Outriders Review: Gameplay Impressions, Videos and Speedrunning Tips

Despite feeling familiar, Outriders is one of the most ambitious releases of 2021.  

It feels a little early in the year to make such a proclamation, but the cover-based looter-shooter is a strong combination of several juggernauts in that space, including Destiny and Diablo, with some Gears of War and even Mass Effect inspirations clearly felt. That, plus the fact brand-new franchises instead of sequels are just a brave thing to do these days. 

Developer People Can Fly hasn't blinked in the face of these challenges, though. Even better, the game has ignored some of the staples of the genre, such as the games-as-a-service model. This is a single-player game with co-op that makes it even better, minus all the competitive multiplayer stuff that holds back other similar titles. 

And did anyone mention it's a ton of fun? Outriders has clear-cut drawbacks and issues, especially once comparisons start flying, but it's a heavyweight game that could have some serious legs.

Graphics and Gameplay

Even graphically, Outriders will have to compete with Destiny-like comparisons. And that doesn't do it many favors. 

To paint in broad strokes, the largely horizontal levels throughout the game have some varying texture issues, and character models come off as a little stiff. Big setpieces off in the distance of levels attempt to provide scope, but it's hard to overlook some funky-looking trees or pathways. It's not a bad-looking game, but one can't help but think it feels dated at times.  

Still, old-feeling or not, there is a surprising amount of variety to each of the different locales, and they end up pretty memorable. It helps that the overall color palette is one of the most memorable in recent years, hitting on decadent darks and all ranges of the spectrum to keep things interesting. 

There seems to be a give-and-take thing going on with the immersion. In one of the bases, for example, there's a surprising amount of detail. There are bars, shops and plenty of spots worth looking at that do a bit of worldbuilding. There's great background noise, from conversations that flesh out the world and ambient sound that hints at much bigger things happening beyond what the player can see. 

But the drawback is the character models aren't all that great or varied. In one early example, a bare-knuckle boxing match up on a stage that NPCs have cluttered around to cheer on features identical NPCs actually fighting in the ring. Stand around long enough in any of these spots and repetitive dialogue and NPC movement tends to happen. It's deep, provided a player is on the go and not hanging around too long. 

One fun thing the game does well in the presentation department is the use of different camera angles and even some camera shake during cutscenes. It sounds like a little thing, but it keeps an otherwise so-so story interesting and gives off the vibe of huge Hollywood-style production values. 

In motion, performance holds up well, but it can be tough to see exactly what's happening once the big particle effects come out to play. To its credit, one can get distracted looking at those impressive effects and varied enemy times. 

It's hard not to think of Gears of War when playing Outriders thanks to the cover system. That's not a knock, either. Gears' cover system nailed down third-person shooters perfectly years ago, and this is largely much of the same. 

The cover system is momentum-based. Slide to the right side of a piece of cover and two clickable pieces of cover further up the way will have prompts on them. Slide to the left, it's the same deal. It feels familiar and works well. 

That said, the cover system is often too sticky and gets in the way despite the familiar feeling. Sometimes clicking the cover button just doesn't seem to do anything, which is a death sentence with enemies closing in and grenades flying. Other times, the character gets stuck as if he fell into an enemy's glue trap. 

That's all to say, it's not perfect, but it feels good enough to the point players don't have to think about it too often. When the problems rear, though, the whole momentum of gameplay can take a serious hit. 

Enemy A.I. is much better than expected out of the box. One of the many major issues with a recent game launch in this vein, such as Anthem, was the enemy A.I. that almost felt like a placeholder. They were mobs that had no real apparent goal in combat besides serving as cannon fodder. 

That's not the case here. Enemies are varied and smartly work together as teams. While long-ranged baddies take potshots from behind cover, melee types rush the player's position, to keep the example basic. Enemies will relocate smartly to new cover, too. 

Maybe the biggest catch there is it becomes a little laughable how consistently accurate enemies are with grenades. It's a mechanic to keep the player moving and prevent cheesing, but it can feel relentless.

But again, the idea is to keep the player right in the thick of things. Three of the game's four classes rely on mostly close-quarters combat to excel. That juggling of magic and weapons in the fray is where the flashbacks to the excellent Mass Effect 3 multiplayer comes into play.

What is sure to be the overwhelming favorite, the Trickster, has an amazing-feeling teleport ability to get up close and personal. That's key because the melee abilities grant shields that keep the character in the fight. The Devastator is more of a traditional tank, and the Pyromancer is exactly what it sounds like as a mid-range fighter. Only the Technomancer is technically a ranged-only hybrid of damage-dealing and support and/or heals for the other three. 

The core gameplay loop can be as simple or as deep as a player wants—and it is incredibly rewarding either way. The key is combining the three equipable class spells with complementary armor and weapon perks. Just going out in the world and trying out new builds is a blast, if not a little intimidating given the number of possibilities. 

That's all before trying to make a build mesh well with the build of other players—likely all to match a specific threat. 

As hinted, the classes feel quite a bit different from one another, which will encourage experimentation. There's a respectably large number of spells exclusive to each class that helps this feeling, though weapons and armor being equipable by any class is a boon all of its own.

Outriders handles difficulty through a World Tier system in the Diablo vein. It smartly scales with the player's level and abilities, though players can crank it up even higher for better loot drops. But, fair warning: Players can actually lose enough points to have the game lower the World Tier. 

When exploring, the world itself can be an issue. Sometimes it is just plain hard to tell what is traversable and what isn't, so players could spend some time trying to attach to a wall and leap over it to go explore and only end up looking like a goofball—it's merely the boundary to the current playable area. Some of this is the fault of the game looking good in the player area and out of bounds, but better-defined areas would help.

Boil it down into one word? Fun. There are some rough edges graphically and in gameplay, but the tradeoff is a big emphasis on the stuff that matters. 

Story and More

Outriders is a hard game to get a read on when it comes to the story and themes. It's very serious early, throws in an uptick in comedy later and then some weird dialogue and/or voice acting doesn't help. 

Narratively, the game is a little all over the place. Early on, one conversation includes a heartfelt story about someone's sacrificial father that turns into snapping selfies. The main character seems...edgy. He or she has quips here and there but usually comes off as disinterested. 

It's the sort of tale in which the player will probably find themselves invested but also forgetting the names of characters when they have a supposed big moment in the cutscene. Still, humanity needing to find ways to survive post-Earth, only to turn on each other in the presence of apparent beings with god-like powers, is fun despite the faults.  

To its credit, Outriders is as deep as a player wants it to be. If a player wants to treat it like a B-level sci-fi thriller while sprinting to the endgame, cool. But there are a ton of little lore details sprinkled throughout the world in conversations and discoverable journals, should players really want to dig in and get immersed. 

But now to the really important thing for a game like this—the loot. Players collect a ton of it, as expected while playing the percentages while trying to level up as the game itself clicks into gear. 

Like similar titles in the Destiny vein, the low-tier weapons and armor look bland and forgettable, and when players try to use the highest-rated items to stand the best chance at surviving, it looks like they took a trip to a dumpster and picked out some random junk. 

But that's the point usually in the looter genre—if the low-tier stuff looked great, it would hurt the really rare stuff. The problem is, some of the rarest stuff unlockable early on is hit or miss, visually speaking. That's an eye-of-the-beholder thing, really, but some rewards will astound, while others wouldn't get used were it not for certain perks. Regardless, players will use the most powerful stuff no matter how it looks, but the hope has to be that endgame items and the rarest of the rare are jaw-dropping in a way Gjallarhorn or Thorn were in a game like Destiny. 

Overall, it's just missing the charm of a series like Destiny. Some of this is the fault of the game's third-person perspective. Were it first-person, like some of its competitors in the genre, players would be up close and personal with their rarest guns at all times. In Outriders, guns are tucked in front of the character mostly out of sight as the camera centers behind and above the player. 

Those guns can level up and even have mod slots. Items necessary to do this mostly come from breaking down other weapons and gear, which makes for a solid feedback loop—all those pointless extra items looted during gameplay break down into something useful. 

The seemingly mandatory character skill trees are—as always—bloated with minor stat bumps as a player progresses. It's not a bad thing to make minor upgrades while pursuing a certain style of build, it's just tired because it's in most genres now. That said, the ability to re-spec whenever is just another big mark in the "good" column. 

We'd be remiss not to mention the fact Outriders doesn't have multiplayer in the PvP sense—which works to its favor. Games like Destiny have struggled since launch to balance single-player and competitive multiplayer at the same time, resulting in a pendulum that makes a gun or armor too strong for solo play and useless in multiplayer, or vice versa. 

Here, there aren't any balancing issues like that. Some things are overpowered and some things could use some help, but it's not a big deal because it doesn't hurt another user's experience in a multiplayer arena. Players can play how they want to play, and provided something isn't game-breaking, it's probably there to stay and part of the loose fun the game provides. 

As such, the game also respects a player's time. There isn't a games-as-a-service model in the Destiny vein aimed at pressing the fear-of-missing-out button. 

But there's always a but, and it's a big one here: Despite the respectable model, the game still has an always-online requirement. That's a bad way of doing things for what can be a single-player game, as evidenced by the alarming number of server crashes and disconnects on opening weekend even while playing alone, all before the game deactivated cross-platform play. 

The co-op component isn't A+ stuff, either, as players never know what they're going to get if they leave their own lobby open for randoms to join. There's a voting system, so randoms can't just spam through cutscenes or moments a player wants to see, but there also doesn't appear to be a viable voice chat option. 

Speedrunning Tips

Outriders could end up having a pretty healthy speedrunning scene once players really dive into the endgame. 

Given the wide range of player builds and weapons, it should be fun to see groups tackle speedrun missions as they level up and unlock the rarest of items in the game. The creativity needed within the game's constraints to blow through endgame content the quickest and get world-best or world-first times like those pursued in Destiny raids should make for an entertaining viewing experience. 

On a more basic level for the game's launch, speedrunning the story means the usual suspects pop up. Runners will need to take to memorizing every inch of every level while skipping cutscenes and dialogue. 

Out in battle, if playing co-op, the right team balance is a must. At this point, one of each class makes the most sense, with the Technomancer dealing out more healing than anything else, especially once things start getting really oppressive late in the game. 

If we're talking a solo speedrun, the Trickster might just be the best bet. Smartly weaving between cover points to get the drop on enemies, slowing time, slashing them up for extra shields and then teleporting out is a money set of actions for many encounters. Bosses will be a little tougher, but a nice combo of ranged weapons to deal out damage while abilities are on cooldowns should help. 

With a game this deep, the endgame speedrunning scene will look quite a bit different a few months post-launch, but it's just another element that ties the entire package together well.

Conclusion

Outriders isn't afraid to draw inspiration from other sources while elbowing for room with the juggernauts of its genre—also earning some goodwill merely for being a game without any of the microtransactions and pitfalls of the games-as-a-service model.

That isn't to say it is without its seriously rough edges. The issues from launch need to get cleaned up, and some of its in-game flaws can distract quite a bit. 

But as a whole, Outriders has some really fun gameplay and tried-and-true RPG systems working in the background of an overall well-made looter-shooter. 

Players will have to wait and see if, how and when Outriders evolves from here, but the game as-is now is a fun ride with a lot of longevity to it for those players who want to invest some time in the genre.