Let’s Determine If OUTRIDERS Is Right For You

Outriders is sitting in a pretty odd spot compared to other games. A variety of the game systems make it feel like a looter shooter comparable to the Division 2 or Destiny 2. However, the story and actual content is given makes it closer to Borderlands or even Diablo. I have logged in a lot of hours, but I feel more time is needed to be put into the end game to post a full review, that will be coming soon enough. Because Outriders is in such a unique situation, let's talk about the main factors and help determine if this is a game worth your time.

What is the gameplay like?

The gameplay will primarily consist of three major concepts, killing enemies, making builds, and sifting through the loot. The shooting in the game is very similar to any other third-person shooter. Think a solid mix of Gears of War and Uncharted, minus the cover system. Even though there is a solid cover system, if you’re using it more than twice in a fight, then you are playing the game wrong. Outriders rewards aggressive fighting by healing you through damage, kills, and abilities. As much as this is a looter shooter, abilities are just as important as your guns because of their enhancements, damage, and utility. It is fun just about all of the time, but if you aren’t a fan of waves/rooms of enemies for hours and hours on end, this might not be for you.

The second major concept is making builds. Now, you don’t have to be a master of perfect combos on gear or have 100% of the mods and gear in order to have fun and be a killing machine. The mod system in this game is smart, fairly simple, and close to amazing. To break it down, mods will appear on armor and weapons, when dismantling those items, the mods will be forever added to your crafting area and be able to be slotted on future weapons. After playing through the campaign and a few side missions on a technomancer and a dozen hours of devastator, I’ve only unlocked about a quarter of the mods. But this is a good thing and I have a good reason to keep playing. I’ve found crazy amazing mods that change up what weapons I want to use, what skills I use and where I allocate my skill points. There are some builds that are currently far more impactful than others, but hopefully, Square Enix will throw in some balance changes to allow players to kill effectively in any way they want. Even though mods can determine builds to some degree and greatly enhance gameplay, players can slap on just about whatever they want and create some intense chaos anyways.

The last section of gameplay is dealing with all the loot. The loot in Outriders is never mind-blowing. You’ll never find something and jump for joy or want to scream from the rooftops. However, just about all loot will be useful in a variety of ways. If players sell their loot, they can purchase guns or armor in an ever-rotating set of store items (which may have mods you don’t have yet). Players can also customize, level up and enhance to higher quality of loot and more or less shape them into whatever they want. It is nice to have such customization, but I doubt players will grind and grind to find that perfect stat gun or armor piece, but they might grind for missing mods or gear with a specific mod on it. The other notable thing about loot in this game is it is extremely easy to handle. Players can change a setting so that they pick up literally everything in the area with the press of one button. Players can also sell/dismantle loads of things at once, making inventory a breeze.

What is the campaign like?

At first glance, the story of Outriders and the character all seem pretty dull and generically taken from the pool of science fiction ideas. But after a few hours, the game actually takes shape pretty well and I became somewhat invested in how the game would end. If you are picking up Outriders for high-quality campaign design, massive set pieces, and compelling characters, it isn’t worth it...at all. There are some cool bosses and the battles stand as playgrounds for players to cause havoc, but this isn’t Halo, Uncharted, or Mass Effect. The characters and acting seem to get better as the game goes on, but I never picked up my controller with excitement about what would happen next in the story.

How long is the game?

If you are watching all the cutscenes, go through some quests and keep a normal pace of difficulty, I would say the campaign would take about 15-20 hours to finish. This number can fluctuate a lot. Depending on the player’s world tier, how much time they spend crafting and customization gear, how much end game content they go after, and how many side quests they pursue, this game could add up to another 10 or 15 hours of gameplay. All of this would be just on one character. 

If you are one to go through the game at a real breakneck speed, not caring much about the story or other side things, the game will feel a little short. But if you are a completionist, love exploring new ways to play, or trying out all the options, there are over 60 hours of content here (that’s including playing through and leveling up multiple characters). This isn’t a live service game, so we won’t be getting constant new drops of content and updates for years to come, so don’t expect that. We don’t know if we would get any DLC in the future, but how the game is set up and its relative success so far, it would be surprising to me if there was nothing else.

What’s the bad stuff?

During launch week and even now, bugs, log-in issues, and crashes are pretty easily found. The game runs pretty well most of the time, but I hit a few issues, crashes, and weird problems in my 20+ hours of play. The Outriders developers have been very vocal and open about fixing issues and have already dropped some fixes. I’m sure the game would be relatively issue-free in a month or two, but as of now, expect a bit of unpolished work.

Another issue I found with the game was that the greater difficulties or higher level content only changed enemy damage, aggression, enemy health, and loot drops. It is worth it to take on higher-level content to get better stuff, but don’t expect some cool or crazy complicated mechanics that require higher brain function.

This didn’t help at all, now what?

If this article didn’t help much, don’t worry, go try out the demo. Outriders has a surprisingly good demo that shows off some of the main mechanics. I would say that the full game does get much better with the story and the demo barely scratches the iceberg of customization and loot available. But the demo will do a good job of demonstrating the gameplay, abilities, and potential of the game.

Note: I played on both PlayStation 4 and PC. Most of my play time has been on PC (medium to high specs).