Kotaku game logThe last thoughts of a Kotaku staff member about a game we’re playing.In the last week or so I’ve been diving for about 25 hours Outriders“On top of the twenty ishes I’ve repeatedly spent in the demo.” And yet, I have not yet engaged in a main class. This does not indicate indecision on my part (well, well, maybe a little). This is a testament to how wonderful all the classes in this game are.
The prey hunter Outriders, officially released last week for everything but Switch, throws you like an interstellar mercenary tasked with establishing a terrain on a possible habitable exoplanet. After an overworked prologue – which leads you through an hour of number three coloring games for painting with numbers – you can choose from four distinct classes, each of which is imbued with a different type of sincerely overworked space magic. Then the game gets good.
Currently, I’m running with four characters, three of which I’ve kept in roughly the same place in terms of story and level progress. I have a total loss that I should focus on.
The trickster is clearly the coolest or at least the most novel. By choosing this class, you can instantly teleport behind enemies or take out a blade and spin like a dreidel, cutting everything in your path. A single power allows you to create a balloon that slows everything down except your character until it is crawled. It’s a lot like walking around a small portion of the battlefield and saying, “This space is now matrix. “Such an explosion. I sang this Trickster solo sometimes, but more often in cooperation sessions with KotakuZack Zweizen (well, when he decides to make time to play with me).
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There is also Devastating, practically Outriders version of a tank. Choose the Devastator class and you can fall into a layer of stone, canceling the damage received. A mid-level ability allows you to create a force field that reflects bullets. You also unlock a move called literally Impale. (It works exactly as you might imagine.) I played this one with a friend who is a Trickster. The two classes go together like baked brie and fig jam; once you taste it, it’s sad to imagine one without the other.
For solo play, Technomancer looks best. When people can fly he presented Outriders last spring with only three classes, saying that an unnamed fourth will appear in the last main game. He turned out to be Technomancer, an Inspector Gadget guy who can place turrets, throw land mines, summon missile launchers and heal to order. Each class in Outriders restores health through various parameters of combat. (For example, Devastators heal a little when you kill enemies in close combat.) In this sense, technomans are superior: all the damage you have eliminated will heal you.
Finally, it is the Pyromancer, who can throw flames and slay enemies. I spent the least amount of time with this class, partly because firepower is very much done there in video games and partly because of the circumstances. I created my Pyromancer during the demo, when the cross game between PC and consoles somewhat worked and I could play with a PC friend. In the footsteps some launch weekend server issues, the developer of People Can Fly has temporarily disabled cross-play between console players and PC players. One tweet This week, People Can Fly said that the full functionality of crossover games will be included in a future patch. I’ll probably wait until it lights up again – when I can team up with my friend again – before I see this character again.
So, yes, they are to some extent mandatory.
My indecision led me to a situation where I play the game three times simultaneously. I’ll go through a region – all side missions included, because that’s how my brain works – then move on to another character and run it again. Most missions follow the same structure, in that you simply press forward and drag everything you see. But I never got bored, especially because the four classes are so distinct, almost as if I were playing a different game with each one. The same mission can feel like a typical cover-based shooter while playing as a class, as a close and personal action game as another, and as something from the bazonkers Platinum Games opera as another.
Either it is Destiny or Border countries, in prey games, it is natural to focus with laser on improving a character before starting fresh with a second one. In the Outriders, at least for me, it’s less simple. I am confused, unable to decide, juggling three interstellar evils that I love equally. As for the problems, however, I guess it’s not a bad thing to have. We’ll see how I feel after another region or two.