The Outriders community continues to voice frustrations concerning the design of the looter-shooter, and People Can Fly can't seem to adequately address their complaints. While discussion about the game focused on its bugs and online connection issues shortly after its April 1 launch, that conversation has evolved into questioning PCF's ability to fix problems fans think are apparent in the game. While PCF recently wrote a lengthy post detailing Outriders' damage mechanics, it only seems to have sparked more outrage.
In the post, PCF describes how different types of damage and damage mitigation methods coexist in Outriders. Essentially, Resistance mitigates Anomaly damage, Armor mitigates physical damage, Shields mitigate both, and other factors like mods and status effects further complicate the equation. PCF even revealed some "hidden" mechanics affecting player survivability, which amounts to two different Death Prevention damage blockers and one Spike Damage blocker. According to PCF, these three mechanics are part of the reason fixing Outriders' damage mitigation issues has taken so long.
However, the comments from fans following the developer Reddit post paint a bigger picture than just damage mechanics in the game. One of the most important parts of Outriders is its endgame, which pits players up against hordes of enemies in timed Expeditions. These Expeditions are the best way to obtain Legendary items, but they've proved to be a flop with many fans. In response to PCF's damage education post, many are saying that the discrepancies between PCF's Expedition design and damage mechanics show a lack of developer insight into what makes a fun endgame experience.
Chief among these complaints is the timed aspect of Expeditions. Most fans have noted that DPS builds in Outriders are the best way to chew through Expeditions and have any chance of getting Legendary drops. These builds are often glass cannons with lower health that struggle taking large amounts of damage. But with Challenge Tier 15 enemies that can range from 39K-50K damage with a single hit, it makes Expeditions a slog when fans were initially promised "the overpowered feel for the best builds out there."
Other fans are simply tired of having things explained to them and want to see some concrete changes added to the game. Popular opinions call for an increase to the Legendary drop rate, reducing the power of enemy Anomaly attacks, and more buffs to mods and player abilities.
Overall, the compounding issues in the game have made Outriders players feel like they are getting the trial by fire treatment. While many acknowledge that Outriders can be a fun experience at times, that feeling is overwhelmed by endgame issues and the lack of clean patches PCF is able to put out. For a game Square Enix seems intent to promote for future content, Outriders still has a ways to go to satisfy its player base.
Outriders is available on PC, PS4, PS5, Stadia, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
