https://www.cybersport.ru/games/articles/obzor-outriders-kak-diablo-polyubila-gears-of-war

From Interstellar to Lost through Mad Max

Outriders events take place on the planet Enoch, which the earthlings have chosen as their new home, successfully destroying the first. We are assigned the role of a pioneer – to the stupidity of a tough soldier who, with a group of the same super-duper-warriors, must explore new territory and prepare a springboard for the colonists.

At first, there is a feeling that we are facing a sci-fi action movie about the conquest of a mysterious planet … But that was not the case. After a couple of minutes, the main character falls into an anomaly that kills all his comrades. Miraculously, they decide to freeze the surviving protagonist in a cryocapsule just in case to be cured when the opportunity presents itself, and they forget him there for 30 years.

When we wake up, we find ourselves in a completely different world. Different factions of colonists have been waging a war for scarce resources for three decades, and the fauna of the once idyllic planet has mutated into terrible monsters under the influence of that very anomaly. Roughly speaking, we are moving from Interstellar to Mad Max without warning.

And now we understand that in the center of our story there will be a post-apocalyptic alien war … But that was not the case. We, of course, will fight a little, but pretty soon we will leave the colonists and their showdown behind our backs. Likewise, the pretentious storyline of the aliums (people with supernormal abilities) will lead nowhere. We will be introduced to a couple of supermen, whose conflict is supposedly much more important than the bickering of mere mortals. But literally in half an hour, this thread of the narrative will break off without telling what, in fact, this conflict was.

And this happens throughout the entire plot: the scenery and secondary characters are constantly and rapidly changing. Here we are at war, we are fighting do not understand with whom it is not clear why. A moment later, in the camp of deserters, we are asking questions about the ethics of scientific experiments. And a second later we are trying to figure out how human technology ended up in the middle of the desert, although people have never been there.

Local stories simply don’t have enough time to unfold, making the storyline they assembled fragmented and incoherent. On the other hand, the facelessness of the characters and their outright stupidity clearly hint that additional timing would not have improved the overall picture. Instead of the supposed fantastic road movie, it turned out to be some kind of cut from poorly connected scenes.

The situation is saved only by regularly appearing riddles: where does the signal come from, which appeared even before the arrival of the pioneers? Why did the anomaly change the planet beyond recognition in just a few decades? what kind of creatures live in the desert and where did they get their human weapons? In this regard, Outriders resembles the TV series “Lost”, but not from the best side. The game is often intriguing, forcing to build different theories, and then answers all questions in a crumpled and banal way. If you’re looking for clever science fiction with a thoughtful and inventive story, then you are in the wrong place.

You are the chosen one, humble yourself

One of the main mysteries of the Outriders world is people with supernormal abilities, who are called aliums. Naturally, we are among them. The anomaly that killed our comrades made us almost a deity in the eyes of the local population.

At the moment, Outriders has four classes of superhumans, each of which is focused on a specific style of play. Destroyers use earth-related skills to actively fight on the front lines. Tricksters can manipulate time and space to make swift, sneaky attacks. Pyromancers specialize in applying negative effects by burning, and prefer to work at medium range. And technomancers can place turrets and mines and in other ways support allies, attacking enemies from the maximum possible distance.

Adjusted for the shooter, four quite classic RPG character types emerge – a tank, a robber, an attacking sorcerer and a support wizard. With a set of experience, new abilities are unlocked, allowing you to choose one of three specializations. For example, a technomancer can develop support skills so that allies can only finish off weakened and immobilized opponents. Or he himself can become the main supplier of damage in the group.

The points in the skill tree can be changed at any time, as well as the available active abilities. This provides room for tactical experimentation and also allows you to change your playstyle depending on the situation. For example, I switch to team skills and passives in co-op, and in solo I choose perks for maximum damage and survivability.

We should also mention weapon and equipment modifiers. Essentially, they are passive abilities that have been removed from the skill tree and moved to a different location. Some of them are aimed at strengthening active skills, while others provide other bonuses. The main feature is that after disassembling an item, you can use the modifier it has with any other equipment. This is very convenient for flexible character customization, however, due to such a system, there are no truly unique weapons and armor in the game.

Trump card Outriders

The combat system in Outriders is deceiving at first. However, unlike the plot, it surprises in a pleasant way. From the trailers and the extremely disgusting introduction, you might think that this is a typical third-person shooter in which you need to dig into a shelter and shoot dejectedly from there, but this is not entirely true. Formally, “burrowing into a shelter and shooting dejectedly” is possible, but it will not lead to anything good.

The mechanics of healing add dynamism to the game. There are no first-aid kits in the shooter – instead, health is replenished by dealing damage to opponents. Usually, when injured, the instinct to run and hide is triggered. Here, the opposite is true: in order to survive, you need to continue to fight, and even more aggressively than before. At the same time, the details differ depending on the class: the pyromancer is healed at the expense of the enemies he has marked, and the destroyer – only in close combat. There is also autoregen, but it works partially and with a delay, so it is of little use in the thick of the battle.

Outriders has no other big differences from conventional third-person shooters, but this is enough to refresh the usual gameplay. In addition, the game boasts pleasant shooting and the ability to use superpowers. The latter do not really change the essence of the game and remain only a support function. A situation in which you can replace a firearm with magic will not present itself.

Depressing in battles is mainly the design of the levels. Not to say that it is very bad – it copes with its basic functions, but it is somehow unprincipled and made as if for show. Nine times out of ten, we have in front of us a narrow corridor with shelters placed at every step, from the far end of which enemies are running towards us. Locations lack a creative approach that could create unique gameplay situations or just be remembered for the passage.

I remember the levels from some other games even after years, and in Outriders I can’t highlight anything special, despite the fact that I literally put the controller aside. But they are at least visually different: the game has urban slums, front lines, mountains, forests, desert and what can be a small spoiler.

The good, the bad, the ugly

Enemies are an important part of any combat system. This is not to say that in Outriders we are opposed by geniuses of tactical thinking, but there are many of them, they are evil and by no means stupid. Fast or heavily armored adversaries love to impose close combat and, if possible, bypass from the flanks. The arrows once again do not protrude out of cover, but they shoot almost without a miss. They also love to spam with grenades, which brings us back to the topic of the danger of sitting in one place.

If you open the diary, you will see many different enemies. In fact, there are mostly the same fighters from different factions. For example, there are several types of snipers, which, apart from their appearance, hardly differ from each other. In addition to bipedal opponents, the game also has an extremely aggressive fauna – winged, creeping, jumping, spitting, and in a good way nasty looking.

A special kind of enemies are aliums and animals touched by the anomaly. Not only do they have supernatural powers, but they are also excellent at resisting our skills. If possible, they should be disposed of in the first place due to their extreme harmfulness. But it is not so easy to do this: no matter what battle we enter, there will always be many enemies and they will always be different, for the most part alternating all types of attacks.

The game also has bosses – aliums and animals with unique abilities, powerful attacks and a very large supply of health. The developers also promised huge monsters, but in the entire game you will only meet two really hefty monsters.

Yes, it’s Diablo in Gears of War’s shoes

One of the distinguishing features of Outriders is the difficulty system, which is referred to here as the “world level”. It works in the same way as in ordinary diabloids: with an increase, enemies become stronger, but the resulting loot also becomes more valuable.

There are 15 levels of the world in total. They open gradually, with a set of experience. On the first, opponents are two levels below the main character, and on the last – 12 levels higher. However, you should not be afraid of them or their formidable names, because with increasing difficulty, the maximum level of available equipment will increase. This partially (if not completely) compensates for the inconvenience, and also avoids the situation when enemies turn into bullet sponges. Elite opponents and bosses, of course, require a lot of lead to pacify, but the supply of HP from ordinary adversaries is quite adequate.

Even with the growth of the world level, the rarity of the dropped items increases. Somewhere from the middle, you will no longer come across white and green items – only rare and epic ones will remain. It is still unclear with legendary loot: even at maximum difficulty, I managed to get it only as a reward for quests or expeditions, and never in random battles. It’s a bug or a feature, it’s hard to say.

There are several other ways to hunt for loot, in addition to simply wandering around the world. There are side missions, which boil down to moving between points and killing everyone in the way. In one case, we literally only need to walk twenty meters and watch the cut-scene, but sometimes we come across funny and even touching little stories. You can also go hunting for animals, people or artifacts of the past, but there is not even a minimal plot background.

The main entertainment during endgame is expeditions. They represent several arenas with a lot of enemies and a boss fight at the end. You need to complete them in a certain time – the value of the loot depends on this, as well as the opening of new expeditions.

The expedition timer is a controversial mechanic. She, of course, adds excitement, but can seriously complicate the life of some gamers. First, it breaks the style of play for snipers who are accustomed to slowly eliminate enemies from a long distance. Secondly, the destroyer class focused on blocking attacks feels less valuable. These heroes deal damage more slowly than others, so they are often kicked from groups, because the essence of expeditions is the fastest possible gameplay.

Co-op and other sins of online gaming

Strictly speaking, a cooperative is, of course, a good thing. It’s always more fun to play with friends. And in the case of random games, everything is also very convenient – you can join and disconnect at any time. However, so far the co-op in Outriders is mostly negative.

Firstly, the units are designed for three people, that is, it is impossible to assemble all four classes. Secondly, there are no means of in-game non-verbal communication between casual partners. Third, bugs. Co-op is full of bugs – crashes, connection problems and other annoyances happen at every turn. For me, for example, the matchmaking mechanic does not want to work properly.

From the cooperative and its bugs, the biggest disadvantage of Outriders is born – the need for constant online: if the servers lie down, you will not even have access to single-player mode. And if Square Enix and People Can Fly suddenly go bankrupt or just decide to drop support for the game, it will turn into a digital brick. This is very unpleasant, especially considering that the shooter is quite suitable for singleplayer, even at high difficulty.

Here I would like to mention the transitions between locations and the developers’ strange love for blackouts. All transitions between locations are made in the form of small cut-scenes. Let’s say you need to get into the room behind the door – blackout, cut-scene with opening the door, blackout, the game continues. There is a blackout even when you open the inventory. The developers explained this decision as a technical necessity, and, strictly speaking, it does not cause harm, but it looks wild.