What’s new in People Can Fly (Bulletstorm) and Square Enix is a game capable of being frantic, difficult, and a lot of fun, but it doesn’t always succeed.
It has been almost eight years since we took command of People Can Fly’s last original work , Gears of War Judgment . The Polish studio, responsible for the extremely violent Painkiller and the underrated Bulletstorm , now present their most ambitious game (in budget, in size and in hard work) to date: Outriders . Is a shooter hedge third person RPG elements and online co – op for three players, above all, we have enjoyed, and that at times reminded us three games that you have a lot of appreciation: Of course, Gears of War and also Borderlands (yes, more thanDestiny), and surprisingly also Doom Eternal . We tell you why.
Hedges, loot , skill trees, and frenzy
To remind us of the saga created by Cliff Bleszinski, we expected it, of course, but not to such an extent. At the end of the day, this is a coverage shooter where positioning and staying under cover is very important to automatically restore some of life , which drops at surprisingly fast speed as soon as we neglect snipers, wizards and other enemies. powerful that stalk us.
As in that, in the best moments it is necessary to study the battlefield , prioritize objectives and advance from cover to cover . But also for other aspects that almost seem like a tracing: the camera of the character when running tries to simulate the rotundity of the one in the Epic Games game, the spurt of blood in which the enemies explode when bursting them with a shotgun is very similar and the animation when sheltering it is unmistakable (although we do not understand why it has put a button to cover and another to dodge and jump for cover; it took us a long time to get used to this).
ADVERTISING
The character editor is very simple.
The comparison with Borderlands is even more evident: our character, who we created with a simple and shallow editor at the beginning, is leveling up; while we get new weapons and different pieces of armor with their own level, rarity and modifiers that we can customize. If we do not make the simile with Destiny it is because unlike that, here four classes (Pyromancer, Devastator, Illusionist and Technomancer) with eight very different abilities each (we can carry three different equipped) and with a very deep passive statistics tree and reconfigurable at any time. we can play the whole experience alone and because it is not structured as a game as a service: what is there is what there is, although from People Can Fly they do not rule out launching DLC coming soon. Of course, as in the Bungie game there are three relatively customizable classes, here are
What we did not expect in any way is that Outriders would be able to remind us of Doom Eternal , specifically, its frenzy and how it translates the dizziness of the action to the pressing of buttons on the controller (or on the keyboard and mouse) . The main culprit is the healing mechanic , the best idea the People Can Fly game has. In combat it is common to be surrounded by several dozen enemies, sometimes bugs and melee warriors that pounce against us, so we will see the life bar drop from 100 to almost 0 very quickly . But the game encourages us to be aggressive to heal ourselves, each class in a different way.
After the first few measures, clashes more focused on coverage and other more direct and frantic against monsters are interspersed.
For example, the Technomancer heals all the damage that he or the turrets he places, the Pyromancer heals when killing the enemies marked with his fire skills and the one we have chosen, the Illusionist , heals when killing enemies at short distance and heals more the more opponents are nearby. We must take this mechanic into account because the game does not let us rest on our laurels , since life constantly drops because the enemies do not stop throwing grenades, throwing magic, etc.
In addition, the abilities also motivate us to be aggressive and move , especially in the case of the Illusionist: teleporting behind a group of enemies , away from an elite that pursues us, to become a whirlwind of damage that causes us to end many while we restore health; leave the enormous beasts that haunt us floating in the air momentarily to take care of other enemies; or launch a dome that slows the incoming bullets and the monsters inside are some of his powers. Of course, this frenzy can be mitigated when playing with other classes , especially the Devastator, one more focused on being a tank and that in the online community is not seen with very good eyes. because the important thing here is to do a lot of damage and very quickly.
With a few exceptions, the level design is not very inspired; of course, there is no shortage of checkpoints where you have to keep enemies out of the area.
Without reaching the referents
However, Outriders is neither Destiny , nor Doom, nor Gears . It is not the first because the gunplay of Bungie’s work is light years away : here, when we shoot an enemy in the head and the yellow number comes out, it does not give us that feeling of satisfaction that that one produces; also, the weapons do not have much less the personality that they have in Destiny . Although the ones we get during the endgame are perceived to be very powerful, here there is no Lord of the wolves, nor an Ikelos nor any of those weapons whose impact and sound we remember just by thinking about them.
It is not Doom either , of course, firstly because here the frenzy depends in part on the class that is chosen , but above all because it does not have the know-how of id Software when it comes to placing enemies in a very intelligent way in the scenarios to make us establish priority routes and ways to avoid; And even more, because Outriders alternate more open levels against monsters where that frenzy can be generated with others full of coverage with others against humanoids where, in general, the action is slower (and less fun) and final bosses that are based on more in endurance and long fights than in spectacularity and emotion.
‘Outriders’ takes itself too seriously in terms of its subjects: it is still a militaristic game trying to be emotional and crude.
And finally, it is not Gears of War because the level design of one and the other are on opposite sides. In Outriders the level design is lazy except in very rare occasions, the artificial intelligence of the enemies is deficient (that frustrating situation of cleaning a level and having to go back to end a game has happened to us more than once and ten times). minion sheltered to move forward), it lacks the rotundity when sheltering and moving , and the different classes of enemies (very varied in the last bars of the game, yes) do not have the synergies between them that are seen in the best Gears .
An apocalyptic roadgame with a pitch problem
Outriders also has a tone problem, something that has surprised us from a study that has given us a good handful of violent plots that work because they are not taken seriously at any time, as is the case with Bulletstorm and GoW: Judgment . We have seen the premise told here over and over again in different ways: the Earth has gone down the drain and humanity has found another planet to travel to , although only a select few have found a place in the spaceship.
The Enoch that we find after spending 30 years in cryostasis is a post-apocalyptic world full of conflicts and groups that have lost their minds in the Mad Max style.
Players control one of many Outriders tasked with setting foot on a supposedly safe planet for the first time before the most privileged of the species land. But everything is rather regular: Enoch’s surface is constantly attacked by strange storms, the Anomaly , which fry technology, kill many and grant special powers to others. When our protagonist awakens from cryostasis 30 years after setting foot on Enoch he finds that the few thousand surviving humans are at war , that increasingly mutated monsters decimate those who dare to explore the planet and thatthose who have achieved mutations (powers) behave like capricious gods who only watch over themselves.
In this context, the plot takes the form of a road trip in which the Outrider, accompanied by a growing group, aims to find the point of emission of a strange radio signal that can mean the salvation of humanity . It is a structure that helps to offer a very typical variety of environments: the forest, the desert, the snowy mountain , the mines …
The camp that the convoy places in each location serves as a point from which to access the warehouse, to search for matches in matchmaking, etc.
In each of these areas, the convoy is established as a base in which to chat with the characters, modify and buy weapons, access our armory and the rest of the possibilities that cities usually offer in games of this genre. The problem of tone that we said is, on the one hand, in the topics discussed, some of them too dark to be passed over in the way that is done here and that they do not fit well in a game of killing monsters; and not provoke the desired effect alleged emotional situations or moments of camaraderie among members of the group, on the other hand have very little credible dialogue.
The main story, which can be completed in about 16-18 hours , is completed by a handful of secondary missions of different types in each of the scenarios: some make us clear a camp of enemies to defeat the evil mutated leader who has killed Hundreds of humans or to defeat a sect of worshipers of the Anomaly , others lead us to hunt large monsters of Enoch and others to explore locations and destroy everything that comes our way to get memories of the Earth in the form of items that we donate to an exhibition, to give a few examples. It is in these missions where we will get the best weapons and we will be able to repeat them over and over again in greater difficulties.
By default, the game chooses the highest difficulty, but it is highly adjustable, which makes it accessible to all audiences.
World levels: An accessible or very difficult game
Along with the mechanic of restoring life by being aggressive, world levels is Outriders’ best idea . The levels of the world, up to 20 , increase the overall difficulty of the game by the toughest enemies, increasing their number by checking the amount of opponents elite appear and use their skills, and varying the harm they do the same. In exchange for that suffering , the rewards are better . To unlock a world level, all you have to do is gain experience by playing the previous level. It is an idea that works and that allows two things: reduce or increase the challenge to suit the player, making it very accessible or very difficult depending on what each one is looking for ; and promotereplayability of the secondary missions at higher levels to get better loot .
It is, together with the Expeditions, the base of the endgame . The expeditions are unlocked once we finish the campaign and are basically dungeons in different scenarios set in previously visited locations. They are divided into several sections with a huge amount of enemies and with a last great confrontation against a final boss. None of them shine especially in design, although they do in frenzy , especially at the highest levels of difficulty.
There are no micropayments here, not even for cosmetics. As we play we unlock cosmetics for our flag, for the van with which we move and others.
Here the world levels are not taken into account, but the expedition level that works as a bet : the higher the difficulty, the weapons and equipment that we will obtain will have a higher level. But also, the faster we complete the expedition, the more rewards and rarer we will get. At the same time, we are unlocking different expeditions as we complete others with x levels above ours. Of course, successfully completing one of these challenges alone, even with the level equal to ours, is quite difficult .
A well thought out weapon and armor customization
This is where action RPG min-maxing comes into play . On the one hand, choose well the three active skills that we will use . On the other, the appropriate distribution of class points in the passive skill tree (each class is separated into three branches with capacities to be a tank, disruptor, DPS, etc.). And finally, establish synergies between the above and the weapons and armor that we carry.
To complete the campaign at standard or hard difficulty levels, it is not necessary to go deeply into customization, but in the endgame it is essential.
This is done with a system of weapon upgrades, increasing their level and others less confusing, for example, than that of Destiny , since there is less currency, but it is complemented by a very well thought modifier system . When we disassemble a weapon, its modifiers are unlocked and we can apply them later to any weapon or armor: they are divided into three ranges according to their utility so that we cannot have a submachine gun or a sniper rifle with two very powerful modifiers that make the heading for a walk.
Another great premiere with server problems
The problem with doing expeditions online or playing cooperatively in general is that we are facing yet another case of compulsory online gambling that opens with server problems . In the first place, it is unjustifiable since there is no PvP of any kind that a permanent connection is required to play alone , especially when this causes us to have to wait up to ten minutes to log in and that from time to time the game disconnects, making us lose progress if we are in the middle of a mission.
In expeditions we will have our own resurrection in each phase. If we fall later we will have to wait for a partner to help us, something complicated when there are many enemies.
The matchmaking itself also works poorly , probably due to saturation caused by the fact that by default all matches are public, which in turn causes another player to suddenly appear unannounced in our camp while We play or when looking for a game we enter the session of a user who manually expels us because he really does not want to play with strangers.
Also, there are no dedicated servers . When we manage to enter an online expedition after numerous attempts (sometimes the game gets stuck on the loading screen , other times it takes so long that when we enter it is finished, and even the program closes) the experience is irregular: there will always be some lag , but sometimes bordering on unplayable. In fact, at the time of publishing this review, crossplay between PC and consoles is disabled due to server failures; the crossplay in general is in beta at launch and you have to activate it from the options.
In the scenarios we will find resources that we can mine and necessary to improve the attributes.
Surprising in fluidity, bland in artistic
Technically, Outriders offers one of lime and another of sand: like many textures and effects are not worthy of the new generation of consoles, it is surprising how the clashes full of explosions and effects against several dozen enemies are reflected on the screen at 60 stable frames per second in the next-gen . However, animations in movie scenes, lip-sync glitches, strange camera behaviors in those scenes, black transitions when moving from one area of the same scene to another, and other glitches give a sense of lack. general polishing .
But its most serious flaw is not in the technical, but in the artistic, in the lack of personality in the design of its settings, enemies, characters , weapons, in its color palette … It is a title that seems to us to have seen dozens of times, belonging to that era of brown games from the time of Xbox 360 and PS3. Just as impersonal is the soundtrack , unremarkable beyond a main theme that is almost too reminiscent of Gears of War . The Spanish dubbing is at a very good level , with common voices in the AAA game voice actor industry. But as we said when talking about gunplay , in the sound effects, very decent in skills and in immersing ourselves in the battlefield, the rotundity of the weapons fails and indicates us more clearly when we are getting headshots .
Passive skill trees are divided into three branches and connect to each other. We can restart it without penalty. In addition, after completing the campaign we can start the game with another character by skipping the extensive prologue.
Conclusions
Outriders is a pastiche , a coverage third-person RPG shooter that collects many elements seen in other easily identifiable video games without actually executing them as brilliantly as the titles it is inspired by. In addition, it is released accompanied by the connectivity errors that games of this genre are used to, but which in this case have not been solved for more than a week. And even with all this, we have really enjoyed the People Can Fly proposal , a team that gives its own vision to a very risky genre: a frantic, violent vision with a very tight level of challenge . Also, their good ideas are to be applauded.in the weapon and armor modification systems, in the health recovery system that forces us to play aggressively, in the customization of the classes and in the difficulty (those adjustable world levels).
Those who adore the genre will find a fun title despite it being far from the Destiny and Boderlands that have long traveled. Those who just want a shooting game to enjoy the campaign and put the game back on the shelf, do not have the best option here in terms of plot, but a much more direct option than other RPG shooter (You have a demo of approximately three hours on all platforms that can help you judge if it is what you are looking for). And of course, those who want to embark on a game for dozens of hours with two other friends , have a great option in Outriders .