HANDS ON - Outriders Lacks Originality And Polish
Marcus did it better.
By Jay Tee
08/03/21
Previewed on Xbox Series X.
Outriders on paper is a winning formula; People Can Fly on development duties, well optimised for multiple platforms, and full fat cross play to ensure a minimal barrier of entry. But after extensive hands on time with the recent demo, we find a game struggling with its identity, an undercooked script, and not enough to differentiate it from better titles on the market.
There are countless examples of it starting out with halfway decent ideas, but being unable to fully capitalize on their inherent potential. Shooting is responsive, sure, with strong audio design on weapons and abilities, but navigating cover doesn’t feel slick enough for a game that rewards aggressive play with health regeneration. The problem is exacerbated further by moronic AI who do little in the way of putting up a meaningful challenge.
You can tell a huge amount of time has been invested into world building and fleshing out narrative context, but the writing is painfully oversimplified. Characters embrace well worn cliches and fail to connect, despite some earnest voice acting and a surprisingly hefty amount of cutscenes and story content. So again, while the intentions are good, the execution doesn’t quite land.
I found myself routinely disengaging from the action; a kind of auto pilot headspace kicks in, where you’re almost just going through the motions. The game runs well, and looks alright, but there just isn’t enough substance to the mechanics to keep the hooks firmly in place. That being said, Outriders has potential as a squad based co-op adventure. Going it alone is a fairly unremarkable experience, but throw in a couple buddies and things are elevated significantly.
It’s also nice to see a publisher go down the demo route instead of a beta (which is oftentimes used as a marketing push instead of a proper technical test). There is certainly something here, but Outriders’ bland personality and overreliance on the familiar hold it back from being a true scene stealer.
This key art is way cooler than the actual game.
TARPS?
At the bottom of some of our articles, you’ll see a series of absurd looking images (with equally stupid, in joke laden names). These are the TARP badges, which represent our ‘Totally Accurate Rating Platform’. They allow us to identify specific things, recognise positive or negative aspects of a games design, and generally indulge our consistent silliness with some visual tomfoolery.
