There is an improvised line in Outriders this certainly sounds like a reference to the failed January 6 uprising in Washington, DC According to the game’s publisher, any connection anyone can make there is “pure coincidence”.
Developed by People Can Fly and published by Square Enix, the class-based looter Outriders officially launched last week for everything but the Switch. In the future – you will never believe this – “Terra [is] dead ”, ruined by war and starvation and all that apocalyptic turmoil that tends to set the scene in airport kiosk science fiction novels. To preserve humanity, Earth’s governments unite and finance a colony ship that will take thousands of survivors to a habitable planet, Enoch, about 12 light years away.
You are cast as a full-fledged scout, a badass armed with the task of exploring Enoch before the rest of the colonists leave the ship’s safe confines. In the first 30 minutes, you are betrayed, seriously injured, trapped in an energy storm, bequeathed supernatural powers and placed in a cryogenic chamber. You wake up three decades later and you’re like, “What the hell …” Before long, you find an old friend, Jakub, who takes a moment to recognize you, but you’re also, like, “What the hell …” And then you go on adventures.
One of the first missions – “Reunion”, also playable in the free demo of the game – presents some games between your character and Jakub, with the two reminiscing about the good old days of killing people on Earth.
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You: “I am having a great déjà vu in this place. It reminds me that the mission is Damascus, where we rescued those diplomats. “
Jakub: “I had to save your ass from that crowd by wielding a machete.”
You: “Ha! More like that time when I had to save your ass from that hick crowd invading DC ”
You wouldn’t be wrong to think that this line is a reference to the failed coup attempt that was hectic for republican political leadership. On January 6, thousands of supporters of the twice accused President Donald Trump rushed to the United States Capitol with the ostensible intention of nullifying legitimate election results. Five people died. In the following weeks, two officers died by suicide. (Although the authorities are currently looking for and holding civilians who invaded the Capitol, no Republican party chief has faced serious legal repercussions so far.)
When contacted to comment by Kotaku, representatives from Square Enix and People Can Fly said: “We wrote and recorded the script for Outriders a few years ago and all of its aspects are entirely fictional and related to the game’s backstory. Any similarities to real-world events are purely coincidental. “
So there it is.
In retrospect, the assumptions that Outriders would refer to events from the beginning of 2021 have been lost. The riot, to reiterate, took place on January 6. Outriders demo was released on February 25th. Any aspect of the game’s production, let alone in a pandemic, is a meticulous process. The People Can Fly team is undoubtedly full of talents, but given the complicated certifications that games must pass before launch, one can imagine that making a change in the 11th hour is no cakewalk.
But you can also extract the obvious from the game’s tradition. Outriders may not have the best dialogue (select a phrase: “I thought it was the bathroom”. [kills dudes]), but that doesn’t mean there’s no decent writing. It turns out that most good things – mainly the construction of the world – exist on the margins.
Dive into the diary menu and you’ll learn that Outriders begins in 2159, the first year in Enoch. You will also learn that the journey to Enoch only began in the mid-2070s. Although your character is imbued with longevity, superpowers and all that jazz, these blessings are the result of events that took place in Enoque. They are 40 years old at the most, and that is a very generous estimate on my part. (Square, release the Outriders skin care routine, please!) Following the timeline, it is practically impossible for your scout to be alive in 2021, let alone knowledgeable and robust enough to survive a “hick crowd”.
It’s fun to imagine the fictional Outriders it presents a unique line that makes reference to an uncontrolled insurrection that resulted in tragedy, but the notion is apparently just a fantasy. This is in contrast to the real reality we inhabit, in which such things can apparently happen without repercussions for those who set them in motion.