Outriders look like a cape sniper, but the cape is not for you

The enemies in Outriders were killing me after just a few seconds in each battle, and I couldn’t figure out what I was doing wrong until a friend gave me some wise advice: The cover in Outriders it’s for the bad guys, not for you.

Hiding behind a shelter, no matter how natural it looks, is almost always the wrong thing to do in Outriders. So, what do you need to do instead, if you hope to stay alive enough to do some real damage?

Heal yourself, the only way the game allows: Killing your enemies, not hiding from them.

The scout’s healing system is based on killing, not hiding

Outriders it is a pastiche of so many other AAA games that it is easy to think that it will play like them. Each battleground appears to be designed to keep players moving from cover to cover, firing only when given the opportunity, taking the enemy’s terrain a few feet at a time. Much of the visual language of the game seems to indicate that this is the correct way to play, but don’t be fooled.

Image: People Can Fly / Square Enix

It was a difficult lesson to learn. Almost all other third-person shooters in the past decade have been informed by the Gears of war. As players, we are almost brainwashed into thinking that the standard game cycle is to find a battle, find cover, eliminate everyone you can, move on to the next cover and repeat this process until you are victorious. Outriders it even looks like a cross between Gears of War and The Division, two series that assume you’ll be hiding during most of your skirmishes. It just didn’t seem right for Outriders, according to the development team.

“We investigated different healing methods, like pickups or special finishers, but we found that doing most classes simply killing enemies worked better,” wrote Bartek Kmita, director of Outriders, in a recent blog post. “It forces players to be aggressive, use their entire toolbox and dive into the heart of the fight, which is where Outriders‘the combat really shines. “

It is a system similar to the one we saw in the last Doom games, where being relentlessly aggressive was the only way to keep your health as full as possible.

I play Outriders as a Devastator, the tank class of the game, which means that I heal myself by killing enemies that are physically close to me. I have an ability that turns me into a floating collection of stones so I can choose where to fly, pull myself together and attack. Ideally, I am killing at least one bandit and, at the same time, putting myself in a better position on the battlefield.

But if I become a swarm of enemies, I better have a plan to absorb the damage that the rest of the enemy forces will send my way, while destroying enough that my health is always improved. If I can’t, it’s better to have a free way to escape.

The game wants me to be in the middle of the battle, where I have to know how to use each of my weapons, skills and the strengths of my teammates to make split-second decisions and survive. The luxury of breathing in a crouch behind a barricade while I heal has been completely taken away, and the game director was right: if I don’t know how to use all the tools in my toolbox, I’m fried.

At first it was horrible, because I always assumed that the amount of damage I was suffering meant I was being careless. But it doesn’t matter how often your enemies hit you, as long as you hit them harder, and many of them die so that your health is continually restored. At the beginning of the game, I felt like I was getting beaten up really hard, only to realize after a few minutes that they were all dead and I was still standing in full health.

As long as you manage to kill a number of enemies while they pour their own bullets and attacks on you, you can stay there forever. If you find that your health is dropping so much that you are uncomfortable, always try to have a ready skill that will kill at least one enemy so that you can stay alive, or that gives you the chance to get out of there.

Each of the game’s four classes deals with healing a little differently, but each system is designed to place the character exactly where he needs to be on the battlefield to get the most out of his skills and help his teammates.

Image: People Can Fly / Square Enix

The Trickster class, for example, uses hit and run tactics to surprise enemies, knock them down and get out of position before anyone can fight back. Killing enemies with these tactics also recharges some of the Trickster’s shields, as well as his health, which is a good thing due to the lower general health of the class and the lack of bonus armor. They have to stay mobile, hit hard and then leave, because they will not survive any other way. The healing system for each class, as well as their abilities and attributes, tells you how they are best played.

I still use coverage now and then, but I don’t actively look for it most of the time, and there are better ways to stay safe. So always remember: the cover is for enemies, because they need to hide from you. It is your job to stay alive, doing what you do best, which is to destroy anyone who crosses your path.