Outriders Worldslayer Review

Outriders is Square Enix and People Can Fly’s entry into the ARPG market, fitted with looter shooter mechanics and repeatable content. While the game launched with some issues, the game has seen several improvements to get the game back up to speed. It has since become more interesting; But there are only so much smaller patches can do to make it better, which is where Worldslayer comes in. Outriders Worldslayer is the first major game expansion, with an addition to a campaign, and a greater focus on end-game content, with a new end-game feature, new weapons, armor and additional combat improvements.

The question now is whether Outriders Worldslayer has fulfilled its priorities or is it a failed expedition that needs some more turning before venturing forward?

Combat improved

Outriders is foremost a looter shooter, with ARPG-like mechanics, designed to make characters builds and grinding the core of its gameplay systems. With the improvements in the base game, players got to try some more builds and playstyles, making it one of the successes of gradually improvements since launch. PCF has doubled down on this, as Worldslayer greatly improves the builds in the game.

The first is the new Ascension and PAX systems. Each class has two brand new trees to invest their PAX points into. These add some powerful buffs to a class, typically targeting a class’s fire power or anomaly power. They then branch out, offering some more buffs to a variety of playstyles under those categories. It allows players to specialize their builds even more and become even stronger. It is also largely how People Can Fly has done the impossible of balancing a lot of builds and playstyle for each class, allowing for each build to offer some form of viability for those keen to give something less cookie cutter a try.

As for the Ascension tree, these are boring and affect passive improvements. These passive offer better damage, defensive, cooldown, and more effects to improve your build. There’s nothing too fancy, but they are a nice touch to the game, and it feels good when you get to choose the areas you want to improve on first for your build.

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Each class has new legendary sets, which add new ways to play the game.

Each class has two brand-new legendary sets, each offering a new way to play your class and specializing in different skills or combos. The best bit is that these sets are a solid addition, so anyone looking to try something new for their preferred class and those making new characters now has even more content on offer. Moreso, there are a few legendary armor sets available to all classes. These are very niche, and quirky playstyles that try to get tanky, sniper, and side arm builds going. If you fancy messing around with a brand-new set, the options are there.

The other key parts of the expansion are the new legendary weapons and their mods. The new weapons have some very good mods, offering players some really strong buffs that work for various builds. In addition, the new mods specialize in different types of single target and mob clearing buffs. Some have interesting styles and mechanics to make them work, while others are status effect spreaders. These are great for those with a significant gap in their playstyle, or the ones that use certain mechanics from a class.

The new Apocalypse gear is a great addition to the game. The idea of the third mod slot and getting new and powerful mods on your armor and weapons help further enhance a playstyle’s core. You’ll find you can push a build even more thanks to the third slot, rewarding those hours of grinding you put into a build.

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Plenty of new weapons, gear and mods add to the fun of Outriders. Image via Square Enix.

People Can Fly heard the calls to make builds better in the game and plug the holes in classes, and they certainly answered with Worldslayer features. Combat genuinely feels much better, and each class has more and more variance in playstyles. Those who want to find their own playstyle and go from there have plenty of new tools to make their dreams come true in Outriders.

Lastly, say goodbye to the old system of World Tiers, because now it’s replaced with Apocalypse tiers. The new Apocalypse tier system adds 40 levels of grinding on top of your current players. Those who want to push the game to its maximum can do it and get some incredible strong gear along the way.

Gameplay loops

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Tarya Gratar is the repeatable end game in Worldslayer with a mixture of pros and cons.

The success of an ARPG game relies almost entirely on the satisfying gameplay loop. Sadly, these games are made or broken on the grind, which Outriders still struggles with. Outrider’s new grind is all about the new gameplay feature, Tarya Gratar. The zone takes players through various yet pre-determined levels with the same enemies and scripts for each of the levels. Sadly, the game gets very repetitive very quickly. Other games in the genre don’t suffer much from this system, largely thanks to the procedurally generated features in games like Diablo and Path of Exiles. It’s certainly a gripe but not a deal breaker.

The other issue with the Tarya Gratar system is that it is necessary to play through to get better opportunities at the new gameplay feature, apocalypse gear. The Apocalypse gear is the new type of gear you need to grind in the game. Getting your hands on a piece of Apocalypse gear grants a third mod slot. The ideal situation is to get a needed powerful mod for their skills or something that makes their life easier for surviving or beating powerful enemies. The need for this gear becomes apparent the higher you climb the Apocalypse tiers, thanks to the scaling enemies and stronger bosses.

While there are certainly negatives to the system, the Tarya Gratar remains the best way to get gear in the game, and there are strengths to it. There are loot areas of the Tarya Gratar that target specific armor slots. If you need specific pieces of gear, then you can opt for these optional loot areas and try to target a piece more effectively. The bosses of the Tarya Gratar also award players with a significantly higher chance of Apocalypse items, with the final boss guaranteeing one apocalypse item of a choice of three randomly generated. There are certainly exciting elements of Tarya Gratar that make it rewarding to play through repeatedly. If you can handle the repetition of the new end game, then you’ll more than likely love the grind the game offers.

Moreso, the Expeditions feature of the old base game is still a relevant feature. If you fancied going into some expeditions and trying out some of the content with your new build, there’s nothing stopping you. They still reward resources decently, and if you speed run well enough, you can earn enough Apocalypse XP faster than you would in the Tarya Gratar. These runs also offer players chances at Apocalypse gear and legendary items, making them viable content so they are not left behind.

The Story

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There is a new campaign in Outriders Worldslayer, though it has its issues.

Outriders Worldslayer has a new campaign to play through too. The story has you go on another adventure as the storms get worse. However, the journey is rather short, and the lore is not too fantastic.

You will venture into a variety of new areas under the insurgents’ control and encounter new NPCs, bosses, and more. Meanwhile, you’ll enter new areas controlled by nature, explore deeper into the homeland of the PAX and see how their civilization lived, and learn more about the storms and the source of the anomaly. Those who love the lore will find some additional features to enjoy and get new levels.

Unfortunately, the expansion campaign is merely a steppingstone to the end game. There’s plenty of room to explore the storyline developed in the game, but a lack of secondary quests or additional story content leaves the storyline feeling a little shallow. It’s a shame these assets and areas go to waste, as there are quite a lot of really well-done levels to battle through. It seems strange some of these areas were not added to the expedition feature. The fishing village is one great location, along with the towns and the PAX villages outside Tarya Gratar. There is more room for improvement, something those who still love playing expeditions will enjoy doing. It also adds reason to reuse the campaign bosses in the Worldslayer storyline. They did the same at the start of the game, with bosses like Moloch and the PAX general being great examples of returning bosses in the expeditions system.

Sound, visuals and technical aspects

The base game of Outriders has a solid look and feel to it, and not much has changed in Outriders Worldslayer. The game’s visuals remain exciting, and the simple pleasure of tracking your footprints in the snow is still as awesome as the footprints in the sand. Moreso, the game’s new sets, weapons, and level design in Tarya Grat is very good. The story areas which are used are very different and exciting.

It’s also worth congratulating People Can Fly and Square Enix on a smooth launch. The issues of the Outriders launch became very apparent very quickly. However, there are very few major technical pain points in the expansion. The game runs rather well, and the networking side of things hold up, bar a few launch day hiccups.