As part of a hands-on preview for Outriders, Game ZXC was able to go hands-on with People Can Fly's new game for about 3 hours. The preview included choosing one of three available classes (one class was kept a secret) and running from the beginning of the game all the way through the first major boss fight.

At each participant's fingertips were three different Outriders classes: the Trickster, the Pyromancer, and the Devastator. While each had its own appeals, the Trickster felt the most unique of the three and so we spent the most time with that class.

The Trickster's strengths lie in the ability to deal high damage close up and then escape quickly. It has a few abilities that can increase either the damage of its weapons or the time that the Trickster is up close, but ultimately, the speed of the character is key. Early on, the focus is on a melee ability called Temporal Slice that cuts through a wide area of enemies and turns them into exploding skeletons. But eventually, the Trickster unlocks an ability that lets it teleport to the closest enemy and appear behind them. Combined with a high damage shotgun, this ability made for a lot of quick attacks and always kept the Trickster moving.

However, if the Trickster wants to be a little more “manipulative,” they have an ability that creates a field of energy that slows every enemy in its wake. Combined with another ability that gives the Trickster high damage ammo for a short time, the class can devastate a group of enemies and then zip away.

This combination became particularly useful in the first boss fight we encountered in Outriders, which put us up against an “Altered” that can use electricity. It was important to keep the boss at range, so choosing the right moment to zip in behind him and then deal high damage was key.

Alongside the active skills (only three can be equipped at a time) there are three paths of passive upgrades that will allow players to further specialize their individual Trickster. For example, one path helped boost close quarters damage with shotguns, which pairs exceptionally well with the teleport ability. Unfortunately, what we played only scratched the surface on how deep that customization in People Can Fly's new game goes but the paths were extensive enough that it didn't seem like players would follow similar paths.

Each of the four classes in Outriders has a healing mechanic that influences a certain playstyle. For the Trickster, each kill made while in close proximity to a target heals the player. This encourages the type of playstyle that the Trickster excels at: sneaking in close to deal high damage.

With this being an early preview of Outriders, there were still plenty of skills that were locked by the time the session was over. But even that small taste of what the Trickster could do was enough to highlight where the class shines. Most importantly, the class was outright fun to play and the cooldowns were fast enough that the game indulged the power fantasy.

Outriders is targeting a holiday 2020 release on PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X.