Do not skip the journal entries. The hidden lore about the "Anomaly" and the planet’s indigenous creatures is genuinely Lovecraftian and better written than the main campaign. The Gameplay: Cover is for Cowards (Literally) Here is where Outriders shines. People Can Fly made a deliberate design choice that sets it apart from Gears or The Division : Cover is a trap.
And yet… it works. Not because it’s good, but because it commits. There is no ironic winking at the camera. Outriders plays its grimdark, post-apocalyptic soap opera completely straight. By the time you reach the forest zone—haunted by a demonic entity made of pure anomaly energy—you’re either rolling your eyes or nodding along. I was nodding. OUTRIDERS
Outriders showers you in guns. Blue, purple, and eventually legendary (gold) drops happen constantly. You will spend a significant portion of your playtime in the menus, comparing stats, dismantling duplicates, and applying mods. For loot gremlins, this is heaven. For everyone else, it’s exhausting. Do not skip the journal entries
It crashes occasionally. The lip-sync is awful. The final boss is a disappointing damage sponge. But when you leap off a cliff, slow time mid-air, empty an assault rifle into a captain’s face, then teleport behind his corpse before it hits the ground? Few games make you feel that cool. People Can Fly made a deliberate design choice
To the developer’s credit, they fixed almost all of it. The 2022 "Worldslayer" expansion overhauled the endgame, removed timers from most expeditions, added a roguelite "Trial" mode, and introduced the PAX skill trees (which are bonkers powerful). Today, Outriders is a stable, complete experience. But first impressions matter, and that launch tainted the game’s reputation forever. Short answer: Yes, especially with friends.
People Can Fly set out to make a brutal, power-fantasy looter-shooter. They succeeded. It just took a few patches to get there.