When it comes to the looter shooter genre, there’s a fine balance between a lot of gameplay mechanics, but unfortunately, few games truly nail this balance. This can result in a lackluster game where the loot is not worth the grind (a la Anthem), where the gameplay is dull and repetitive, and more. Marvel’s Avenger isn’t, by definition, a “looter shooter,” but it is a looter restricted to some of the same rules. Square Enix is attempting to “save the game with DLC characters,” with characters like Clint Barton’s Hawkeye, Spider-Man (for PlayStation players), and Black Panther on the way, but this mentality is something that upcoming looter shooter Outriders has, perhaps, already one-upped.
Most looters are Games-as-a-Service titles, complete with seasonal content, frequent content updates, and more. On the one hand, when a game is focused on looting, shooting, and grinding, this makes perfect sense. It creates a grind that players can come back to month after month, but these games need to make players want to come back for that much time. Outriders circumvents this problem entirely; it is not a Games-as-a-Service title and has constantly described itself as a complete “day-one package.” This means that comparing it to other looter shooters is almost an “apples and oranges” situation, but only if both fruits still came from the same tree.
Time and again, with many games aiming to be the next Destiny or being hyped up as a “Destiny-killer,” they have flopped. Outriders seemingly realizes this, and instead of trying to follow suit, it’s beating the drums to its own beat. All the makings of a good looter shooter are there: four classes (Trickster, Devastator, Pyromaniac, Technomancer) with diverse and customizable builds, a main campaign accentuated with endgame content, and a wide array of interesting array of weapons and equipment to compliment it all. Most notably, however, Outriders‘ endgame content is a huge divergence from many looters and, in particular, Marvel’s Avengers.
At launch, Outriders players will have a 30-hour base campaign to complete. After beating it, they automatically unlock the endgame content, Expeditions (no waiting for a content drop). Commonly, it’s not rare to see a looter shooter launch with 3-4 endgame activities and expand upon them; that’s not the case with Outriders. Players will have instant access to 14 expeditions, which upon completing them all, grants access to a Final Expedition dubbed Eye of the Storm. Here’s the thing: this is it, there’s no more, no secrets, and no wait. Players will be able to enjoy a looter shooter, with content comparable to that which takes months (if not years) to add in some other games, all on day one.
There is one caveat: obviously, Outriders is not out yet. Its release date is less than a month away, though, and fans will soon be able to judge these Expeditions for themselves. Still, combining 14 missions and an emphasized, high-level of endgame content with what has been revealed about Outriders‘ story and gameplay, there’s a ton of promise here. And even considering that caveat, this day-one package approach still avoids Marvel’s Avengers’ biggest pitfall.
Short of a full comparison between the two games, Marvel’s Avengers has one issue that Outriders seems to avoid: ill-timed content fluff. Outriders’ Expeditions have 14 specific missions that can be played, grinded with different characters, and re-attempted, much like the Marvel’s Avengers Warzones. However, despite the numerous and arguably too many Warzones in Avengers, they boil down to a few “types.” The inherent problem here is how this content feels like fluff, like once players have done one of the types, they’ve done them all. That’s where character grinding and loot is supposed to come in, but players are still left on the hook.
Kate Bishop’s Hawkeye DLC didn’t do much to correct this, and it remains to be seen when new villains are added to Marvel’s Avengers, when the variety of characters, enemy types, and mission types will really hit their stride. In truth, Marvel’s Avengers has the making a good looter game with interesting characters, missions, and more, but the problem is players have to wait. A year from launch, it’ll likely be a completely different game with more enemy types, more reasons to grind, and a more diverse character selection, but that’s a lot of time to devote to the game.
It’s a common predicament that Games-as-a-Service titles, primarily of the looter shooter variety, take time to hit their stride or have to be re-done to hit its stride. Anthem is working on a new updated version commonly dubbed Anthem 2.0, Avengers is (again) attempting to save itself with its post-launch plans, and even Destiny 2 has hit a bump or two with encouraging its live-service elements. Outriders skips all of this.
Fans of Marvel’s Avengers are still waiting for the game to hit its stride, but this won’t be a problem with Outriders. It’s laying it all on the line, and day-one, it’ll either succeed or flop (as any game can). That’s it. There won’t be new expeditions, new DLC content, or anything of the Games-as-a-service variety. That doesn’t mean fans shouldn’t expect support, it just means that fans won’t have to wait for content. It’s launching with everything it’s got, and that’s something to be applauded regardless of how it’s received (because, once again, anything is possible and Cyberpunk 2077 is proof of that). With an extensive base game, a solid variety of classes and weapons as revealed so far, and an endgame set-up to beat all endgame set-ups, Outriders‘ approach is something that should be replicated with future looter shooters.
Outriders releases February 2 for PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X, with a Stadia version in development for 2021.
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