What's This Game All About
This is a game that I completely slept on. If you’ve read my first blog post, you’ll know my gaming catalogue had been quite restricted dint the past 12 months. Outriders is a game I knew absolutely nothing about until I spotted it for $29 at BigW (an Australian department store). I looked up a quick review – liked what I saw, had a glance at the trophy list – not too difficult, and decided to give it a try. Well, in the end, I’m very happy with my purchase, and chasing the trophies in this RPG looter-shooter was very enjoyable.
At its core, Outriders is a fast-paced action RPG, looter-shooter. The game’s overall shooting mechanics, mixed with an at times overpowered violent magical powers, come together perfectly to complement the dire yet beautifully tailored world and engaging storyline. Whilst Outriders could not be classed as revolutionary, it takes the best aspects of many looter-shooters and the strongest aspects of many Sci-Fi RPGs and combines them in a way that makes Outriders stand out in a meaningful way.
This game is at its best when you are slicing through enemies with a combination of highly customised weapons and near-invincible superpowers. As the game wears on you become a lot stronger, and the game turns into a challenge of how much of a badass you can be. There are multiple classes to choose from and thanks to an intuitive customisation system, countless combinations of weapon and armour sets can be equipped.
Often, these types of games suffer from a somewhat lackluster story. However, despite the, at times, predictability of the main plot it still leaves you wanting more and wondering what will take place at the next location. Whilst it does start slowly, it picks up quickly and doesn’t slow down until the end. There are many different enemy types – whether that be huge aliens that spit acid followed by their minions, to human elites and dual-wielding melee bandits. I found the balancing of enemies throughout the game to be very satisfying.
One area that did frustrate me and a friend of mine, was the loading times and frequency. Each new area felt like it had a load in screen, and whilst load times on the PS5 are negligible, when paired with someone on a PS4 it would often take upwards of 20 seconds to load a new area.
Outriders Trophies
Chasing the trophies, and in turn the platinum, was a pretty enjoyable experience with a little endgame grinding. Whilst there are no difficulty related trophies, there is a scaling system called World Tiers. Adjusting this effectively alters the enemy’s level as well as loot level and rarity. Thus, completing the story can be as easy or as difficult as you feel comfortable. I tend to enjoy a challenge, so most of the time I left the world tier on the maximum. This not only gives you better loot, but it also allows you to level up the current world tier and progress to unlock the next tier. After tier 12, you unlock a legendary weapon for each tier you unlock (max 1tier is 15); a handy addition as these are somewhat a rare commodity.
The majority of the ‘miscellaneous trophies’ on psn profiles will come naturally, and that was the case with my playthrough. One that I did find a bit grindy was fill in 300 journal pages. These are Outriders’ forms of collectibles, and there are 339 available. Thankfully, you don’t have to collect every single one, and many of them are unlocked by visiting areas, talking to NPCs, or encountering enemies. Upon completing the game, I still had 30 or so left to get to 300, so I did end up using a guide on youtube. It took around 30 minutes to get these 30 pages. I had a friend who unlocked this before he had finished the main story, so I guess I just didn’t look around for the floating blue pages comprehensively enough!
Another trophy that was a bit grindy was completing all class-related accolades. Accolades are in-game challenges that have 5 tiers, and class-related accolades are simply the class’s skill moves. Skill moves are superpowers that you are granted early in the game, but you do unlock more as you progress. There are 4 distinct classes, each with its own unique skill moves. Some skills are more situational than others, but all are relatively versatile in their own right. For this trophy, I recommend rotating the skills regularly, or at the very least swapping out a skill when you reach tier 5. This will minimise the end game grind. You can have 3 skills active at any time, so just spam each skill when the cooldowns wear off, and you will work your way through the tiers. Once you reach tier 5 for a particular skill, there is nothing else to be gained from using that skill. I did have to swap some of my favourite skills out, but this also allows you to use a different playstyle and adjust to what is a whole new tactical approach. You also have the ability to mod your armour to compliment your skills, so don’t forget to change your mods around when you equip different skills. This can give you a massive damage buff, decrease cooldowns, and give skills multiple uses before the cooldown phase.
The class I played was the trickster. This is a teleporting, bullet enhancing, DPS machine. I enjoyed this class, and even though I spent a few end-game hours grinding the accolades, the different skills available kept things fresh and interesting. I played a lot of the game with a friend who played the pyromancer class, and I often outperformed him on damage dealt. He seemed to weaken them and then the trickster’s skill moves would just annihilate them. My favoutire skill was Time Rift, which allows you to “create a shockwave that suspends enemies in the air, leaving them unable to fight for 3.5 seconds and inflicting weakness”. Add to this some crafty little armour mods, and I could practically oneshot any basic enemies (single or groups) that were in my line of sight. Bosses and elites were a bit trickier, but this move still dealt huge damage to them.
After you finish the story in Outriders, you can take part in expeditions. This is the endgame content, and whilst it is enjoyable for a while it did get a little stale by the time I had obtained all of the trophies. Expeditions see you grinding through hordes of enemies to retrieve loot a the end. Similar to world tiers, these have their own levels called challenge tiers. The higher you go the better the loot, whilst also increasing the enemy’s levels. I think I reached 8 out of 15 before I got the platinum, and I still hadn’t received a legendary drop. The only expeditions-related trophy was kill 1000 enemies, which I unlocked whilst I was still working on my accolades.
Trophy Hunting Trophy Facts
Trophies Available – 35 bronze, 7 SIlver, 4 Gold, 1 Platinum
Time to Platinum – 40 hours
Platinum Difficulty – 3/10
Number of Missable Trophies – 0
Hardest Trophy – Outrider, First Class (complete all class-related accolades)
Number of Playthroughs – 1
Fun Factor – 8/10
View my previous platinum journey Hotline Miami Trophies – Platinum Obsession Review