REVIEW: Outriders, a great and incomplete game waiting for updates

Unfortunately for players, it has become common to launch “unfinished” games. Trailers can lie, microtransactions are hidden from any previous demo, or worse, performance doesn't live up to the promises made. However, it is rare for a game to have only one (huge) problem that completely unbalances it. In case of Outriders, which reached the public on the 1st of this month, the biggest flaw is the connection instability. It only gets worse when we discover the obligation to be online – and playing with friends is also more fun.

Fixes were made last weekend with the first patch update, but there is still a lot to be done until the Polish game People Can Fly reach a pleasant state, which matches the proposed genre of looter shooter, where the player's objective is to kill enemies and collect items. no wonder, Outriders follows the formula of other famous games and drinks from the source of Bulletstorm e Gears of War, from the same developers, with RPG elements and mechanics arcade fun.

well, we play Outriders since launch day and we tell you in this review the strengths, weaknesses and everything that can improve, testing the game in Xbox Series X and PC.

history/atmosphere

With resource crisis and global warming, humans are forced to live in space. Colonization of a new planet looks promising, but soon proves to be an apocalypse of its own. Now with powers (elemental spells), the character controlled by us must explore unknown lands, find mysterious beings and conquer the territory together with his team. Create your character, choose one of the four classes and go into action.

In practice, the story of Outriders it only serves to justify killing enemies, so let's pretend it really matters. Ironies aside, the game's universe is told in dialogues and, for the most part, in the protagonist's diary, accessible through the menu. Anyone who wants depth can watch each animation of the sidequests and try to care a little more about the (disposable) characters who are by our side. The narrative is not a demerit nor a special point to be commended in this review.

On the other hand, the atmosphere of the game itself deserves praise. Areas have a unique setting, can be explored and, with the help of the map, you even feel in an open world game. However, the linearity is not fooled, as there are three or four main missions for each section. From a dystopian city dense with humans to forests and deserts occupied by giant creatures, ruled by a greater mystical force, we are led to fulfill tasks and understand the unfolding of this disoriented plot.

Playing the campaign and the sidequests de Outriders for two weekends (and certain days at night), I claim that they are about 30 hours until the end of the game. There is a limited “epilogue” state that brings expeditions, being extended versions of the main campaign missions, with different difficulty modifiers. However, nothing prevents you from redoing missions and trying to get better loot, because all the moments of the story can be remade, just a quick selection in the LOBBY.

Gameplay

Most of the discussion about Outriders it's in the gameplay. It is undeniable that the genre carries with it a need for repetitions. similar, as Destiny e The Division, know very well what that means. A positive point is that, thanks to the great design and the progress mechanics, it is not necessary to go to the gate (repetitive actions aimed at leveling up, generally) at any point in the game.

The game was never intended to be an “open world” as The Division, so it doesn't disappoint on that account. In terms of exploitation, there is the dearest almost travel (fast travel) to save you from traversing the entire map on foot. When arriving at a new location, you find a point to plant the banner and this becomes the travel point. The problem is that between new areas of the map ordered by the story chapters, you have to go back to the main camp, talk to an NPC, tell the region to travel, wait for all the loadings and only then can you give the almost travel in the new region.

In the camps you will also find the point of matchmaking, to organize matches with strangers. Optionally, at any time you can go back to the menu and invite a friend (from any platform) to join “your world” and help you kill enemies. Even though there's a glaring difference in levels between you, the top player's firepower is smartly balanced, and as a trade, the items acquired are befitting the act of the story.

O world level, however, dictates how difficult your gameplay will be, having a greater impact on the difficulty of enemies. More brave can put it up and this will result in more chances to get better items. Just see snippets of gameplay to make it obvious that each common enemy is like a boss by the time we reach level 15. I played most of the game in tier 5, which put the enemies two levels above mine, and the challenge was enough. Those who are more “adventurous” can leave the increasing difficulty on auto mode, so if you unlock a tier above the current one, the game will raise the difficulty without warning you.

By reference, there are different types of enemies, regardless of the “group” or setting. When the rivals are human (or bipedal, human-like), there are those who run towards you for melee attacks, the snipers, the heavy ones with machine guns and the “ordinary” ones with standard assault rifles. When the rivals are monstrous aliens, there are the weakest ones that surround you (in large numbers), the ones that spit acid, the giants that kill you in a few hits and those that have special powers from a distance.

The artificial intelligence didn't distract me at all, so I think it was complementary to the gameplay of Outriders – no special highlights. For those who play with a friend, there may be an “attention relay” given to each one, so if you catch the attention of bosses, your partner can calmly deal with the problems. minions. The grace is when you choose to follow a different class, resulting in a powerful combo when defeating enemies.

speaking of college, we have four: Pyromancer (close combat, with fire powers), Trickster (Stealth, who teleports), Devastator (tank, earth) and Technomancer (tactical, support). With each one you have the differential of a possible trio of abilities, which are nothing less than supernatural powers dictated by the class. For controller gamers, they are always within easy reach with the LB/L1, RB/R1 buttons and a combination of both for a third attack.

The secret to good gameplay is the balance between decent equipment, weapons that match your playstyle, the type of mission, and the right time to use your special powers. Ironically, you put yourself in the line of fire to recover health - and that requires agility and comfort with mechanics, something you gradually acquire with Outriders. That's why you always need to juggle these pillars, while trying to kill enemies to heal and dodge while waiting for your powers to recharge.

Once you've unlocked all 8 abilities/anomalies, you can test the one best for your playstyle, sacrificing their long-term aesthetic rewards. Along with that, you have the skill tree to improve your character, with stamina, attack, lifesteal and other RPG clichés. To the delight of many, the skill tree can be reset at the push of a button, at any time, free of charge.

Dealing with weapons and loot itself, we have the classic rarity classification system. For protection you have a helmet, body shield, pants and boots. In terms of firepower, you can carry two main weapons and one secondary. A highlight is the button dedicated to collecting nearby items, which made the difference in dozens of hours of gameplay. The only rarity of an item with a visual differential (other than just a colorful painting) is the Legendary, which gets a special design and has modifiers brutal.

Os mods of the items are, as the name implies, modifiers that give an additional layer of customization. A basic weapon can carry a modifier acquired on a legendary weapon, for example, making a poison effect possible on its target. Luckily, you can choose to dismantle items in your inventory at any time, or sell them when you're in base. By dismantling them, you permanently unlock the modifier.

With the NPC responsible for the modifications, you can choose between several options: improving rarity, better attributes, modifiers or the level of the weapon itself. You mods Freeze and Post-Death Burst are great in any situation, in a powerful combo with weapons.

Leaving the player in control of the situation is one of the strongest points of Outriders. Even with hundreds of possible combinations, at no time was I forced to select mods specifics before facing a horde. Each item serves more as a “test” possibility in order to improve your experience by killing enemies. See what works for you and focus on that, creating more possibilities as you progress and find new weapons/mods by the way. Change when necessary or improve your current equipment; you choose.

Visual and Audio

As praised above, Outriders opts for a unique aesthetic for each chapter of history. There are different biomes and you, as a player, are surrounded by a very palpable atmosphere. The desert and the forest were the ones that drew the most attention, apart from the location at the base of a volcano that brings a surprising boss. This is a reflection of the excellent work of the art team, taking the lore as a reference for the development of climates and scenarios. A quick read through the diary reveals that everything has been carefully thought through.

It's a shame that the story itself can't "sell" the curiosity to explore the biography of the characters, who make jokes and may well die in the next chapter without you missing it. So as much as there is work, it cannot create player empathy, which might be different if the game was set on Earth and you were interested in knowing what happened to the planet.

The animations of the characters are effective in developing the narrative – there was motion capture, given the naturalness – and the dubbing in Portuguese is also good. In terms of audio, apart from the trio of powers, the weapons couldn't convey the pleasure of pulling the trigger like other games. Making a direct parallel to the few titles of Gears of War I've had the pleasure of playing, nothing compares to the Lancer (rifle with electric saw at the tip).

Regarding rhythm, we have an immersion break in transitions. At each mission start, your character lifts a log/opens a door/jumps into a hole, which is a physical block that prevents you from accessing the new area. The problem is that, in these moments, there are loading to display the scene and one more to load the map section, with the screen going dark on both loadings. Let's face it: if this happens even on the new generation of consoles, we have clear evidence of poor optimization.

Outriders performance

Xbox Series X, for Allan Camilo

Until after the first major update, Outriders was unexpectedly terminated in the middle of one of my gaming sessions. This is a practical way of summarizing what was the lack of confidence with the game, even though I managed to play it without sudden drops in frames. playing in X series, I was able to create a party (group/session) to play online with friends on other platforms, a strong point of the game coming in a dense phase of transition of generations.

Furthermore, the loading was considerably fast playing alone, quite equivalent when I activated the crossplay to be with Felipe (on the PC). However, with a friend playing in Xbox One, whether in my party ou na party it was triple the time. Following the premiere, I enjoyed two weekends without unexpected connection drops, but I was still “on the back foot” waiting for a crash unexpected.

Two glitches managed to break my game in these moments of loading. One of them wiped out my HUD (overlay information on the screen like health and ammo), another one deprived me of attacking enemies, both melee and with powers/weapons. Over time, I learned that all I had to do was go into the inventory or, in another instance, get knocked out by an enemy, and everything was back to normal.

The internet connection requirement was a weak point, as the instability of the servers prevented me from playing alone in my spare time. On a 4K screen, Outriders ran as imagined (at times when there was no connection drop, of course), doing justice to the current generation. There are only a few tweaks and future updates left to improve this experience.

PC, for Philip Vidal

Outriders it is a great counterpoint of experiences and expectations. Although it has a cliché and too generic story, its gameplay is very fun and the characteristic of being a looter shooter deepens this form of entertainment. However, Showmetech also analyzed a PC copy kindly sent by NVIDIA in the last days. Moving on to a slightly more technical field, Outriders does well when it comes to multi-machine optimization.

Generally, games multiplayer are not so famous for running well on weaker machines, but mainly games linked to Square Enix, are essentially problematic. the title of People Can Fly, however, deviates from this rule and surprised me positively in some aspects.

Games usually don't follow the minimum and recommended requirements stipulated by the developers so well, but Outriders seems to stick to those specifications for the lowest requirements.

Minimum Requirements	Recommended requirements
Operating System: Windows 10	Operating System: Windows 10
Processor: Intel i5-3470 or AMD FX-8350	Processor: Intel i7-7700 or AMD Ryzen 5 1600
Memory RAM: 8 GB	Memory RAM: 16 GB
GPU: Nvidia GeForce GTX 750Ti or AMD Radeon R9 270x	GPU: Nvidia GeForce GTX 1060 6 GB or AMD Radeon RX 480 8 GB
DirectX: DirectX 11	DirectX: DirectX 12
Space: 70 GB	Space: 70 GB

Outriders is very successful in not being heavy on processors, making entry-level models support gaming well. In our tests, a Intel Core i5-6600 4 cores and 4 threads did very well and manages to deliver an experience with average quality and some filters at the top at 60 frames in Full HD with an 480GB RX8 and 16GB of RAM.

Parallel, Outriders has a great feature linked to better performance on PCs: the DLSS-2.0. O Deep Learning Super Sampling is a technology of NVIDIA and only works on RTX family boards. This feature uses Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning to render high resolution images and improve gaming performance.

In practical terms, for example, DLSS takes a native resolution at 1440p and renders the frames at a lower resolution with fewer pixels. Thanks to AI, the feature resizes the image scale and resolution and fills in the remaining pixels due to artificial intelligence processing, reducing the load on the graphics card.

The function is also used to correct anti-aliasing problems in games and ensures more stability when playing. in Outriders DLSS 2.0 runs flawlessly. In tests with an RTX 2080 and an Intel Core i7 – 8700K in Quad HD resolution (2560x1440p) on ULTRA the game is on average at 70 frames, and when activating DLSS for performance mode the gameplay is in the range of 120 to 130 frames stably.

DLSS again stands out in the PC gaming scene, and in addition to being revolutionary for gamers, it is an extraordinary way to increase the longevity of cards and provide better experiences. in game.

Se Outriders has an interesting optimization in our tests we can't say the same about the PC experience. From day one the game was attacked by hundreds of bugs, server problems, others bugs e crashes. 

Um patch was finally released for all platforms on 10/04 and indeed fixes and significantly improves the player experience. However, before the update, it was extremely normal to not be able to connect to play the game. multiplayer, or even not being able to see the HUD, that is, the information about health, ammo and aim during the gameplay.

Nevertheless, the patch released was a big relief for Outriders, but the People Can Fly title still suffers from connection difficulties, problems activating the crossplay and high latency during games.

Conclusion

Outriders is available for playstation 4/5, Xbox One/Series X/S and PC (Steam) By R$279,90 and also free of charge for members of the Game Pass (game subscription) on both Xbox generations. Paying for a game that doesn't work frustrates (rightly) any player, so for those who purchased Outriders on Xbox the feeling of “betting” was more relaxed. He is far from a Cyberpunk 2077, which clearly has a lot to improve over the course of a year, but suffered from the success of the debut and the lack of confidence with the connection in the first few weeks.

A normal among reviewers, in this week that follows the launch of the game, is to indicate Outriders with a warning: it is good, unstable and can improve. Showmetech subscribes to this recommendation below, with the defense that it is worth “trying it out” on Xbox for those who already subscribe to Game Pass. As a whole, the feeling of annihilating enemies using supernatural powers is pleasant and this makes the game quite addictive, but it might be worth waiting a few days for connection improvements.

So, did you like our review of Outriders? Will you play it? Tell us in the comments below!