Public perception really seems to have turned around for Outriders of late. While people were initially skeptical about yet another looter shooter, the new details and gameplay footage that have been shared over time have consistently looked good, while the recent demo has been met with strong responses all around. There’s certainly more excitement surrounding the launch of Outriders now than one would have thought possible not too long ago.
We recently covered some of the most crucial details about the game, talking about its endgame content, its classes, and much more, but given the fact that there’s still plenty left to talk about, here, we’ll be going over a few more key details you should know about the game ahead of its launch.
STORY DETAILS
Outriders is set on an alien planet named Enoch, which is a diverse and hostile environment. Humanity’s efforts to colonize the planet have gone horribly wrong, but when an expedition team encounters a mysterious signal known as the Anomaly during a massive energy storm, hope for the colonization of Enoch is rekindled. The storm itself turns out to be a major turn point for all concerned, mysteriously granting superpowered abilities not only to a few of the human colonists, but also Enoch’s inhabitants themselves. You play as one of these superpowered humans, known as an Outriders, and lead the charge to uncover the mysteries of the Anomaly.
NARRATIVE FOCUS
It’s not that uncommon to see looter shooters establish a fascinating world with oodles of lore, but actual storytelling and narrative often tend to take a backseat in these games. It doesn’t look like that is going to be the case in Outriders, which seems to be putting quite a bit of emphasis on its story. In fact, according to game director Bartosz Kmita, one of the main reasons Outriders hasn’t been developed as a live service game is because of how much emphasis it places on storytelling. He said in an interview with IGN: “When we started our game and realised that the story is so important, we realised if we did a game-as-a-service, we would probably start chopping everything into sub-content. We didn’t want to do this because the story was so important for us.”
ENVIRONMENTS
Enoch is clearly a harsh and dangerous place, but it does seem like there isn’t going to be any shortage of beautiful and diverse environments to explore. Outriders has been confirmed to feature a variety of unique locations where players will be heading, from snow-capped mountains and dry deserts to lush jungles and blasted wastelands. Each of these locations will also have unique enemy types, each with their own strengths and weaknesses, so it certainly sounds like the game’s going to try and keep things fresh and interesting throughout its runtime.
DIALOG CHOICES
Dialog choices have become increasingly common in games, and Outriders is going to be yet another example of that. During cutscenes players will be able to choose how they want to respond to NPCs- though it doesn’t seem like these choices themselves will have any impact on how the story plays out, so don’t go in expecting something like Mass Effect here. It seems like the dialog choices will be there for those who want to dig deeper into the lore and backstory and learn new information about things, but as far as the main plot is concerned, that’s not going to be affected by these choices.
SIDE MISSIONS
Outriders is going to have a pretty meaty main campaign, while there will be endgame content for those who want to stick around afterward as well. On top of that, you can also expect plenty of optional side missions. People Can Fly have confirmed that the game’s going to have plenty of story-focused side missions, featuring unique plotlines and characters. That sounds excellent on paper, of course, and bespoke side quests with memorable plots are always a key part of any good RPG, so here’s hoping Outriders can live up to the promises it’s making.
SOLO OR CO-OP?
Outriders does seem to be placing a great deal of emphasis on co-op play, but what if you just want to enjoy the story and are looking for a purely single player experience? According to the developers, both solo and co-op are equally viable ways to play the game, and while multiplayer obviously has some additional mechanics and options, the game itself is equally fun regardless of how you play. Said the developers in a recent group interview that GamingBolt was part of, “The game can be played solo, as well as multiplayer. It offers different experiences, but both are viable and are fun. Yeah, there are some mechanics that will shine in multiplayer. Still, the way we build our mechanics is building them from pieces.”
They added: “Because we are building it that way, even in a single player playthrough, you can combine all these mechanics, you can play with them. So we really believe playing solo will grant you as much fun, with working with the different builds, as you may have in the multiplayer mode. Of course, there are some aspects in multiplayer that are unique, such as reviving downed players or using the team mechanics, stacking DevOps, and so on. So I would say multiplayer just opens more options, sometimes it’s easier because you don’t need to have universal coverage like you would as a single player.”
NO PVP
Given the game’s emphasis on multiplayer and its nature as a looter shooter, you might be expecting that Outriders would have a pretty meaty PvP component- but that doesn’t seem to be the case. People Can Fly have confirmed that the game is, and was always meant to be right from the get go, a purely PvE affair. Whether or not PvP gets added into the game following its release remains to be seen, but for now, Outriders is only going to have co-op PvE, or, of course, solo gameplay.
NO DEDICATED SERVERS
People Can Fly have confirmed that Outriders will not have dedicated servers. While that might be concerning to hear about an online-only co-op focused title, according to the developers, Outriders’ nature as a three player co-op game means that the structure that it is using is good enough for what it needs. Speaking in an interview with VG247, lead designer Piotr Nowakowski explained, “When we were developing the game quite a few years ago, when making the choices we made the decision: ‘okay, we’re not going with the dedicated servers’. Of course, on one side is the cost, or the other side are the technical solutions. And because we have three-player co-op we aren’t forced to have dedicated servers – the current structures will be good enough.”
CHARACTER SLOTS
Given the fact that Outriders lets you choose from a total of four wildly different character classes, you might be wondering whether the game will allow you to have multiple characters on a single account. Thankfully, it will. It’s been confirmed that each account will have a total of six character slots, while there will also be a shared stash to allow for sharing of items across all available characters.
CUSTOMIZABLE HUD
It’s also been confirmed that Outriders will allow you to customize and tweak various elements of the user interface and HUD, giving players the option to turn various elements entirely on or off if you wish to. This will include health bars for both enemies and allies, and damage numbers. The latter in particular can be a bit of a nuisance in games like this, so it’s good to know the there will be an option to play the game without damage numbers constantly popping up for those who want to.
VOICE CHAT
One major feature that Outriders is currently lacking is voice chat, which is a bit of a bummer given its co-op focused nature. According to the developers, voice chat was a feature that had to be taken out of Outriders during development due to “technical” and “legal” complications. Though they haven’t elaborated on what that means, they have given assurances that they’re aware it’s a feature the game needs and is lacking, and that People Can Fly will be attempting to find a solution to this problem following Outriders’ launch.
NO MICROTRANSACTIONS
Whether or not a game will have microtransactions and loot boxes is something that we’re always wary of these days, especially when it comes to looter shooters. Thankfully, Outriders is going to be a rare example of a looter shooter that doesn’t have that. People Can Fly have confirmed that there are absolutely no microtransactions in the game at launch, though they have still left the door open for things such as battle passes down the line. The developer recently explained, “It doesn’t close for us the option in the future to just add a battle pass or other similar content, but not like microtransactions. It would be more like the bigger components that can help those players who want to go deeper into our world, play in that world. But until then, we will have what we have created, and that is enough. Do we want to build on our world and mechanics? Sure, but not in the form of microtransactions.”
FREE NEXT-GEN UPGRADE
Like most other major games coming out in the coming months, Outriders will be a cross-gen release. And while there have been a few instances of games that don’t offer free next-gen upgrade paths, People Can Fly’s RPG shooter won’t be one of them. On Xbox, it will support Smart Delivery, while those who purchase the game on PS4 will be able to upgrade to the PS5 version for no additional cost.
PS4 AND XBOX ONE PERFORMANCE AND RESOLUTION
Though official numbers are yet to be confirmed, if the recent demo is anything to go by, according to an analysis by VG Tech, Outriders will target 30 FPS on last-gen consoles. Where resolution is concerned, the Xbox One version will run at an upscaled 1080p, the PS4 will run at a dynamic 1080p, and the PS4 Pro and Xbox One X will run at an upscaled 4K resolution.
GAME PASS
If you’re planning on playing Outriders on Xbox, there’s good news for you- the game will be available on Xbox Game Pass for consoles right at launch. Generally, while Microsoft’s first party releases do of course launch day and date on Game Pass, the major third party releases don’t arrive on the service until at least a few months after launch. Outriders is the first time a major third party release is seeing a simultaneous Xbox Game Pass launch, which is pretty exciting, to say the very least.