Outriders Part 2

So with a desire to pick up some game and Outriders in the news of late, I took a closer look. My demo conclusion was largely "interesting in some aspects, but doesn't really click for me." Some of what I heard, however, led me to think 1)it gets better and 2)I was looking at it wrong. Both of these are kind of a shame.

This led me to try to convince myself it's not a cover-based shooter like the Division and to go back to the demo and try it again. See, cover is scattered around almost obnoxiously, and it's easy to get the impression it's there to use. And yet once you understand the healing mechanics require classes to play in certain, aggressive ways, and you see boss/beast encounter areas that specifically lack cover, it becomes more clear that's not the point. You're actually "supposed to be" more mobile. Two of the four classes only get health back when they're killing up close. Another has to damage marked (which is fairly incidental with the abilities) targets. The fourth is less restricted, but still has to be doing damage. And weapons often have a life leech effect. So sitting and waiting for a good shot is actually less effective than getting in the thick of things and cover is often for the enemies or just for players to catch a breath if things get too crazy. Acknowledging that and flipping the associated mental switch made normal gameplay much more enjoyable.

Also, the demo doesn't do any great favors by ending right around the time you unlock your third (of nine, though you choose three to have available at any given time) ability and barely any class points to spend on your skill tree. I get the philosophies behind leveling systems, but some choice of abilities and skills to put together makes a big difference. Also, you only start to get equipment with modifiers to those class abilities by the time the demo ends too. All of these things really do help make the game more interesting.

So after feeling kind of unimpressed by the Devastator class, I tried the Technomancer. Sort of billed as the long-range sniper class, that was the one I was first drawn to, but avoided as it didn't seem like a sniper-friendly game when I started in. Well, that's the class that clicked for me, and not because of sniping. The simple deal-damage-to-heal mechanic and abilities like a freezing turret just worked for me, even if I've been prone to mid-range assault rifle play. It felt pretty good. 

With that bar removed, I went ahead and bought in.

So far, I've enjoyed it. I have been disconnected a couple times over the weekend and it is very true I think the game would have been better served by being offline for solo play with online multiplayer as an option rather than always-online. I think I have missed the worst of that, though, and I haven't felt so horribly offended or disappointed by those issues. 

The story is dark/gritty in that some people I normally wouldn't have expected died along the way so far, but I'm still on board. The buildup before the fall is a bit better explained than I expected, but I'm not sure I'm entirely sold on that. And for all the "we're all that's left," we sure do seem to keep running into encampments so far. But I'm reasonably invested, I like most of the characters, and I want to see where things go.

So... yeah... I flip-flopped my decision and so far don't regret it.