uring our hands-on
with this co-op sci-fi
shooter from the team
behind Bulletstorm
and That Other Console’s Gears
Of War, we discover it’s a heated
blast of old-fashioned cover-fire
shootery. We huddle behind
small stone walls that rapidly get
demolished by our enemies’
rattling gunfire; we embrace the
sci-fantasy blend of elemental
powers and heavy-hitting
machine guns that enables us to
set targets alight and pause the
world to deliver a deathly blow,
or just hold down i and pepper
our prey with shots from an
oversized gun. It’s solid, weighty
fun, but very familiar.
Much of our experience with
Outriders is of the first three
hours in the game, in which our
Outrider – one of the space
cowboys sent to prepare theplanet Enoch for human
colonisation – discovers a hostile
environment that wants us dead.
Spin forward after 30 years in
cryo-sleep and we awake to
a place that’s not so alien. The
colonisation went ahead regardless
of massive storms that destroy
everything in their path.
Humanity’s splintered into
warring tribes, and Enoch feels
like Earth, its Eden-like fields
turned to mud by years of trench
warfare. Walking above the fray
are evolved humans, imbued with
powers by Enoch, and our
Outrider has evolved into one
of these godlike figures.BUG COUNTRY
Where Outriders looks to stretch
its legs is in the world People Can
Fly has crafted. There’s over 200
years of lore, we’re told, covering
Enoch’s creation. And while thefirst hours have us scurrying
around trenches and ruined
makeshift buildings, there are
more exotic spaces yet to discover.
The dev has revealed new
biomes we can’t wait to set foot
on, and they’ll look incredible onPS5. There’s a vast desert, its sand
slowly smothering the shells of
long-defeated tanks. A vast
ivory-white alien citadel stretches
across the horizon; only the green
vines slowly edging up its elegant
buildings suggest this place is
abandoned. We see glittering
underground caverns,
a snow-covered mountain townPS5 GAMES PREVIEW
OUTRIDERS
Gunning for Destiny’s crown on PS5
ETA Sep Pub Square Enix Dev People Can FlyHE D
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