This month, Square Enix and People Can Fly released the demo for their upcoming action-RPG, Outriders.
Set in the future, Outriders follows a group of humans who escape to the stars after the destruction of Earth. Dubbed as Outriders, you control these soldiers as they scout ahead on the planet Enoch to secure a new settlement for humanity. However, things quickly go awry and your character is forced into cryo sleep, awaking 30 years later to a planet ravaged by war and possessing new powers.
Players will find that the demo offers up a sizable slice of the experience in Outriders. Up to three friends can team up, and any progress made in Outriders will also carry over into the main game when it releases.
Players have access to both the prologue and the first chapter of Outriders story with a small sprinkling of side quests to complete. Also, all four classes are playable and the prologue can be skipped to try each one.
Based on the initial hours of the Outriders demo, it is a game that comes across as a chimera of different design philosophies. The tone and color palette of Outriders echoes the grey and grittiness of the late 2000’s/early 2010’s era of gaming. Dialogue is overly self-serious with technobabble about “Altered” this and “Enoch” that, with a healthy amount of profanity laced throughout.
The atmosphere of the game feels oppressive with its muted color tones. Rusted metal and smoky grey dominate the world of Outriders, like the planet was created by a god who watched one too many Zack Snyder films.
On the other hand, Outriders shares a lot of its DNA with more modern games and pushes itself as the new hotness in live-service titles. Think something along the lines of the cover-based combat and loot grind of the Division with a sprinkling of super abilities like you see in Destiny.
While the overall world is rather drab and uninteresting, combat is a different story entirely. Gunplay is explosive with meaty sound design and gory feedback as enemies are blasted into red chunks. The loot system in Outriders also gives the chance for exciting combinations, like assault rifles that deal cryo damage and can freeze enemies in their steps.
However, even more interesting than that is the abilities. Each class focuses on a different playstyle, but they all promote aggression as a key tenant in combat.
For the trickster class, it promotes evasion and getting up close to your enemies. The trickster has access to abilities such as a targeted teleport and placing a dome of energy that slows enemies and projectiles that are caught in the force field. The trickster also gains access to a close-range blade that shears the flesh of those who are within its strike before exploding. These abilities are as fun to toy around with as they are excessive.
Overall, the demo is a bit of nice mindless fun but may only appeal to fans who are interested in a new, co-op looter shooter experience. Even then, it remains to be seen if Outriders can pull diehard fans of similar games like the Division and Destiny into its ecosystem.
Everything is functional with Outriders, but it struggles to make itself stand out. As of now, the story is too bland to be invested into, and while the gameplay is fun, it hardly feels innovative.
This demo was played on an Xbox Series X, and, while it did run at a stable 60 fps, visually, it is just okay. Perhaps from a technical standpoint it looks better than expected, but the overall art design is generic and lacks a unique visual flair that makes this particular title stand out.
The Outriders demo is out now and is free on PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Series S/X and PC. The full game releases on April 1.
