Outriders - Everything We Know Till Now

In early June 2019, the well-known company People Can Fly (developer), with the support of Square Enix (publisher), showed the first teaser of their new project, which was called Outriders . In the next over a year, we were actively sharing information about various features of the game, and recently announced the exact release date. 

It is because of the announcement of the date in this article that I decided to collect various known information so that I could get an idea of ​​the game. Please note that there are still several months before release and some of the features below may change in one direction or another. If I missed an important point, write about it on the comment section, I will definitely add it.

The main

• In case you forgot for some reason, People Can Fly brought games like Painkiller and Bulletstorm to the world, both of which are quite successful.
• The release of the project is scheduled for February 3 for platforms: PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X / S. Google Stadia will be added to the list a little later. Most interestingly, the developers have already announced a full-fledged cross-platform cross-platform.
• Now you can pre-order for the PC version on Steam or the Epic store , the price will be $39.99. The version for the PlayStation 4 will cost $59.99, and I did not find the price for the PS5. The version for the Xbox Series X / S will cost $59.99+.
• I did not find information on whether there will be differences between versions for consoles of the current and future generations. Perhaps they will tell about it after their official release.
• Outriders is built on Unreal Engine 4 and belongs to the popular third-person looter-shooter genre. By the way, because of the latter, some fans of Destiny 2, Warframe and The Division 2 got interested in the project.
• Unlike the aforementioned titles, Outriders is not a service game, however, it will require a constant internet connection (that is, you will not be able to run it offline). As one of the developers put it a few months ago, when you buy a game, you immediately get a full-fledged product, including history, end-game content, and more.
• The game has a cooperative mode for three people, and performed according to the standard and correct principle of drop-in \ drop-out. A similar system allows you to join and leave a session while playing, rather than a system with an initial set of groups. There is also a system for increasing the difficulty depending on the size of the group.
• There will not be any microtransactions or loot boxes in the game.
• The game lacks PvP, only storyline and PvE (endgame).
• After the release, the developers intend to support the project in a more or less "old" style, periodically releasing additions.

World and locations

• The game will take place on the planet Enoch. It was supposed to become a hope for humanity, but in the process of colonization, an unexpected obstacle arose in the form of an “anomaly” that contributed to the evolution of living creatures, disabled advanced technologies and endowed some people with superpowers. Thus, players will have to explore the world of the future with a touch of fantasy.
• If I understood correctly, the world of Outriders is divided into regions, which include several spacious locations and a base (hub). Based on a special video, the locations of each region are divided into plot (which you will be guided through for sure) and side (you must do their own research).
• Locations are filled with opponents, side quests (scale to the current character level) and additional activities. At the same time, as the plot develops, new, previously inaccessible quests may open in already explored locations. It seems like in one of the videos, the side quest included a mini-boss.
• If I understand correctly, there are several points / fast travel zones in each region so that you can return due to the feature described above.
• Between the locations and regions of the planet Enoch, the character moves on a personal truck, which acts as a small mobile base. It allows you to access a warehouse, a matchmaking terminal, a crafting station, an arms dealer, etc. Based on the general concept and the phrase “RPG village on wheels”, I would compare it to the ship “Normandy” from the Mass Effect series. The appearance of the truck is customizable and it seems like, being in the hubs, you can see the trucks of other players.
• In hubs, the player can visit various merchants, talk to the NPC, do crafting, take side quests, etc. According to the developers, as the plot of the NPC and in general, the situation in the hub will change.

Character creation and classes

• Each player's adventure begins with a simple character editor. In it, you can choose a body preset, skin tone, eye color, shape and color of hairstyle / beard, if you are playing a male character, inflict scars, wear jewelry. You will find an illustrative example in the form below.
• After creating a character, you have to choose one of 4 classes: Devastator, Pyromancer, Trickster and Technomancer. Also, based on this answer on Twitter, players will be able to create multiple characters and play as all classes.
• Classes differ among themselves by abilities / skills, which ultimately affect the main fighting style. For example, the abilities of the Trickster class focus on time manipulation and melee combat, which is why an aggressive fighting style is encouraged. On the other hand, Pyromancer is like a standard mage and can deal damage from afar.
• In addition to abilities, the classes differ in the mechanics of health recovery, since Outriders does not use the HP / drop-down potions system. Instead, the developers took a slightly different approach, endowing each class with unique health regeneration mechanics. For example, Technomancer recovers HP when dealing damage with abilities and weapons, Devastator - when killing melee, Pyromancer - when killing enemies marked with a special mark.
• The development of the class proceeds through the standard skill tree . It will allow you to learn new abilities, improve certain characteristics of the character and, most importantly, achieve a certain specialization. Unfortunately, the number of skill points / skill points is limited and you need to choose correctly what to pump. However, spent skill points can be discarded.

Equipment

• To slightly simplify such a difficult task as farming, there is a system called “World shooting ranges”. These are some kind of difficulty levels that increase the chances of getting better equipment and strengthen opponents.
• At the time of this writing, there are only 15 world shooting ranges in the game. The transition process between them is quite simple: along with the character level, you get the level of the world shooting gallery, and as soon as the bar is full, an automatic transition occurs. In the event of the death of a character, you will lose a certain percentage of the already accumulated experience of the shooting range.
• You will be able to reduce the level of the world shooting range, but only then you will stop getting his experience, since he goes only at the appropriate level. For example, to go to tier 5, you need to play at 4.
• The equipment has a standard division by grade from gray to legendary, the higher the grade, the better. There is also a level of equipment.
• If I'm not mistaken, starting with the green grade in your equipment, you will find mods (1-3 pieces), they enhance the abilities of your class or endow the equipment with unique properties. For example, when hit, they freeze opponents or strike with lightning. Some mods interact with each other.
• When you receive equipment with mods, they are automatically unlocked in a special collection and then can be applied to other equipment from the corresponding NPC. That is, you are allowed to customize mods to suit your playing style.
• Clothing / armor has a standard set of characteristics. For example, it increases armor indicators and the so-called Anomaly Power (ability power?).
• Weapons in the game have a huge number of different basic (Firepower) and specific characteristics. 
• Based on this reddit topic, the game has several functions for automating interaction with loot (selection, destruction, placement in a container, quick collection of resources).

Combat system

• Dismembered is present.
• Status effects are present.
• Three abilities and three different weapons can be used simultaneously in battle.
• Opponents are divided into several types and not all are cannon fodder. Some require a special approach.

In general, this is a fairly simple point, since in my opinion, in Outriders it is impossible to single out one specific play style and the corresponding combat system, since everything depends on the class. For example, choosing the Technomancer class, you can choose for yourself a “neat” distance path using sniper rifles, machine guns and various turrets. On the other hand, having chosen the Devastator class, we take a heavier shotgun in our hands, activate the stone armor and, to the music from Doom, we climb into close combat face to face.