Slayer of worlds
When Outriders launched initially in 2021; I was excited about the prospects of this game that made it more fun to be in your enemies’ face, than shooting at them from behind a broken pillar. The varied classes, abilities and the fact that the game can be played with friends seemed like a recipe for success. But what we got was a game that was unbalanced and had a mess of a story; but what the game got right was it’s fast, and in your face combat. Fast forward a year later and the team at People Can Fly have listened to their fans and dropped an expansion by way of Worldslayer and while it improves the story over the original it doesn’t fix all the legacy issues from the original.
MSRP: $59.99
Platforms: Xbox (reviewed), PlayStation, PC
Price I’d Pay: $39.99
Worldslayer introduces players to a new threat to the planet Enoch by way of a super powerful Altered named, Ereshkigal. Possessing powers much akin to a ‘tentacle monster’, Ersh’s goal is nothing short of the destruction of the planet. What follows is a story that felt more complete than the original in my opinion. Using Ereshkigal as the antagonist really helped to make the story feel as though there was a “Big Bad” that needs defeating. While the original started strong, its story went too far to the left for my taste and ended up just being boring. While the Outriders: Worldslayer story is good, I wished that it had a branching narrative for the ending so that players could choose between an ending. Another area I think is a missed opportunity is while Worldslayer does delve more into the alien world of Enoch, it barely scratches the surface and while I am sure that is by design for a sequel, that is only going to work IF the team gets to continue this series.
But if players are looking for some ‘balls to wall’ action, then Outriders Wordslayer can deliver that in spades. One of the bigger improvements that PCF made was the addition of a new world tier known as Apocalypse. In this mode the game finally feels like it is rewarding players for a job well done. Drops are better overall, and you are almost guaranteed to get a better roll or drop from a boss fight now. These are all things that Bungie are STILL trying to work out for Destiny, making the effort worth the rewards that is. Beyond the new difficulty tier, Worldslayer also adds in another tree worth of abilities to which players can tweak their characters. The Pax tree provides more attributes for characters, but it can be a grind to unlock everything. The only way to earn the Pax points is to play Worldslayer content, meaning you cannot progress the Pax tree by replaying the vanilla game. Depending on if you enjoy grinding, this can be a blessing or a curse.
Outriders: Worldslayer is by and large a more complete game than its original release. The story and villain feel much more menacing, the new Pax systems allows more depth in character development and the new armor sets and weapons ensure that players are going to have new stuff to chase. All that good is still hampered in my opinion by a lack of world building and lore, the planet Enoch is framed as a dangerous and uncharted world and at times it can feel that way. But I’d love to learn more about the civilizations of the past, more about what happened to Earth; all of this can come with a sequel but as I said before they must sell enough to get there. And while I think that Worldslayer is a step in the right direction, I just don’t know if its going to be enough to keep people playing in the long term.
Review copy of game provided by publisher.
