Outriders, an upcoming looter shooter from People Can Fly, will forego the extra commitment other games ask for in exchange for a fleshed-out story that has a definitive end. While the sci-fi setting and the promise of another great story from the developers behind Bulletstorm were what drew me to Outriders in the first place, it was the promise of a dedicated beginning, middle, and end that really pulled me deeper. Many looter shooters—games like Destiny 2 and The Division 2—offer great looting and shooting, but they have no definitive end to the story. New content continues to arrive via DLC (downloadable content) and expansions and will continue to do so for years to come.
Standing Out
Of course, People Can Fly isn’t the only developer that makes looter shooters that feature a definitive ending, but it is a far smaller group than you might expect. While other games like the Borderlands series all have endings, Outriders is a different kind of looter shooter. Instead of offering the usual huge open world full of mindless collectibles, Outriders is broken down into sections, and will allow players to explore those areas while completing a mostly linear story. There also are side quests that can be completed—some of which we’ve already had a good look at thanks to the ongoing demo. The demo for Outriders gives you access to around three or four hours of the game’s opening moments. It’s a good chunk of the story that lets you see just enough to get you enticed and ready to dig deeper. There also are the four different classes—each of which offers some distinctive powers like the Trickster’s time slowing ability, which causes bullets and enemies to slow down greatly inside of a bubble. Each class feels unique, and while I’d love to see four-player co-op available, the three-person parties fit nicely into the gameplay, still allowing you to string together ability combinations that feel destructive and leave you wanting to high-five your friends when you pull one off. Considering you only get access to four abilities in the demo, it’s exciting to think of what you can accomplish with those higher-level skills.
No More Waiting
It probably sounds silly to be tired of games offering so much content, but the real problem comes down to having the time to sink into those games. While I enjoy the gameplay featured in titles like Destiny 2 and The Division 2, and the influx of new content is always welcome, it just isn’t easy for me to sink hundreds of hours into every piece of DLC and expansion that the developers release. There’s also the fact that new players coming into a looter shooter well into the game’s lifecycle could find themselves absolutely overwhelmed with content, or even missing out on content from the game’s original release. Destiny 2 cut a lot of its original content at the end of 2020, locking players out of it. With Outriders, we won’t need to worry about content being cut down the line, or spending thousands of hours keeping up to date with the latest quests and expansions. We already have more than enough “games as a service” available, and there’s no doubt that developers will continue to release these types of titles because of how long they last. That’s perfectly fine. For now, I’m excited about the prospect of only needing to sink 20-30 hours into Outriders to experience the full story. While I’m sure we’ll see additional expansions and content down the line, being able to complete a game and not feel like you need to keep playing for thousands of hours will be a nice change of pace. If you decide to, you can always spend much longer exploring everything the game has to offer, but that’s a decision you get to make.
