Outriders is a game that has been on many gamer’s radars since the day it was announced. It seemed to be a healthy mix of game mechanics from Destiny and Gears of  Wars combat systems, with a new fresh story that many where jumping into, excited to learn about the world of Enoch and the powers that it held. The trailers showed amazing abilities from four distinct classes, the Pyromancer, the Technomancer, the Trickster, and the Devastator. These four classes were the bread and butter of gameplay, as it dictated how you went about tenuous encounters. The other main aspect of the game were the weapons. These weapons all had special perks associated with them, and a big part of the game was based around these “mods” that you could get if you dismantled a weapon with a mod on it. You could then turn around, and for a small cost of materials, put that recently obtained mod onto a weapon you had just acquired that did more damage. This is a large part of the game and what drove many people to continue playing it, even after all of the issues the game was plagued with at launch.

Even with all of this seemingly good design and such, there were a multitude of problems with the launch, first and foremost being the server issues, disabling any and ALL players from playing the game, even in single player. Multi player was even worse off, and even when people were able to join each other, the lag was unbearable and most people stopped playing the game due to that alone. Then there’s the issue of the game crashing, which means the game forcibly shuts off and you get thrust back onto your console or computer’s main menu. All of these problems turned a lot of people off of the game, and lost the hype from most of the community. This, however, did not stop a good portion of people from playing the game for its mechanics, as many still very much enjoyed the gameplay, the looting of weapons, the story, and the endgame activities.

The endgame activities are really what makes up the bulk of the player’s experience. They are small missions areas that can be upped in the level of difficulty by passing the previous stage, and can award weapons and armor up to level 50, which is 20 levels above the player level cap. This allows players to challenge harder and harder expedition areas until they make it to the final stage. The final stage named “Eye of the Storm” is a very unique looking area that is covered in what almost look like black holes, it has a very blue and cold feel to it and it full of enemies the player has fought since the beginning of the game. It is also the hardest expedition, as it is the last, and after one completes this, they have technically beaten the game and have seen all it has to offer.

Overall, I personally had a very fun time with Outriders. Playing alone could be kind of lackluster, but with a friend or two, it would be an absolute blast to play through, from the various builds paths to the unique feeling weapons. Outriders is a fresh new experience, and while the story is kind of basic, it more than makes up for that in the way it plays and the feeling of progression. The world of Enoch is also wonderfully built, however also has a problem with it color palette, as many of the locations feel brown in tone and in a physical sense.

I encourage anyone that has Xbox Gamepass or that can afford it on the Xbox console to give this game a go, and if you play on PC, make sure you thoroughly research what the game has to offer before dumping $60 into it. It is a large time investment along with money, so one should be absolutely sure they want to play it all the way through before purchasing.