Xbox Outriders Review – Action galore with powers

People Can Fly offers plenty of action in a satisfying mishmash of genres

That in video games almost everything is already invented, we know it very well, but that Outriders borrowing what works from third-person shooters and making it your own is another thing. The study People can fly, known for works such as Bulletstorm o Gears of War: Judgment, dares to mix genres such as action, loot or the use of powers with a strategic approach.

And on this occasion, the Polish study will tell us how humanity seeks another chance to survive after leaving a defenestrated planet Earth. The Outriders, a special body dedicated to the search for the stars for a new home that will take us to the planet Enoch.

This paradisiacal destination seemed appropriate due to the weather, vegetation and animal species we could live with, but soon after we arrived our luck was twisted. A spectacular storm, described by scientists as “anomaly”, destroys most of the expedition and a very small part gives them strange powers.

Thus, our protagonist wakes up from cryonics after many years on a planet where survival and the search for resources confront different parties in cruel battles. After this spectacular staging, everything becomes less interesting because it is focused on the action, and its characters are totally lacking in charisma.

As a reviewer of someone in love with great stories and who sees the enormous potential of Lore wasted, perhaps the opportunity to narratively delve deeper into the characters who live in Enoch has not been wasted. But the study mainly focuses on combat and equipment.

It is technically insufficient

Let’s talk about the audiovisual part first, something that for better or for worse has been under scrutiny for years and although at first the visual effects and landscapes of the impact of Enoch, later this next-gen shock becomes a passable game, with spectacular settings and others that are totally sterile and generic.

the facial animations, the expressions and the general performance of the characters in the cutscene, besides having flaws (which they will probably correct shortly), convey to us the desolation of the desolate world in which we find ourselves. Likewise, textures in both cutscenes and in-game appear blurry and ill-defined at times.

Like I said, I have different feelings about the visual level, because in some parts it feels like a next-gen game and in others it goes back a few years. Adding that to the generic designs and the remastered print, maybe People Can Fly should give it a touch up (they sure will because of how successful they are).

As for the soundtrack, it has some spectacular pieces, like the main theme of the menu and other moments of the game, but many others that go somewhat unnoticed. Although today, we appreciate that a title is completely dubbed in Spanish, with absolutely correct performances.

On the other hand, the sound effects ensure you get into the action fully, and despite the lack of variety, the quality of execution provides a very satisfying experience and perfect location of enemies on the map.

The action is the best part

And speaking of subject, the studio manages to catch up with the player despite their failures, delivering devilishly fun and challenging gameplay dividing the progression of difficulty into what they call “Global CategoryWith 15 levels that we can select at any time, the level of enemies will be adjusted in this way as well as the reward obtained.

What mutation, in the prologue we will have to choose our class that plays with long range attacks such as Tecnomancer, which gains health by simply dealing damage to the enemy. Two other classes focus on close engagements, such as the Devastating (or tank) or Trickster who uses illusions to confuse and can teleport around the stage. Finally, at medium distance and the class that caught my attention the most was the Pyromancer, which uses fire displaying spectacular and very enjoyable combat power.

Each class has a skill tree own which has several branches or “builds” and which we must complete as it best suits our way of playing. With each level that we go up there will be a skill point to spend, but at any time we can undo what is unlocked to rearrange the tree.

Likewise, the powers, assigned to the buttons RB, LB and by pressing both at the same time placing them in 3 spaces, are several in each mutation class, being able to choose them or configure them as desired. As we progress, different powers will be activated to interrupt the enemy and gain health.

And that’s another key to the game, to replenish vitality not with medical kits, but by using our powers so that once we kill enemies using them, we drain their lives into our own. Believe me that it is essential to know how to use them at the right time and to choose the powers to equip in each mission. We will be sorely missed by the diabolical difficulty.

The game is based on gear ordered by rarity, as many titles like The Division do, and with the ability to equip modifiers that not only increase potency, but also change the state of enemies by freezing them, freezing them, stopping them or draining their vitality.

As a loot-based game, enemies will drop equipment and weapons of different rarities on the stage, in addition to finding boxes in different parts of the world, but maybe the amount we collect will seem excessive. To such an extent that being unbalanced, our inventory will be filled with garbage to cut (to obtain improvements).

The rewards may not be right for the player most of the time, and Hunting Parties and “Wanted” posters are the best alternatives for better armor and weapons. You get a high rarity item just as quickly, because after a while you find a much more powerful common rarity item, albeit without modifiers or not very useful.

In each camp we can increase the level of the items in our inventory, the currency of which is iron, leather, scrap fragments and the most valuable, the titanium, essential to increase the rarity of any weapon or item of clothing. But the latter is only found in the face of captains or the breaking of valuables.

Many want to compare the Outriders to Gears of War, but in my opinion it’s more like Destiny or The Division, but it’s not a game as a service. The use of cover is not quite correct, and the provision of obstacles to cover us is somewhat artificial and much less complex than in the Microsoft saga.

The armament is divided into a primary weapon and a secondary weapon and a handgun (with infinite ammo, but changing to this one doesn’t make me very agile. To this little obstacle we add the “may” of duty constantly changing equipment when we have weapons or protections of a better level, since the combat is a hell of bullets, although very satisfying.

How intense are the confrontations with the final bosses or mini-bosses (which have few minis) with several phases and different attack behaviors as the complex combat progresses. From giant spiders, huge monsters, overwhelming captains or mutations like us, the title guarantees fun as we progress through the story.

A linear story but with a lot of content

As we said before, this is not a game as a service, but there is a common thread, where we follow the history of mankind against Moloch and his raiders. In addition to that, we have at our disposal side missions with a very good story and some are even better than the main one.

As if that weren’t enough, monster hunting parties or bandit hunting is a good argument to stop for a bit and level up while we get some scrumptious rewards and complete the lore of the game. will allow us to move around the map as we unlock it and return to full towns merchants and stories to discover.

We can do all of this on our own, but I recommend playing with up to 2 friends to complete our powers and get the experience more intensely. Or use matchmaking to play with users around the world for the toughest matches, but don’t think it’ll make it easier. Bullets will rain everywhere.

Conclusions.

In the end, Outriders disguises itself as a narrative title, but its heart is the action in abundance and the pursuit of perfection as a mutation, with a poorly calibrated looting system until the last levels, where it ultimately becomes more satisfying. Dropping equipment may be abusive, and we spend a lot of time checking item levels at the same time we are discarding them.

The enormous difficulty is more of a motivation than an obstacle, but knowing how to assess confrontations is the player’s job, so I recommend stopping before embarking on the confrontation. But also frustrating is the low level of rewards after a difficult mission that we had to retry several times.

With huge connection issues, which have had players for hours and hours without even being able to play on their own, and animations that are irrelevant to jumping a bridge, it shows that despite its AAA price, People Can Fly should work on something more to fine-tune these aspects. to provide a rounder experience.

Outriders is available for Xbox one, Xbox Series X | S with new generation optimization and Smart Delivery with the possibility of playing on Game Pass, Playstation 4, PS5 and PC via Steam. Many thanks to Koch Media for providing us with the code to perform this scan on Xbox Series X.