After a fairly successful demo launch, Outriders has released on PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X. While the fact that Outriders is on so many systems is great for allowing as many players as possible to access the game, it presents a potential headache for those looking forward to playing online with their friends. Thankfully, co-op in Outriders seems to be avoiding that problem.
Outriders is a new looter shooter from Square Enix and follows a human colony that becomes stranded on a dangerous planet called Enoch. The game can be played completely solo, but also allows for up to 3-person co-op. Outriders launched a demo in February 2021, enticing players by offering several hours of gameplay, with the promise that all progress would transfer to the final game. The Outriders demo was an impressive success, with over 2 million downloads in the first week alone.
According to Square Enix, Outriders fully supports cross-play. Unlike some games which limit cross-play between certain devices, players can expect to play "with your friends regardless of what system they own." Outriders' co-op is also drop-in, drop-out, meaning that one player can join another's session at any time, at any point in the story, without worrying about matching up progression. In theory, this should make co-op an easy and straight forward process, with no need for a player to check with all their friends to see which console they own before they play together. At launch, however, Outriders' co-op has not been flawless, as desynchronization issues have required Square Enix to disable cross-play between consoles and PC until they smooth out bugs.
How Much Content Is In Outriders?
Once co-op is up and running, however, Outriders looks to promise dozens of hours of content to players. The main campaign itself will take 25-30 hours, but Square Enix also estimates a playthrough could take "2-3 times that long if you play all the side quests, post-campaign and additional content" offered in Outriders. And that's on a single playthrough. Outriders gives each player 6 character slots, which allows players to have at least one of each of the four classes at their disposal. That's especially important as a character cannot change their class once selected, so if a player decides the Devestator class isn't working for them, they can set that progress aside for now and create a new character with a different build. Even better, players who like to frequently hop between characters and classes can share items between characters, so players don't have to worry about a great loot drop being wasted on the wrong character.
Outriders appears to be doing everything it can to be a smooth and enticing experience. Besides the cross-play and other co-op amenities, the game is also free to upgrade from older consoles, allowing gamers who haven't gotten their hands on a PS5 yet to safely begin playing on a PS4 without worrying about paying twice. Outriders is also on Xbox Game Pass at launch, removing monetary considerations for some gamers. While the game launch is experiencing some expected early hiccups, there could be a bright future ahead for this co-op shooter.
Source: Square Enix
Outriders is on PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X|S platforms.