There’s a game coming out on April 1st named Outriders. It’s a cover-shooter with superpowers, so nothing special there. It offers solo and co-op play, nothing special there either. The basic plot is that Earth is doomed and a sleeper ship has been dispatched to colonise Enoch, an Earth-like world about 80 years away. You play an Outrider, an explorer/mercenary type with the task of finding out what’s what on the planet. Of course, Enoch holds a deadly secret and blah, blah, now you have to save humanity with lots of bullets and some awesome new powers. It’s different from other game plots, and yet also the same. I’m underselling this: I’m interested enough in finding out what’s what that I plan to play it. If you’d like to see what you think, there’s a demo available for PC, PS4/5 and XBox, which will be available right up to the release date. Link above.
So, more of the same, but there’s a mechanic to this game I find fascinating. The mechanic itself is different, but not so much: in order to heal within a fight, you need to kill things. Each of the four classes has a slightly different mechanism, but they all revolve around you getting HP back when an opponent dies. My personal favourite, for example, is the Trickster, who heals when they kill someone within a certain (short) range. Essentially, you need to play aggressively to win. This has an interesting effect on boss fights.
Typically, due to the limitations of game AI and the lack of imagination of designers, developers make boss fights hard by tossing in adds. You don’t get to face the boss alone, no. Instead, he’ll summon dozens of minions to chip away at your HP and make it impossible to focus on the boss. You need to diminish the opposition and then work fast on the boss before more grunts turn up. Frankly, I find this annoying.
There are two boss fights (one a lesser boss) available in the Outriders demo. I won’t spoil anything by revealing the nature of the fights, but you basically have a fight against a serious boss, solo, and a fight against a lesser boss, with minions. The big boss fight is way harder, despite him having no support. Why? Because minions are your healing mechanism. Yes, the minions make it harder to focus on the boss. They shoot at you and chip away at your HP while their leader is trying to burn you alive. But, if you get low on health, you run over and kill one: instant HP! With the solo fight, you have to be far more tactical, seeking cover and watching out for lingering damage effects. You have to try to kill the boss and you know you’re not going to be able to heal any damage until he’s toast. It totally reverses the general strategy of this kind of game. I like minions in Outriders.
Anyway, if you’re into this kind of thing, the demo takes an evening to play through and I think it’s worth looking at. And it has an interesting game mechanic.
Witches and Ray-Guns 
I’m going to be keeping an eye on this hoping for an announcement that they’re removing the insane shaky cam. I *want* to try this, but the game literally drove me away before I could fire my first shot by making their cutscene/conversation camera so unstable it gave me motion sickness. Which was made all the more distressing by the fact that the setting concept at least seems interesting enough that I wanted to sit through the entire conversations about it.
I have to admit that I didn’t notice that at all. Out of interest, what were you playing it on?
Laptop PC. Gen 10 and a 2070 Max-Q. It’s apparently a design choice, from the responses I’ve seen, and not the easiest thing to fix, since apparently it’d mean redefining the camera path for every cutscene. I wait in hope though, since a not insignificant number of people seem to be having similar issues handling it.
Huh, I was thinking it might be a frame-rate issue. I’m on XBox Series X and I couldn’t say I’ve noticed that effect. I’m normally fairly sensitive to shaky-cam. It’s one of the reasons I don’t watch much found-footage horror (I also think it’s generally pretty crap). The last found-footage horror I watched tricked me: I didn’t think it was found-footage.
I’ve also played through the Demo on Series X. The cutscenes definitely look kind of “janky” to me. I’m not sure if it’s the shaky camera or a framerate issue or a combination of both. The “jankyness” is gone during regular gameplay.
Gameplaywise, i like it. It’s a change from the more defensive playstyle of The Division. Although the “heal by killing smaller enemies” mechanic is something Doom Eternal also did recently.
Storywise I’m a bit baffled how they can be simultaneously starved for food and water, yet have the industrial capacity to build all these weapons, including large artillery / tanks and keep everyone constantly supplied with ammunition. I guess there’s supposed to be a message in there, but it just seems weird.
Will definitely give it a look once it’s out.
I think the idea is that they had the tanks and weapons already. Though how they’ve kept up the supply for 31 years is anyone’s guess. Oddly, the thing that bugged me today while I was thinking about this stuff is all the alcohol; how can they afford to waste grain or whatever to make beer and spirits when they’re starving? Then again, that’s a problem in a lot of post-apocalyptic settings.
RE: Beer and Spirits. No matter what, someone will find a way to make booze. Guaranteed.
I’ve played the demo on all 4 classes. They’re all interesting enough to merit a good look. Really liked the Devastator and Trickster classes, and I usually go for ranged over up close & personal. There’s just something about watching bullets slowed to a crawl or bouncing off you to kill someone else that’s downright appealing.
My biggest complaint about the cutscenes were the *faces* and the dead eyes. Very off-putting to see basically blackened pits where eyes should be. Didn’t have the screen camera issues that AW had, thankfully.
Anyway, looking forward to your next title and who knows, maybe crossplay with you if whoever manages the servers allows it. Fortune bless.
Agreed, they would. It just fits more with secret stills than open bars. You can also make a case for ethanol being produced for fuel (can’t be running those tanks on diesel).
I think the worldbuilding is based on Rule of Cool rather than any form of reality, however.
The only ‘dark pits for eyes’ thing I noticed was Jakub, but he’s an old drunk and it seemed to fit for him.
I’ve been enjoying the Devastator more since I got Reflect Bullets. Personally, I like the ‘Mars Attacks’ aesthetics of the Trickster attacks. There’s something about reducing your foes to a smoking, blue skeleton I find appealing. Okay, so I’m sick…