Outriders
I get asked a variant of the same question a lot. “Is it time to get back into X, Y or Z game yet?”
Often times, it’s hard to recommend. I will always encourage anyone to play Destiny, but jumping back in with loads of content and context missed is always hard. Cyberpunk’s patches have done little to improve the game besides making it baseline functional. Avengers’ new content is solid, and yet is always one-and-done.
But Outriders? I feel comfortable recommending Outriders at this point.
Yesterday brought a new legendary-focused patch, but I do feel like I sort of have to go through everything that has changed since launch if I’m going to make this case.
- First of all, I stand by what I said in my initial review that I think Outriders has a surprisingly good sci-fi story for its base campaign. I was not expecting to be as engaged as I was, and I really do think they did a great job both with the campaign, and allowing you to craft at least basic “builds” early on.
- Yesterday’s legendary patch should affect both normal campaign playthroughs and the endgame. The legendary drop rate has been straight up doubled to 100%, there is protection with the Luck stat against long droughts, and there is an anti-dupe system that will at least give you a chance at finding more missing stuff from your collection. It may help in the campaign a little, but it has boosted endgame farming substantially.
- There has been a wave of enemy balancing and de-bugging that has made combat more coherent. You are now less likely to get one shot by Brood Mothers or Alpha Perforos. Snipers will not hit you the moment they set their sights on you. You will not randomly lose all your armor anymore. Generally speaking, survivability feels a lot more consistent than it used to.
Outriders
- There has been at least some level of buffing for underused skills and builds, with more to come. Lately, that’s meant buffs to all classes, and the creation of new, powerful builds like FASER Pyromancer. Generally speaking, there are multiple viable builds per class now, and with way more legendary drops, it’s easier to forge them.
- Connection issues and matchmaking has been improved, even with just this latest patch. I am seeing less dropped games, less AFKing in camp from players, and better quality of connections, where even using crossplay now can result in lag-free games, or at least a dramatic improvement from what it was like before.
- The endgame loop is coherent, at least to me. Even if you are not landing all your drops, you can progress through the challenge tiers of expeditions consistently between pushing yourself to hit higher levels, and saving resources to spend at the vendors to purchase high level gear to slowly power you up so you can farm the highest tiers in the game for the most legendary drops. It’s a clear through-line, something many other games in this genre don’t have.
Is there more work to be done in Outriders? Absolutely. More balance passes for mods, gear, skills, enemies. More bug fixes with non-triggering perks and effects. Expanding the endgame beyond DPS rush timers. And so on. But the improvements the game has made have been clear and consistent, and even though it took too long to get here, this last patch has helped the game more than any other before it, and I do think you are safe to jump back in and see what it’s like now.
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