Watch and listen 🎮🗣

The Outriders demo recently released on PS5. This footage is gameplay of me playing the first hour of the demo. Along with that there is commentary from me during the gameplay. I hope you enjoy the video! Learn more about this game in written form in the blog below the video.

What is Outriders❓

Embark on a co-op-focused, sci-fi shooter experience from People Can Fly, the developer behind Bulletstorm.
As mankind bleeds out in the trenches of Enoch, you’ll create your own Outrider and embark on a journey across the hostile planet. With rich storytelling spanning a diverse world, you’ll leave behind the slums and shanty towns of the First City and traverse forests, mountains and desert in the pursuit of a mysterious signal. Combining intense gunplay with violent powers and an arsenal of increasingly twisted weaponry and gear-sets, Outriders offers countless hours of gameplay from one of the finest shooter developers in the industry – People Can Fly. ^Source

My first impressions 🌌

The few trailers I had seen of Outriders had me pretty excited to get a chance to play it. I was expecting something akin to one of my all time favorite shooters, Gears of War. The cover based shooting mechanics definitely remind me of Gears a bit. However I’d say that Outriders is more of a blend of Destiny and The Division, with slight hints of Gears of War. If you’re like me, then you probably enjoyed all three of the games that I just mentioned. Combining all three though, that’s some dangerous alchemy.

Did the devs pull it off? Kind of.

I first had to create a character, but don’t expect a ton there. I was able to make my guy (or girl) look cool, but the options were kind of limited. Not like it mattered a whole lot, since bad ass armor/helmets would be one of the main things in this game. The only time you will really see your character is during cutscenes, which to be honest aren’t much to write home about. The story of this game seems fairly decent, but the animations and characters in the cutscenes were just bland. The gameplay is where this game has the large majority of its firepower stored.

Be prepared to go through a rather long and boring tutorial before you actually get to start using all of your altered abilities. The game takes you through a story driven tutor session of sorts, I was dying to kill some baddies by the time I finally got through the initial part of the game.

The shooting mechanics feel pretty good, but far from perfect. For instance I didn’t receive and feedback when getting a headshot and that is a must for me. A sound effect at least, remember the bead popping sound from Gears? That was the headshot sound of all time. Sadly there isn’t any sound effect for a headshot in Outriders.

The cover system works fairly well too, but again it is not perfected. I often found myself getting stuck on cover or going towards the wrong wall only to be left in open fire. Luckily when it does work, it’s actually useful. Expect to be relying on cover a lot, it’s what the game mechanics are built around.

The only way to heal in Outriders is to cause damage towards your enemies. Different charterers heal in different ways, but all involve hurting those who are attacking you. It’s a pretty cool mechanic and means you can’t just hide behind a wall and wait for your health to go back up. This keeps the action going and when you are playing with friends I imagine your health is constantly being refilled.

There is one huge thing that I wish was in the game, but is not. DualSense support. How are you going to leave that out? I understand this is a cross-generation/platform game, but still. I was hoping to feel my footsteps by way of haptics and possibly the adaptive triggers when shooting the guns. Sadly neither is present and about the only thing I can say that my controller took advantage of was when I was forced to ride in a big tank-like vehicle the vibrations were super strong, but often times would cut out for no reason. This is a big missed opportunity any time a game disregards the revolutionary DualSense PS5 controller.

4 different paths 💀🔥🥷🛡

After enduring the grueling intro, I was finally left with a decision I actually cared about. Your character is what the game calls altered and there are four different altered paths for you to select from. They all were pretty darn cool and it took me several minutes to actually decide which one I wanted to play. Luckily the demo says you can restart and try a different altered path without having to play through the intro again, after you finish it the first time. Another cool feature is that you can carry your demo gameplay progress over towards the full game when it releases.

Let’s take a look at each of the paths briefly:

The Technomancer
^{Long range and heals by of giving damage no matter the circumstances. Think sniper mixed with engineer. Some abilities will allow you to create turrets and other useful gadgets for instance.}
The Pyromancer
^{Medium range and heals by eliminating marked enemies. Likes to play with fire and has many area of effect attacks.}
The Trickster
^{Close range and heals by killing face to face. An assassin who strikes from the shadows. Teleportation abilities allow you to get in and get out precisely.}
The Devastator
^{The tank who heals from close quarters combat. Hulk smash your way through the opponents while your teammates assist from afar.}

My Pyromancer 🧯☄️🎇

I decided to release my inner arsonist and go with the fire powered path. So far it seems like a pretty good choice. I am able to throw a wall of flames that ignites everyone in its path. I have two melee attacks, one punches the enemy with fire and the other smashes the ground and releases flames from the earth. There is an ability which sets the enemy on fire and pulls them towards you. The last one I’ve unlocked so far sets the attacker ablaze and freezes them in place either until they explode or until you release them.

There are many different abilities to unlock as you level up, plus a skill tree that provides even more. I’ve yet to progress through it very far, but I do like that you can switch out your abilities on the fly.

The abilities are by far the coolest thing in the game, I can’t wait to explore the other paths and see which one turns out being the most fun to play.

Looter shooter 💰🔫💎

If you play this game, be prepared to grind for sick gear. The legendary armor suits in this game look pretty freaking amazing. I’m sure they will provide some huge gameplay advantages while also being aesthetically pleasing. There are all sorts of cool weapons waiting to be discovered as well.

This is another area that the game has a chance to shine. If they can offer a lot of unique items with minimal microtransactions, then that’s another plus to go along with the awesome abilities.

I guess we will see if this game gets better by the time it releases on April 1. 2021. As of now I don’t plan on purchasing it, but I’m glad I have had the opportunity to play the demo.

Let me know what you think.

Thanks for checking out my video and blog 😎🤝

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The first hour of the Outriders demo on PS5