People Can Fly has dropped the exciting new cooperative title Outriders this week, a third-person shooter RPG with more than a bit of loot as well. A fundamental component of the new title is cooperative play, however, encouraging friends and randoms to group up to bring humanity back from the brink of extinction.
Granted, Outriders isn't the first cooperative shooter title that has been seen in recent memory. How the studio managed to ensure that players would have an easy time playing with each other, however, is almost revolutionary.
In Outriders, players form groups of three into fire teams, which then tackle the campaign and side quests with a far greater host of firepower. This may seem odd, as the title offers a total of four classes in total. People Can Fly stated that, during internal testing, it found limiting groups of play to three offered more exciting possibilities of composition than having each class represented equally in the "ideal" composition. If you're more of a solo player, however, Outriders has you covered as well.
Solo players can opt to bypass any and all matchmaking stations, and enjoy the entirety of Outriders at a leisurely pace. The game will not automatically matchmake players in the background, nor will gamers be encouraged to form groups aside from a brief tutorial that explains the matchmaking stations littered about Enoch. It should be noted, however, that Outriders offers extremely simple cooperative experiences that make playing together a breeze.
Users can simply hop into each other's fire teams and begin blasting enemies that are at an appropriate level, regardless of the World Tier the host is on. Loot is instanced for each player, and not completing quests doesn't lock players from diving further into the story with a friend.
The narrative and dialogue are extremely well done, and a player would be wise to enjoy the narrative crafted, but it isn't a requirement for playing together. This also means that players that step backward through the story to join a fireteam will continue to receive loot dropped at the appropriate level and World Tier, while not being able to slice through entire hordes while stifling a yawn.
Players can also join together in groups smaller than the full three. This means just two players could take the entirety of the game on while still managing ability synchronizations and classic party roles. A tank and healer combo, with the tank specializing in shotguns and the healer taking long-range engagements, is a deadly duo. PC players should note, however, that there are issues with crossplay in Outriders causing crashes to desktop at the moment. People Can Fly stated that it is working on an "urgent fix."
Outriders is available on the PC, PS4, PS5, Stadia, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
