Michael Foster-Sanders
editor-in-chief
Oh boy, not another looter shooter.
When “Outriders” was announced, this was the stance most gamers took after being bombarded throughout the years with games like “Destiny” and “The Division.” But does “Outriders” break the mold to bring something fresh to the tired genre?
Yes, it does, and so much more.
Earth is dying, and people are in a frenzy to reach lifeboats so they can escape to an Earth-like planet called Enoch. A group of mercenaries named the Outriders leads the charge to inhabit the planet. Looks can be deceiving because once the planet is reached, they didn’t imagine it would be a hell-on-Earth-like planet with carnivorous aliens and lightning storms that destroy everything in their path.
The Outriders are then betrayed by the scientist who tries to kill them to stop word from getting out about the planet’s conditions. This is where your character comes into play as they become altered with powers during one of the storms and then wake up 30 years later as the few Outriders who are left in this wasteland apocalypse.
The gameplay is simple, smooth and fun. You basically kill everything coming at you and complete quests to build up your character in the world tiers. The weapons system is simple at face value, but complex enough to get lost in creating the best way to eviscerate your opponents. The gameplay can get tedious with the rinse, wash and repeat elements of looter shooters. The fresh elements from the game are in the form of the three classes called anomalies that you can choose from which alter the way players will approach the game.
Fair warning: this game does not hold your hand, and will test the player’s skills with its foot full-throttle on the gas. Only the strong should attempt to tackle this game by themselves, and all others should develop online friends to clique up and party with.
Dumb fun is the name of the game, and Outriders takes its cues from a B sci-fi film with its hokey story mixed with heart-pumping action.
The game launched as a playable, buggy mess — not to the magnitude of the “Cyberpunk 2077” fiasco. But Square/People Can Fly has been committed to making constant updates to make the game bugs such as crossplay not working or player data not saving.
This game is close to a “Gears of War” type game, so Playstation gamers should buy it without fail. Xbox users don’t have anything to lose because it’s on Game Pass.
Go ahead and buckle up your seatbelt and go on this wild ride that will leave you exhausted, but fulfilled in the end.
