I really can’t figure out the gear in this game. I upgrade all of the attributes I can, and use mods tuned to my skills, but I never am quite certain what is most effective. I tend to stick with the same weapons for a long time because I pretty much never get anything (after 40 at least) that is any better than what I have.
So after a week of play I can say I really like the itemization changes they’ve done (bullet builds are still strong but no longer the be-all and end-all) and the grind up to the maximum apocalypse tier is definitely going to take awhile. It’ll take a lot more time than before to get to the point where there’s nothing left to achieve, so by that metric the endgame is much improved. The problem here is definitely a lack of variety in content in the sense of new levels to play.
The new ‘trial’ is the only new endgame activity and comprises ~10 medium/large arenas with some being entirely optional. I reckon the length is about equivalent to doing 3-5 expeditions back-to-back depending on what bits you choose to play through. The rewards are better than expeditions, but it suffers from the same replayability problems - no variety between playthroughs as level layouts and enemy spawns remain the same. This is further exacerbated by fighting the same(ish) boss three times along the way, including the finale.
For the price it does come across as disappointing but I’m still sorta pleased to have enough of a reason to go back and play more of it. I think it would’ve been a classic if they’d manage to put something in that has a bit more randomness to it than the fixed trial layout.
@TheWombat have you completed any set item bonuses for your class? Some look to be really good! My technomancer is still trapped in the golden handcuffs that is the firepower/bullet build but I’m saving up anomaly power/turret set pieces to switch over when I can. Some of the new T3 weapon mods are also a lot more sexy than I expected, always keep an eye out for a weapon that has a good one in that 3rd unmodifiable slot…
My main beef with this game is still about my luck or their RND. :) I love minute-to-minute gameplay but I am very impatient when it comes to getting no useful loot after a run.
But then I’ve looted a weapon that by itself made me about 50% more powerful, allowing me to go up 4 or 5 AP (difficulty) levels, it’s an awesome feeling. :) And it’s not even a god roll, it has tons of ways to get better.
So yeah, I wish it was cheaper and I wish for more randomness in the endgame and more luck but the game/expansion has a lot to offer if you are into this kind of games.
This was one of the big things that turned me off of Outriders. With my Technomancer, there was nothing that could even achieve 20% of my Toxic Rounds bullet build with infinite mags and ridiculous heals. It was super boring, though, because it was just holding down the trigger and spraying bullets to murder screens of bad guys. Or get staggered once and instantly pop. Every other build I put together required I turn the difficulty level down massively since the endgame content was all a DPS race / time gated.
They’re still a solid build to go for when levelling as you really only need a handful of mods to get the sustained ammo regen/non-expenditure that makes them so great. Apparently there are now some (much) more powerful builds BUT they require specific set items etc. and are consequently harder to assemble.
I guess the only problem with that is the fact that my build is still plenty strong enough for all the content I’ve encountered. Currently, at least - I’m only on apocalypse 21.
I don’t have any sets; hell, until recently I did not know there were set bonuses! My piddly Technomancer is using level 43 gear, Toxic/bullet build, and while I find it fun, it is sort of a binary. Either everything dies, or I get stunlocked/backed into a corner and one-shotted. I find the mod that turns a dodge roll into a short-range teleport to be extremely useful though, for getting out of the mob scenes.
I read a guide that advocated sniper rifles as the go-to for a Technomancer, but I’ve never been able to make them work. The bad guys simply rush too fast and I don’t usually deploy turrets and mines (which do seem to help but also sort of takes two gadget slots for mostly passive defense, leaving the one mandatory Blight slot pretty much).
Yup, that was my problem with it. It felt very boring, especially with the mods that allowed you to never reload (refill magazine on kill with toxic damage or something like that). I felt like I just held down the trigger and either wiped everything off the map or instantly splatted if something bumped me and interrupted my shooting for a split second.
This was at release so I’m hoping there’s better build diversity now after a year of balancing and the new content. I just don’t know if I want to spend $40 for it, I might have to wait for a sale.
Anyway, hope you all actively playing keep posting impressions/thoughts. :)
I’m lazy and bad, so spray and pray is not that unattractive, but yeah, something more interesting would not be bad. I find it hard to figure out though how to put all the parts together properly to make it happen. I find it tough to really ascertain what numbers or skills are good and which aren’t.
That’s why I was thinking about parking my Technomancer for a while and trying something else like Trickster. With Techno, my understanding is that you have 2 options: the “squeeze the trigger” build and the “let your turrets kill them” build. Both are fun and powerful but not terribly engaging.
I switched to Tech after getting much of the way through the game on my Devastator, because I was running into a DPS wall. The Technomancer is a lot easier to play through the base campaign for sure.
I’ve reached what I think is the final confrontation in the DLC, at Apocalypse 10 or thereabouts. Upgrades cost a fortune at this point, but OTOH I find myself salvaging most drops because they simply aren’t useful.
This is a game I missed on release. Is this something someone can start now? Is there single player? If not are there people actively playing on PSN here? I don’t like strangers and PUGs
I played the whole thing single player.
Yeah, never have played multi. Solo it’s a very good third-person shooter with great gunplay, good abilities and decent loot, and a passable story. It’s closer to shooters with distinct levels than something like Borderlands, as it most definitely is not an “open world” type thing. But the levels are usually decently designed, and the whole thing looks pretty good.
Single player here as well. It’s pretty good overall, worth your time especially on subscription.
Tried this yesterday b/c it was leaving XGP. Story-wise, this is a deeply, profoundly stupid game. I’d complain about the gameplay (not a fan of cover shooters, I thought it was an FPS) but they wouldn’t let me play the game until I spent the first hour on a story that makes no damn sense whatsoever. Maybe that’s not technically true since I could have skipped the prologue. Bad on me for thinking it had a point. But why have me explore dialogue trees with characters that won’t be around much longer? That’s pointless.
And then it goes from Stupid Mass Effect on Planet Waist-High Cover to Stupid Mad Max with Waist-High Boxes after the time jump. Our dude was out of action for 31 years, and the small remainder of humanity had the time and went to the effort of setting up elaborate WWI-style trenches? Cutting down all those trees and having them assembled during a non-stop hot war? Where did all the battle armor for the endless drone enemies come from? At the rate people were dying, we’d go through the half-million or so of survivors long before three decades had passed. Absolutely incoherent.
Instead of pretending to tell a story, just toss the player into the combat and explain later. Story tax (let alone stupid story tax) should not be a thing in a shooter. JUST LET ME SHOOT STUFF. Maybe it’s a good shooter, folks seemed to like it above, but wasting my time does not make me want to throw down cash to play after it leaves XGP.
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You might like Outriders then, because it’s not a cover shooter ;)
I believe it’s in Tom’s review of the game where he documents his realization that the cover is for the enemies. Sure, you’ll hide behind something every now and then to take a breather, but the game really encourages you to play aggressively
The comments on the story though are spot-on. The gunplay is actually very good, but the entire framing is, well, crap.
I enjoyed it - and I enjoyed the voice acting quite a bit. Maybe the first…10 minutes or so are a bit boring, but after that, it becomes really fun to me.
The gameplay was awesome, though - I often take a trip back. The loot is very well done as well, and the progression is excellent.
Its a difficult game, though, but it has some very well designed difficulty-options as well. All in all, this is a great game, but it is also not quite like anything else I’ve tried at least.
Interesting I was looking at this just last night wondering, what happened to this game. I haven’t seen an update or anything in quite a while.
Has anything changed since the last big endgame patch they released?