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At the end of January we visited the studio PEOPLE Can Fly. This is a legendary team that has been engaged in shooters for 20 years. Its composition changed greatly, but at one time people who gave us Bulletstorm, ** painkiller ** and GEARS of WAR: JUDGMENT. And so she finally returns with Outriders – New game in the original setting. We played in the first three hours of demos – and now we will tell you all the details.
For People Can Fly, this game is a kind of strength test. For too long, the developers have been engaged in the GEARS of War franchise under the start of Epic Games. Now the team agreed to cooperate with Square Enix – and decided to make a completely new, independent Title.
Anomalous planet
What is Outriders? This is a cooperative shooter with RPG elements, which can be held by a company of up to three people. I will be upset right away: it will not work against other players, only against bots. You create a character at the beginning of the game, choose one of the four classes, and forward.
Scars decorate the woman
According to the plot, humanity had to leave their native land: it was destroyed by wars and climate change. And our protagonist as part of the expedition just investigated new planets suitable for life. But on one of them the characters fell into a mysterious anomaly: she split into molecules, and gave the others special forces. Alas, the main character was not lucky: the injuries were so terrible that he was laid in a cryogenic chamber – so he at least did not die in place.
He wakes up only after 30 years – and suddenly finds himself in the very center of the war for technology and resources. A planet that was supposed to become a salvation for humanity, plunged into chaos. Anomaly damaged the technique of colonialists and provoked mutations of local flora and fauna. And new abilities turned some people into crazy adherents of mysterious energy. Our hero will have to deal with all this personally – after all, he is also infected with anomaly.
"Before" and "after"
Classes and skills
Three out of four grades were available in the demo. Trickster is something like an assassin. He has a teleport behind the enemy’s back, stunts with a slowdown in time and a damage to damage. Pyromancer – ah wart, works at medium distances. In his arsenal, a wave of fire stopping opponents of ashes and point burning. Will tag will be devastator. He flies into the very heart of the battle, throws enemies and absorbs damage thanks to stone armor.
At the same time, only three skills can be taken with you – they open upon reaching the necessary levels. We were shown four skills from each class, and so far there is an impression that Trickster is too strong. The dome slowing time is useful in any situation: enemies stop damage, you can reload, run into shelter. And if you assemble a team of three of them, you can simply take turns to become opponents and easily win shootouts. However, the developers insist that the game has much more diversity.
PEOPLE Can Fly: As soon as you have a wide selection of skills, you begin to combine them. If you like to shoot from afar, you can develop your character in this direction. Just pump the desired branch that improves shooting. And if you are one of those guys who do not like to sit in shelters, you can be at the epicenter of the battle so that everyone shoots at you and say “you just look at this healthy man”. Inside the same class, you can pump in both.
According to the creators of the game, archetypes like “tank” or “Dalnik” can come from any class. You just need to competently compose a build and distribute skills of skills. But skills are not the only thing that comes in handy in the battle. Equipment of the hero is no less important. You can get it in two ways: either searched the boxes and corpses of enemies, or buy from merchants for reference resources. And something can be obtained for side quests. In addition, modifiers are inserted into weapons and armor, which enhance skills or negative effects like combustion.
This is what a pumping tree looks like
To whom and why shoot
Shootings in Outriders dynamic and bloody. And the shelter system, like in GEARS of WAR, adds dynamics to battles. If you want – tank, if you want – sit out, take a breath. There are many opponents, and they are all different, but little remembered. Each battle is just killing a pile of mobs of about the same complexity. Only a couple of bosses were remembered: one electric dude and one fiery – they had to tinker with them a little. But in general, the level of enemies is adjusted to the level of the player, and the game has not yet abandoned a special call – but it's a pity.
The developers, by the way, do not even count these guys for the bosses
The developers promise that the plot in the game will not be just “for a checkmark”, and it looks like the truth. The history of Outsiders is submitted through Katsen and dialogs, and during the session there were many. For lovers to dig deeper the locations, notes are scattered with additional information about the world. And to study it is really interesting: during the time that we were in the refrigerator, much has changed dramatically.
NPC also change during the plot, and it’s interesting to observe this. One of our acquaintances turned from a reasonable scientist into a vessel for an anomaly. Another woman, once sociable and cheerful, now a harsh and cold military leader.
PEOPLE Can Fly: When we create a new world, we strive to make it as plausible as possible. Therefore, everything, even the smallest details should be well thought out. Colonization of other planets, for example, a rather real thing. We even hired a specialist who gave advice in this topic. For example, we wanted the colonialists https://win-diggers-casino.co.uk/ to go down in capsules, and he replied: “Capsules will not work. It would be more logical to plant the whole ship ". We believe that history is very important. I know that there are many games to which history is useless. But our game is definitely needed.
What upset
The plot worked out on paper is great. But the city that was shown in the demo seemed empty to us: one merchant, one side quest and a couple of sociable NPCs. And on external locations, it all comes down to shootings and the collection of loot with resources. By the way, the booty in the coope of everyone has their own, and it will not work to convey the gun to the comrade – this also upset us a little. But we still did not play the final version: it is possible that the PEOPLE can Fly will finish the locations, and the cooperative, and everything else.
In general, Outriders is played as a hybrid Destiny, Borderlands And GEARS of WAR. But not to say that the gameplay is especially impressive: there are not so many new things in it. At least at the initial levels. Shootings are too simple and the same – because this is the central mechanics of the game! It is hoped that the battles will become more interesting in the later stages of passage when the hero is already pumped up, and you learned to work with the build. In the meantime, the strongest aspects of Outriders are a flexible character development system and plot. The main thing is that they do not remain the only advantages of the game – but this will become closer to the release. We have already handed over our feedback to the developers personally, so we are waiting for the game this year. You can play on PC, PlayStation 4-5, Xbox One and Xbox Series X.