started a new character with the Technomancer class, and boy, it’s much easier than the Tank. What’s balance.

edit: the setting is interesting. It’s so gritty, so much a crapworld, so much a harsh post-apoc scifi, where the left Earth destroyed to reach a new planet where they reached the same post apoc status in record time… that I only can see it imagining a wink with the dev faces. Which makes sense as the devs are the same as Bulletstorm, a game that definitively combined violent brodude story with a ironic wink.

509

Balance isn’t really a thing until the endgame here.

All characters can of course complete the game, but some do it easier than others.

510

I found the Devastator the easiest to get to CT 15, the survivability in Expeditions is very nice. But I rushed the campaign with it, so I have no idea how it would be playing the campaign and keeping WT to a decent level. It is the only class I managed to solo Eye of the Storm with.

511

Which class is flat out most fun to play solo?

I intend to only play this once, and only the story campaign.

512

I’d vote for the Trickster.

513

I would vote Pyromancer…though you will initially feel week the first few levels until you get some mods. I played through them all and intially I thought Trickster or maybe Technomancer was the best, but once I got in the groove for Pyromancer, I enjoyed that class the most.

514

Thanks, so now I still don’t know. But Silent provided more of a argument so I will probably go Pyro :)

515

I liked the Pyro too. :)

516

Trickster is an amazing class. Its probably something akin to a rogue in other games - Fast, deadly, responsive and you are ALWAYS on the move. You don’t hide behind barriers much, because your health depends on getting close and personal, as does a majority of your available skills.

Its very, very fun, though. I cannot overstate how much fun it is teleport BEHIND the enemy, slow them, and then either shoot them, or simply vaporize them with a skill that leaves nothing but ash.

Boy, I sound like a psycopath, but - It IS fun in this game!

Pyro on the other hand, has a ridicolous skill that lets you attack enemies through walls and mountains. It certainly makes it a lot easier , but it felt a little bit like cheating. Its very strong though.

517

So it was a good idea when I changed class. I enjoy much more playing with the Technomancer, which feels more versatile than the tank.

In the end, I can say I’m enjoying the game a fair bit. I’m at… level 25 or 26, world tier level 10, on a location called ‘The Gate’. Which from what I’ve seen, it’s pretty good.
I like it more than Destiny, on the latest unlocked World Tier it gets tough but fair, having to act smartly and decidedly to survive, unlike the borefest that is Destiny. And you still have several tiers to customize your experience, if you desire something less hardcore. The more active and more commonly used abilities of the classes are more fun than in Destiny, and the RPG aspect with the perks, the abilities and the loot upgrade combos are more interesting. The combat is meaty and satisfying, too.

The only problem I have on the gameplay is the lack of enemy variety, it’s the same seven enemies always with some slight variations. Normal guy, elite tough guy, miniboss guy; or critter, big critter, elite big critter, spitter, flying critter, and not a lot else.

That said, I would prefer it if it would have been a FPS. And I don’t think I’m the only one. Let’s admit it, the market has spoken about what is preferable. The most popular shooters are CoD, BF, Halo, CS, Valorant, Rainbow Siege… Gears of War is right now a tier below them. Don’t mention Fortnite or my argument will fail!

Also, the game is more ‘ugly’ than Destiny. I think it was an error to focus so much on making a gritty, post apoc, depressing, dirty look for the game. At least for the first 12 hours… Some people won’t connect with that. I think people prefer more the vast alien vistas and sumptuous color look of Destiny.

Still, it seems the game failed on the post-launch part:
imagen

From 125k to… a two magnitudes smaller number. In less than a year. Glups!

518

The game is set on an alien planet, which to be sure has had its own version of an apocalypse I suppose but I would not call this a typical post-apocalyptic setting. There are for sure similarities of course. I would prefer a more exotic and lush sort of landscape, but given that the game is nowhere near an open world sort of thing, and maps are very constrained, it isn’t that big a deal.

Those numbers are fairly grim looking. Seems to track though with my experience, of enjoying the first one or two play throughs, and then not caring much about the endgame and thus uninstalling.

519

The online experience, finding and playing with other players, doesn’t seem to me frictionless enough. That could be one of the causes. And it seems the game servers had issues on the first weeks.

Oh, another thing I wanted to comment, in comparison with Destiny, is how it has a worse tech, in how there are more loading between levels and in between parts of a level, even. To make it worse some quests makes you travel back and forth some places, and in coop the experience is even slower.

520

It was never suppsed to be a GaaS - just a normal one-hit game. How do numbers stack against other games of the same type? Single player games with multiplayer modes?

521

There was an Outriders roadmap stream a little while ago, I don’t see a write-up anywhere just yet with all the updates but I’ll try to summarize -

They’re adding 4 new expeditions
They’re removing the timer on expeditions (you can add it back in options but it’s basically just for bragging rights, won’t affect drops)
They’re improving legendary drops
All this is going live tomorrow (the 16th)

Also, there’s a full content expansion coming next year. I’ll post links with more details as I find them.

522

This was a pretty good summary.

523

That’s cool - here’s the actual live stream if anyone wants to see.

524

I gave the demo for this a shot after hearing the update news. Went trickster. Yikes. This really makes you realize that satisfying gunplay in a third person shooter is NOT a given in 2021.