Companies Square enix and People can fly held a private show of the game Outriders for the European press. We were able to go through one story mission with a side task and evaluate the basic gameplay.
Because of the pandemic, all this happened through a streaming service – the game was launched and recorded on a powerful PC in London with the ability to remotely control. The quality of the video stream to Moscow turned out to be weak, and I had noticeable lags, which made the graphics difficult to see, the gameplay sensations were blurry, and managing the character was not easy.
Fortunately, in the second half of the demonstration, technical experts were still able to reconfigure the server. This allowed me to get a real feel from Outriders, so I gladly agreed to re-run the demo at a higher level of complexity. Here they are called “Tier” and reflect the state of the world. The higher the difficulty, the more cool loot drops. In addition, the pressure of artificial intelligence of enemies increases, which begin to actively use special abilities.
There were few narrative scenes in the demo version – mostly I watched conversations on the walkie-talkie, small screensavers with the appearance of some opponents, and the final video of the mission. Therefore, the quality of the story could not be estimated.
But then I was able to fight enough. Outriders combat system reminds Gears of war and Mass effect, but at the same time, the developers greatly improved control and expanded the capabilities of the hero, not forgetting to work out the recoil and unique features of the weapon.
Shooting at Outriders is great. I played on the Xbox 360 controller and felt every weapon in its own way. Even guns of the same class can have unusual effects that change the gameplay.
Given the fact that they allow you to quickly switch between three types of weapons, the game motivates you to create your own combinations of deadly ligaments. For example, you can stop a detachment of enemies with a weak pistol that ignites opponents and turns them into ash statues for a while, and then switch to a gun that creates explosive waves.
A heavy machine gun, a fast machine gun and shotguns can also be endowed with additional capabilities and are suitable in a particular situation.
The developers were inspired Diablo and Destiny, so the equipment drops abundantly from opponents and turns out at levels.
All weapons are available to any class. Moreover, classes have their own unique skills. I played as a warrior who is trained in teleportation, creating zones of slowing down time, energy blades and other magic tricks. He also quickly restores health from attacks on the enemy.
Some skills help navigate the level. Let’s say the same teleportation allows you to quickly jump to the second floor of the building – straight to the sniper. It can be perfectly combined with weapons. For example, to teleport behind the enemy’s back and kill him with one powerful shotgun shot.
Only three abilities can be equipped and used during shootings at the touch of a button. After applying the skill goes to reboot. If you have more skills open, then you can replace the active tricks in the character menu. There you can dress the hero in new armor. By the way, the menus themselves are very reminiscent of Destiny, but the cursor movements are not so smooth.
As I wrote above, depending on the level of complexity, the aggressiveness of AI changes, which begins to actively use magic. For example, an enemy can create a portal and teleport the hero directly into the fire. It’s really possible to escape from the portal, as well as from the traps that some opponents throw.
Opponents go in large squads where there are melee units, gunners with machine guns, snipers, reinforced warriors with shotguns, and even mini-bosses.
After death, some opponents reserve a grenade that explodes. This and many others make you constantly on the move.
Given the good artificial intelligence at advanced levels of difficulty, where the game makes you sweat, well-developed guns and character abilities, Outriders is a very fun and dynamic shooter. It should appeal to fans of the genre.
Another thing that impressed me was the clever camera change system, which solved the problem of the genre when shootings take place in narrow rooms. Outriders smoothly switches to first-person mode and then returns back so that the player always has a better view of the situation. It is very convenient.
The developers promise unique levels for each story mission, in which you do not need to constantly return. That is, before us is a game in structure closer to Gears of War, not Destiny. At the same time, there was one side area in the presented location – a fork in the road led to the plant with its original, albeit small task.
For convenience, the developers made a quick movement system, allowing you to return to the desired section of the level, activating special markers.
Outriders will be released not only on Ps4, Xbox one and PCbut also on Xbox Series X and PS5. Unfortunately, due to the streaming, it was not possible to fully evaluate the schedule, because the picture suffered due to artifacts of the video stream (especially in the first half of the demonstration). But according to the first sensations, we just have a good level for a modern project.
The developers came out with nice environmental elements, like pieces of buildings flying in the air, blue luminous particles and a huge spaceship in the background, but it seems that Outriders are noticeably inferior in appearance to last year Gears 5 on PC and the same Destiny 2.
At the same time, the locations are interactive – many objects nicely fall into pieces during a dynamic action, and the grass sways pleasantly from the wind.
Surround sound helps you immerse yourself in the gameplay.
After the first meeting, Outriders seems to be a potentially great role-playing shooter created with an eye on fans of Gears of War, Mass Effect, Diablo and Destiny. With basic mechanics, the game has complete order. Now it remains to understand how interesting the levels and the story itself will turn out. Therefore, we are waiting for the release of the game at the end of this year.
Read also: Top 10 of the best anime winter 2023: Summing up, which pleased.
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