In the "Direct text" section, authors Express only their own opinion, which may not coincide with the opinion of the editorial Board (or may coincide). They are free to do it any way they want and in any format that is convenient for them. Everything is possible here.
At the end of January, we visited the people Can Fly Studio. This is a legendary team that has been engaged in shooters for 20 years. Its composition has changed a lot, but at the time it included people who gave us Bulletstorm, Painkiller and Gears of War: Judgment. And now she finally returns with Outriders — a new game in the original setting. We played the first three hours of the demo — and now we will tell you all the details.
For People Can Fly, this game is a kind of strength test. For too long, developers have been engaged in the Gears of War franchise under Epic Games. Now the team has agreed to cooperate with Square Enix — and decided to make a completely new, independent title.
Anomalous planet
What is the Outriders? This is a co-op shooter with RPG elements that can be played by up to three people. Immediately upset: against other players to fight will not work, only against bots. You create a character at the beginning of the game, choose one of the four classes, and go ahead.
Classes and skills
Three of the four classes were available in the demo. Trickster is something like an assassin. It has a teleport behind the enemy's back, time-slowing tricks,and increased damage. Pyromancer-arsonist, works at medium distances. In his Arsenal, a wave of fire, stopping opponents with ashes and spot burnings. Tank the same will Devastator. It flies into the heart of the battle, knocks back enemies and absorbs damage due to stone armor.
At the same time, you can only take three skills with you — they open when you reach the desired levels. We were shown four skills from each class, and so far there is an impression that the Trickster is too strong. The time-slowing dome is useful in any situation: enemies stop doing damage, you can recharge, and run for cover. And if you build a team of three of these, you can just take turns to defeat opponents and easily win shootouts. However, the developers insist that the game has much more variety.
According to the game's creators, archetypes like "tank" or "Ranger" can come from any class. You only need to correctly build and distribute skill points. But skills are not the only thing that will come in handy in battle. The hero's equipment is no less important. You can get it in two ways: either search the boxes and corpses of enemies, or buy from merchants for nafarmlennye resources. And some things can be obtained for side quests. In addition, weapons and armor are added modifiers that enhance skills or negative effects like Gorenje.
What upset you
A plot worked out on paper is great. But the city that was shown in the haze seemed empty: one merchant, one side quest, and a couple of sociable NPCs. And on external locations, it all comes down to skirmishes and collecting loot with resources. By the way, everyone has their own production in the coop, and it will not be possible to pass a gun to a friend — this also upset us a little. But we still did not play the final version: it is possible that the release of People Can Fly will finish and locations, and co-op, and everything else.
In General, Outriders is played as a hybrid of Destiny, Borderlands, and Gears of War. But not to say that the gameplay is particularly impressive: there is not much new in it. At least at the initial levels. Skirmishes are too simple and the same type — and this is the Central mechanics of the game! We can only hope that the battles will become more interesting in the later stages of the passage, when the hero is already pumped, and you have learned to work with the build. In the meantime, Outriders ' greatest strengths are its flexible character development system and storyline. The main thing is that they do not remain the only advantages of the game — but it will become clearer closer to the release. We have already passed our feedback to the developers personally, so we are waiting for the game this year. You can play on PC, PlayStation 4-5, Xbox One and Xbox Series X.