Kotaku game diaryThe latest opinions from a Kotaku member about a game we are playing.Over the past week or so I have sunk about 25 hours Outriders“More than a dozen times I’ve been running the show over and over again.” And yet, I haven’t yet committed to a main class. This is not indicative of indecision on my part (okay, well, maybe a little). This is a testament to how amazing all the classes in this game are.
The booty of booty Outriders, officially released last week for all but the Switch, launches you as an interstellar mercenary tasked with plotting land on a possibly habitable exoplanet. After an oversized prologue, which takes you an hour of third-person shooter, painting by numbers, you can choose from four different classes, each of which imbues you with a different kind of frankly supercharged space magic. . That’s when the game gets off to a good start.
I’m currently filming with four characters, three of whom I’ve kept roughly the same place in terms of story and level progression. I have a total loss on which one I should focus on.
The Trickster is clearly the coolest or at least the newest. If you choose this class, you can instantly teleport behind enemies or pull out a blade and spin like a dreidel, cutting everything in your path. A power allows you to create a bubble that slows everything it contains, except for your character, down to a crawl. It’s a lot like cordoning off a small strip of the battlefield and saying, “This space is now The matrix“. Such a big bang. Sometimes I’ve been shaking this Trickster solo, but more often in cooperation sessions with KotakuZack Zweizen (well, when he deigns to spend time playing with me).
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There’s also the Devastator, basically the Outriders tank version. Choose the Devastator class and you can encapsulate yourself in a layer of stone, canceling out incoming damage. A mid-level skill allows you to create a force field that reflects bullets. You also unlock a move that is literally called Impale. (It works exactly as you would imagine.) I’ve been playing with a friend who is a cheater. The two classes go together like baked brie and fig jam; once tested, it is sad to imagine one without the other.
For solo play, the Technomancer looks the best. When people can fly was shown Outriders last spring with only three classes, saying an unnamed fourth would appear in the final main game. He turned out to be the Technomancer, a type of Inspector Gadget who can place turrets, launch landmines, summon rocket launchers, and heal himself at the command. All classes of Outriders restores health through various combat parameters. (For example, devastators heal a bit when enemies are killed in close combat). In this sense, technomancers are superior: all the damage they deal will heal you.
Finally, there is the Pyromancer, who can throw flames and immolate enemies. I’ve spent the least amount of time with this class, partly because firepower is very much done in video games, and partly because of circumstances. I created my Pyromancer during the demo, when it was played between PC and consoles a little worked and could play with a PC-bound friend. On the heel of some launch weekend server issues, developer People Can Fly temporarily disabled cross-play between console players and PC players. In a tweet this week, People Can Fly said it will include full cross-game functionality in a future patch. I’ll probably wait for it to turn on again (when I can team up again with my friend) before visiting this character again.
So yeah, I’m kind of tied down.
My indecision has turned me into a situation where I am playing three times simultaneously. I’ll advance through one region (all side missions included, because that’s how my brain works) and then switch to another character and run it again. Most missions follow the same structure, as you simply press forward and shoot everything you see. But I don’t get bored for a moment, especially because the four classes are so distinct, almost as if I’m playing a different game with each of them. The same mission may look like a typical cover-based shooter while playing as a class, as a personal and close-up action game, as another, and as something from the work of bazonkers Platinum Games as another.
Either way Destiny or Border lands, in loot games, it is natural to focus laser on reinforcing a character before starting again with a second. In Outriders, at least for me, is less straightforward. I’m baffled, unable to decide, juggling three interstellar badass that I love equally. As for the problems, though, I guess it’s not bad. We’ll see how I feel after another region or two.