Outriders

1. Summary

OUTRIDERS is a third-person looter shooter that players describe as Gears of War cover shooting crossed with Destiny or Diablo loot, and 72% of these reviews recommend it. The fighting is what wins people over: class powers on short cooldowns, healing that comes from dealing damage, and a mod system that lets you rebuild weapons and armour around a playstyle. Many reviewers say it is better played in co-op with one or two friends. The game launched in a poor technical state, and edited reviews trace its recovery. Reviewers credit the free New Horizon update of November 2021 with removing the timers from endgame expeditions and adding free transmog and new expeditions, and the weeks after it brought a wave of new reviews. Reviews first posted between launch and that update were 59% positive; those posted from the update until the Worldslayer expansion arrived in June 2022 were 78% positive.

The always-online requirement is the complaint that never went away: a solo campaign that needs a server connection, with no pause, and disconnects that throw away a boss fight or a finished expedition. Crashes, audio bugs and quest blockers fell sharply after New Horizon but still turn up in reviews posted years later. Past the campaign, players disagree about whether the repeatable expeditions and the long hunt for specific legendaries are a satisfying grind or a treadmill, and the story, which comes up in more reviews than any other topic, divides readers. When price comes up, positive and negative reviewers tend to give the same advice: buy it on sale.

2. What keeps coming up

What players praise

Aggressive combat and class powersHigh

The praise for the combat is specific. Reviewers explain that every class heals by dealing damage or killing, so the game pushes you forward rather than behind cover, and that powers recharge fast enough to use in every fight. "In this game offense is the only defense." one player wrote, and another called it "Some of the best combat I've ever experienced in a shooter." A third put it in personal terms: "I have never played a looter shooter before or after this game that made you feel like such an incredible badass." The four classes (Trickster, Pyromancer, Technomancer and Devastator) are described as playing very differently. Destiny and Gears of War are the comparisons reviewers reach for most often, usually as shorthand for this mix of cover shooting and loot. Players with reservations point to elites at higher World Tiers that turn into damage sponges and to a cover system some find pointless.

Build crafting and gear modsHigh

As reviewers describe it, dismantling an item adds its mod to a permanent library, mods can be placed on other gear, respecs are free, and items can be levelled and raised in rarity, so a favourite weapon can stay with you. One reviewer wrote "Best crafting system ever." and another that "the item mod system is something I'd like to see more games imitate". Players also point to limits: only one of an item's two mods can be swapped, a small set of builds dominates the hardest content, and a few Devastator players describe being kicked from endgame groups for low damage. As one put it: "For the love of god don't play the tank class."

Co-op with friendsHigh

Several hundred reviews say outright that the game is better or more fun with friends, and couples, siblings and parents with children describe finishing the campaign together. Reviewers note that drop-in co-op covers the whole story, with crossplay to consoles. "This is definitely a game that's better with friends." is a typical line. Connection problems are a separate complaint, and players raise two design limits as well: parties cap at three despite there being four classes, and there is no text or voice chat with strangers.

A good-looking alien worldHigh

Reviewers who mention the visuals single out the art direction, the lighting and the gore, and describe the planet Enoch moving through muddy trenches, forests, a volcano, desert and snow. The criticism alongside it is that the scenery is mostly backdrop: levels are narrow paths between combat arenas, walled off by invisible barriers. A handful of reviewers report it running well on Steam Deck.

Free transmog, free respecs and adjustable difficultyMedium

The World Tier slider, as reviewers describe it, raises enemy level and loot quality and can be lowered at any point. Respecs cost nothing: "You can reset your spec at any time, as often as you like, for no cost, which is a nice touch." Reviewers say New Horizon added a free transmog system that applies any look you have collected to the gear you wear, and some players treat it as the real endgame: "I play for the fashion. Thank you for the transmog feature".

A complete game without microtransactionsMedium

When reviews bring up microtransactions, season passes or live-service design, the usual point is that the game has none of them. Players call it a "Perfect example of a non-parasitic looter shooter" and "Diablo with guns. No micro transactions.", and one said they "cannot get enough praise for NOT being a live-service game". Several of these reviewers accept the trade-off: the content has an end, and the game is meant to be played through rather than logged into daily.

A free demo that carries overLow

Reviewers say the demo covers the prologue and first chapter and carries progress into the full game, and they recommend trying it before buying, often alongside advice to wait for a discount.

Where players are split

The story and the writingHigh

The story comes up in more reviews than any other topic. A keyword pass finds 12% of reviews describing it with words like great, good, interesting or engaging, against 4% using words like bad, cringe, generic or boring. Fans like the grim premise (the last of humanity arriving on Enoch and finding it hostile), the twists, the journals that fill in Earth's collapse, and a tone some read as deliberate B-movie: "Love the b-movie story and voice work. It's so dark, yet funny." Detractors say the late chapters feel rushed, major threads such as the Anomaly and the signal go unexplained, characters are killed off abruptly, and the protagonist swears where they could have developed. One reviewer called it "the most morally bankrupt pathetic attempt at story telling I have played in the last 10 years"; another found it beyond parody, "its to the point its so bad that its almost good". Reviewers also disagree on whether the male or the female protagonist is better voiced.

Endgame expeditions and the loot grindHigh

Endgame and grind come up far more often in reviews from players with 50 or more hours than in those from players under two hours. Reviewers say expeditions were timed at launch, with rewards tied to speed, which they say forced everyone into the same damage builds. By their account New Horizon removed the timers, added four expeditions and let players reroll the legendary vendor's stock, and dozens of reviews first posted before the update were later edited to mention it. Supporters say the loop holds up: "The endgame is also more fun than it has any reason being". Critics describe the same maps on repeat while chasing one item: "Once you've done Eye of the Storm 90 times to finish your big endgame build the only thing for you to do is Eye of the Storm 90 more times." For some the whole problem is a single missing drop: "I Just want a Deathshield." Reviewers say Worldslayer's Apocalypse gear tiers and per-character Ascension levels extended the grind again, which veterans either welcomed or described as a soft reset of their gear.

The Worldslayer expansionHigh

The arguments about Worldslayer are about price as much as content. Reviewers say it cost $40, close to the base game, for a short campaign ("you are done with it in about 2+ hours") and an endgame built around one fixed dungeon, the Trial of Tarya Gratar ("ITS ONLY ONE DOUNGEON"). In the week of April 18, 2022, only 41% of the 105 reviews posted recommended the game, and about half of that week's negative reviews bring up the expansion, many of them its price. One reviewer argued that "The dlc should have been free considering how little content there is in the base game.", and a review posted in late June 2022 reads in full: "Connecting to backend services: The DLC." Players who bought it praise the Apocalypse gear's third mod slot and the new skill trees, and one called the game's overall turnaround "one of the biggest comeback stories in gaming".

Price and valueHigh

Positive and negative reviewers make the same point about price: the game is worth buying at a discount and not at full price. Those who name a figure often mention paying or waiting for around $20, and one launch-era reviewer warned against paying "60 dollars to beta test". Buyers who arrived with the New Horizon update and a sale were among the most positive reviewers in the set. The disagreement is about how far the price has to fall, from a few who call it worth full price to others who would not pay even the sale price.

Difficulty, World Tiers and damage spongesMedium

Players who like the World Tier system say the slider keeps fights tense and rewards changing your build. Critics describe bullet-sponge enemies ("even the most basic fodder can withstand a sniper shot to the head"), elites that shrug off crowd control, Alphas that leap across the arena, snipers with perfect aim, a dodge roll that does not avoid damage, and tiers that jump sharply. Reviews disagree on whether lowering the tier is a fair fix, since loot quality drops with it.

Playing soloMedium

Several solo players say the campaign plays fine alone. The disagreement starts in the endgame: solo players say each co-op player gets a self-revive on expeditions, while a single solo death sends them back to the start of a long run. "This is not a friendly game towards solo players." one wrote, and another that "the lack of scaling for fewer than 3 or even singular players is really awful." Because the game is always online there is no pause either: "My only real complaint is that you can't just pause whenever you need to."

What frustrates players

Crashes, bugs and stutterHigh

Crashes, bugs, glitches, stutter or performance problems come up in 29% of negative reviews. Their share fell over time, from 30% of reviews first posted before New Horizon to 12% of those posted from 2024 on, without ever disappearing. Reviewers report an Unreal Engine "Madness" crash on launch that some never got past, enemy gunfire that is silent or invisible, dialogue drifting out of sync in cutscenes, quests that stop progressing until a restart, and stutter on high-end hardware. One player wrote that "15 hours and 59 min of that time is spent reloading the game after crashing". Another summed it up as "Good game buried under a host of technical errors", and a third wrote "So many quit moments in such a good game."

Always online, with disconnects that cost progressHigh

The complaint is concrete: a solo campaign that needs a server, a disconnect that drops you to the main menu mid-boss or just before the loot pod, and the expedition run lost with it. It comes up in 17% of negative reviews. Reviews first posted before New Horizon raised it most (16% of them), and it held at about 7% in every later period. Reactions range from "ALWAYS ONLINE SINGLE PLAYER CAMPAIGNS? Shame on you!!!" to "Imagine being in a bossfight and suddenly your game crashes because the servers are not responding." One player pointed out that "if you lose connection your game ends instead of letting you play offline, or even collect your loot." and one group "made a drinking game out of how many times we get disconnected". A few players who want to keep the game also worry that it will become unplayable when the servers close.

Repetitive missions and enemiesMedium

Reviews that call the game repetitive describe the same structure on every map: walk into an area lined with chest-high cover, clear waves, fight an elite or a boss, move on, with human factions and creatures that reuse a few archetypes under new skins. "If you've played for one hour youve played the whole game." one wrote, and another: "There are 1000 cut scenes but only 2 types of enemies!" The complaint comes more from long-time players than from newcomers: 7% of reviews from players with 50 or more hours call it repetitive, against 3% of those under two hours.

Cutscene transitions and camera shakeMedium

Players object to how often the cutscenes play. Moving between areas means a fade to black, a short clip of your character opening a door, squeezing between rocks or jumping a gap, then another fade, and some boss fights cut away mid-fight. One player wrote: "I would rather just watch loading screen than my character opening doors so many times." Others accept the clips as disguised loading: "they are annoying, but better than looking at a loading screen imo". The cutscene camera shake made some players ill, one describing a "camera shake which can't be turned off and unfortunately this feature gives me motion sickness".

Co-op connections, matchmaking and no chatMedium

Reviewers say co-op runs through one player's machine, and those who are not hosting describe rubber-banding, abilities that fail to fire and kill-based mods that never trigger: "A really good unplayable co-op game." One noted the lag appears "even if you are in the same house". Matchmaking drops you into random activities or idle lobbies, and there is "No in-game chat, voice or text" to coordinate with strangers. A few reviews also report cheaters in matchmaking.

Launch-era wipes, nerfs and timersMedium

Reviews first posted before New Horizon carry the launch problems: inventory and character wipes, nerfs to popular builds in a game with no PvP, and timed expeditions. "The bug completely wiped my inventory, and the game was unplayable." Some of those players came back after the November 2021 update, and one review from that month reads: "New Horizon update made this game in the state it should have been in at launch." Others say restorations came late or with random gear.

Quest tracker and mapMedium

Navigation complaints turn up at a steady rate in every period. Reviewers say the world map shows only which zone you are in, the minimap has no compass, and the quest line often points to a finished objective or a blocked area until you restart. "There is no north direction", one wrote, and another: "The only thing worse than being lost is being misled".

Support ending after 2022Low

A few reviewers say the last update came in 2022, and later reviews note the bugs that were left in place. Reviews posted from 2024 on call the game abandoned or no longer updated more often than earlier ones. One reviewer added that "the devs have already announced they aren't fixing it anymore".

Clunky movement and coverLow

Some players object to how the character moves: no jump, invisible walls, a single key for roll, vault and cover that triggers the wrong action, and sprinting that swings the camera. "You can't vault over even the lowest of handrails." On cover, the complaint is that the game punishes you for using it ("Cover shooter that punishes you for taking cover.") while enemies hide behind it and shoot from across the map: "cover isn't for you, it's for the enemies".

3. The player conversation

Many reviews weigh real flaws against a core the writer clearly enjoys. Hundreds of the reviews first posted before New Horizon carry explicit edits or updates, so a single review often tells the game's history: angry at launch, revised upward after New Horizon, sometimes revised again around Worldslayer. "Outriders is a weird game to recommend" one long review begins, before ending "but I do recommend it."

Playtime shapes what reviewers raise. Among reviews from players with under two hours, about one in six report crashes or a game that would not start, and a similar share report connection errors. Reviews from players with 50 or more hours turn instead to the endgame and grind, Worldslayer, and builds and mods.

The timeline is visible in the weekly numbers. Reviews first posted before New Horizon were 59% positive; in the week of November 22, 2021, after the update and during a sale, 878 reviews came in at 87% positive, the busiest week in this set, and the months up to Worldslayer averaged 78%. Opinion dipped twice around the expansion: to 41% in the week of April 18, 2022, when many negative reviews were about its price, and to 59% in the week of June 20, 2022, when 58% of the reviews posted were flagged as received for free and 44% of that week's negative reviews mention connection or technical problems. From Worldslayer through 2023 reviews were 72% positive, and from 2024 on 77%. Reviews from 2024 on more often frame the game as an overlooked sale purchase, calling it underrated or questioning its Mixed rating, while also noting that it was no longer being fixed. A reviewer in 2023 put it this way: "I can't believe this has only 65% positive reviews."

4. What the developers could do

1. Add an offline mode for solo play, or let a session survive a dropped connection. 17% of negative reviews bring up the online requirement, servers or disconnects, and they describe dropped connections costing them a boss fight, a loot pod or a whole expedition.
2. Fix the remaining launch crash and audio bugs. Crashes, bugs and stutter appear in 29% of negative reviews, and the reports include the Unreal Engine "Madness" crash, silent or invisible enemy gunfire and cutscene dialogue drifting out of sync.
3. Give solo expeditions checkpoints or a self-revive. Solo players say one death erases a long run that co-op players could have recovered from with their own revive.
4. Add encounter and enemy variety to the expeditions. Long-time players describe running the same maps against reskinned enemies while hunting for a single legendary.
5. Improve co-op netcode and add text chat and pings. Players who are not hosting describe rubber-banding and mods that fail to trigger, and strangers have no way to coordinate beyond emotes.
6. Shorten the transition cutscenes and let players turn camera shake off entirely. Players object to fading out for every door and gap, and some report motion sickness from the shake.
7. Price expansions with existing owners in mind. Reviews dropped to 41% positive in the week of April 18, 2022, when about half of the negative reviews brought up Worldslayer, with owners asking why it cost close to the base game.
8. Fix the quest tracker and add a compass and player marker to the map. Navigation complaints held steady in every period, describing a quest line that points to finished objectives and a map that never shows where you are.