The developers of the upcoming game Outriders, have released several brief Twitter videos elaborating on a few special character abilities. The game is being developed by People Can Fly, known for their work with Epic Games on the early games in the Gears of War series and Fortnite, and Square Enix is in charge of publishing the title.
Outriders was first announced at E3 last year, and is slated for release in late 2020 on Sony's upcoming PlayStation 5 and Microsoft's Xbox Series X, as well as the PC and current generation PlayStation and Xbox consoles. It is a third-person cover-based shooter with a heavy emphasis on RPG mechanics and multiplayer gameplay. Outriders is set on Enoch, an alien planet with strange wildlife and mysterious phenomena, including an unexplained Anomaly which alters its human settlers and gives them strange new powers. The game offers players a choice between four playable classes and allows further customization of those classes through skill trees and different forms of equipment. Players can also team up in groups of up to three through online cooperative multiplayer.
Recently the developers took to Twitter (thanks, Twinfinite) to share some new sneak peeks of the game. These came in the form of four brief videos, none longer than twelve seconds, that showcased particular abilities belonging to two of the in-game classes, Trickster and Devastator. Some of these abilities also demonstrate the especially violent nature of the game; the Trickster's Temporal Slice ability, for instance, is a powerful melee attack that appears to disintegrate an opponent's flesh, leaving behind a skeleton which then explodes into a gory mess. It is clear from these videos that Outriders will not be pulling any punches when it comes to the game's combat; everything that's been shown so far demonstrates a very bloody, brutal experience. Check out two of the videos in action below:
In addition to the gameplay teasers, People Can Fly also released two more videos from Outriders. These don't showcase any class abilities or combat gameplay; instead they are tranquil ambient videos designed for use as backgrounds for video conferences held in Zoom and similar programs. The videos are rather high-quality and certainly a marked contrast to the visceral combat in the other teasers. It's unclear how many people will use the videos for their intended use, but they are certainly pleasant to look at and they give a good glimpse of the game's unique world.
Outriders is clearly determined to distinguish itself from the other games in its genre, and from titles like Borderlands 3 and Destiny 2 which rely on similar progression methods, a similar emphasis on loot, similar multiplayer services, and even a somewhat similar setting. It remains to be seen how successful it will be in standing out from the crowd, but if these videos are any indication, Outriders looks like it will be a perfectly fun game regardless. A power trip is a power trip, and any game that lets players impale people on massive stone spikes certainly looks like an an enjoyable power trip. If these new videos are any indication, shooter (and violence) fans should have quite a bit to look forward to when Outriders releases later this year.
Source: Twitter (via Twinfinite)
