People Can Fly's looter shooter Outriders puts a focus on abilities in a way other looter shooters don't, and it makes for an addictive gameplay experience other games in the genre wish they could capture. It's just one of the reasons Outriders seems to be taking the gaming world by storm, skyrocketing to the top of the best-selling games on Steam. The fact that the game was also available on Xbox Game Pass for consoles on launch day is certainly helping to boost its popularity as well.
On its surface, Outriders doesn't look to be anything too out of the ordinary. It features a somewhat generic post-apocalyptic sci-fi setting, cover-based shooting mechanics, character classes, and colored tiers of loot. It certainly has a "been there, done that" feel to it, especially in the game's opening hours. But it's once players begin to level up a few times and unlock more class skills that Outriders truly begins to shine.
By focusing on skill customization, variety, and usage, Outriders outshines much of its looter shooter competition on the gameplay front, giving players more freedom in how to build their character and how to react to any given situation the game throws at them. Here's how Outriders succeeds where other games in the genre fall short.
In Destiny, each class sports a handful of slightly different grenade abilities, a melee ability, and a few different ultimate attacks with a long cooldown to choose from. There are a total of eight skills across the whole game in The Division 2. In Borderlands 3, each class has three action skills at their disposal, but only one can be equipped at any given time.
In Outriders, players have three active skills at all times, out of a total of eight available for each of the game's four classes, alongside a melee ability. These three skills can be mixed and matched to complement a huge variety of playstyles and strategies. There are movement abilities, offensive abilities, defensive abilities, and ones that are a combination of several types of abilities all at once. These skills can then be further customized through the game's mod system, which further augments abilities in unique ways depending on which ones are equipped in a player's weapons or armor. Mods can cause abilities to deal additional types of damage, debuff enemies in a variety of ways, or boost the user's damage or defense.
If a particular encounter in Outriders is giving a player a hard time, there's nothing stopping them from equipping multiple defensive skills to boost their survivability. Likewise, players have complete freedom to build their character like a glass cannon, focusing on raw damage output and wreaking havoc across the battlefield. Mods can completely change these skills as well, creating new synergies that change how the game is played. Outriders gives players options, and every new skill unlocked feels like an important new tool in the toolbox of each class.
Outriders' skills aren't "one time use" per encounter, either. Players are constantly using abilities, with most skill cooldowns clocking in at well under 30 seconds. It makes for fast, frantic, and kinetic gameplay that simply isn't found in other games in the genre. Rather than skills simply feeling bolted onto the game's tried-and-true third-person shooting, skill usage is essential in Outriders.
There are plenty of aspects of Outriders that aren't particularly memorable, but it absolutely nails its classes and abilities in a way few looter shooters have. By giving players three skills to use at all times out of a selection of eight and letting players choose what to do with them, it never feels like the game is telling players how it should be played. Instead, it gives players the keys to the car and lets them run wild, and it's a blast to play because of it.
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