Outriders: PC Review

Cooperative gaming has become more popular than ever in the gaming community, whether it stays with the classics like Halo and Gears of War or even the recent titles like Aliens Fire Team Elite and DND Dark Alliance. However, one of the more recent games has the community divided and seems to have tanked in reviews. This game is Outriders. It was released earlier this year by People Can Fly and Square Enix and, while the game has solid gameplay and campaign, the end game and performance seem to be lacking enough it takes away from the game. The game can be bought for 39.99 USD and is available on PC, Playstation, and Xbox.

Image Credit: Shinobi

Beautiful Scenery filled with Graphic Gameplay

Outriders is a drop-dead gorgeous game, with stunning scenery that more than once had me stopping for screenshots. The graphical performance on the 3070 with raytracing made the environments come to life. Its reflections seemed almost lifelike and immersed me into the game, captivating every little detail whether it was the water or even tree trunks. Outriders is a true testament to what current generation graphic cards can produce.

The gameplay is very satisfying for a current-generation cooperative shooter. Being in 3rd person paired with taking cover and movement felt exactly like Gears of War. The animations for critical kills were gore-filled and graphic, not to mention the headshots were extremely satisfying. In addition to combat, the game provided a lot of incentive for exploration. Every area felt filled with secrets and side quests that you could stumble upon such as hits or hunts, and chests, as well as iron, were hidden about for players to stumble upon. The game made it easy to get lost in, just out of pure exploration and trying to uncover every nook and cranny of each area.

The game is filled with a lot of side content in the campaign, and full of replayability for grinding gear or leveling. There are side quests placed in every new main area, as well as some to discover while exploring. There are plenty of hunts for huge creatures to do, and even eventually cash in for rewards at Trent Town. In addition to hunts, there are also wanted posters placed in every new area to gain rewards from.

A Story of Potential, but Lacked

The story had so much potential, but it suffered from awkward acting and lack of design in enemies. I loved the idea of being an Outrider that is stuck on an uninhabitable planet and the mystery of what’s causing the hostility and discovering the secrets of what the planet had to offer really drew me in at first. However, the acting felt forced and awkward at times. There were moments where I felt the scenes were powerful, in fact, one of my new favorite gaming quotes is from this game, “If I kill a man, I make sure he knows it was me.” Unfortunately, the acting often felt like the characters did not mesh and caused some of them to feel angsty or broken.
While the human enemies felt authentic in design between snipers, melee, and a lot of greatly designed hits and bosses, the natural aliens or creatures of the planet seemed always the same. I felt like every alien I encountered was a carbon copy in design with different colors and abilities. This led to hunts becoming less exciting to uncover what you might be fighting.

The Game Just Does Not Work

Many players hated the lack of end game content, however, what kept the game from being great, for me, was the overall performance. The game still, even after months of running, does not work well. My biggest complaint is that, aside from occasionally not launching right, I constantly have to reset the settings to place the game on the correct monitor. The bug has been an issue since launch and has yet to be addressed. In addition to the bug, the game is riddled with glitches and crashes. The game would be ten times better if it just worked.
Multiplayer bugs are a nightmare, and button mapping is an issue for all players, even controller users. Often when I would play with people, I would be unable to load into their game despite being open or friends only, friends would have to load into my game. I can never pull up invites despite having l3 and even setting other buttons to pull up multiplayer on the home screen of the game.

In Summary

The game would have been great, but poor acting and performance ultimately killed it. For a game with so much potential, it delivered poorly. I did overall enjoy playing it due to the great gameplay and beautiful design, but, unfortunately, pretty graphics and gameplay won’t save a game that feels unplayable from glitches and bugs.

DVS Score: 6.5/10