Outriders is a new sci-fi game from Bulletstorm developer People Can Fly. The game tells the story of a human ship that was launched in May of 2076 on a mission to colonize the planet Enoch, the last hope for the people of Earth. But when humanity arrives on this new, mysterious planet, the team soon discovers that Enoch is a hostile place that won’t be so easy to settle in.
The sci-fi shooter is described as a drop-in, drop-out 1-3 player co-op shooter that immediately brings to mind titles like Destiny 2 and Anthem. Those who prefer to run solo can also play through the adventure in single-player. The game also features cover-based shooting that looks a bit inspired by Gears of War, while characters also get elemental special abilities that allow players to use a mix of guns and powers to dispose of enemies.
“Outriders’ brutal and bloody combat combines frenetic gunplay, violent powers, and deep RPG systems to create a true genre hybrid.”
You play as an Outrider, who must venture out of the First City to explore Enoch and face its many dangers. Publisher Square Enix promises that players will be able to create and customize their own Outriders and mod everything from their armor to the weapons, which again nods to the loot shooter genre, which emphasizes customizability as its own form of reward. It remains to be seen just how deep the game’s “RPG systems” go beyond the cosmetic, or if players should expect something similar to other games of its ilk.
“Outriders is the game that we have been wanting to make for years,” said Sebastian Wojciechowski, studio head of People Can Fly. “We’re very happy to be working with Square Enix on this project, it’s a big undertaking for us and the team has grown considerably to work on the Outriders project.”
People Can Fly itself is a veteran shooter studio. Bulletstorm, which was re-released just a few years back by Gearbox, remains one of the most underrated shooters of the Xbox 360/PS3 era. It’s an insane, over-the-top shooter that dared to be a little different at a time when most of the genre was bowing to the realism of Call of Duty. It was an excellent alternative to Halo, Call of Duty, and Gears of War at the time. Needless to say, we have high hopes for their latest shooter.
Here’s everything else we know about Outriders:
Outriders Release Date
Outriders is due out in 2020. The game is coming to Xbox Series X, PlayStation 5, PC, Xbox One, and PlayStation 4.
Outriders Trailers
We finally got a deeper look at Outriders‘ gameplay and features via this developer demo that has us more hyped for the game than ever. You have to see this:
This trailer reveals a bit more about the Outriders‘ story and gameplay:
And here’s the debut trailer for Outriders showcased during E3 2019:
Matthew Byrd is a staff writer for Den of Geek. He spends most of his days trying to pitch deep-dive analytical pieces about Killer Klowns From Outer Space to an increasingly perturbed series of editors. You can read more of his work here or find him on Twitter at @SilverTuna014.
John Saavedra is Games Editor at Den of Geek. Read more of his work here. Follow him on Twitter @johnsjr9.