Just because Outriders was delayed from Holiday 2020 to February 2, 2021, doesn't mean the information train has exited the station. Indeed, People Can Fly and Square Enix have just ended broadcast 4, which gives players a deep dive into the skills and abilities of the Technomancer, a look into what the Outriders' Expeditions would entail, a showcase of its weapon customization, and as always, community manager Robbie Palmer's Q&A session.
Fans have been asking about Outriders' endgame for some time now, and arguably, it's an important draw. Outriders is boasted as a "complete package" from day one, with no games as a service elements for the game whatsoever. In other words, where games like Anthem planned to expand with more Cataclysms or Destiny 2 expands with raids, everything to do after beating the 40-hour campaign is there on day one. For Outriders, these are Expeditions.
Outriders: Bringing the Endgame
As described in the above broadcast, Expeditions are unlocked at the end of the game. People Can Fly avoids explaining why, as this would contain spoilers for Outriders, but it seems like a whole other world from the base campaign. For example, Outriders has a rigid World Tier system which provides new challenges; in Game Rant's gameplay preview of the Technomancer, playing at Tier 5 was pure adrenaline and addictively punishing.
Expeditions, however, have their own special progression system, and it seems designed to encourage players to test and build their class. It has that endgame draw of a games as a service title, at least from what we've seen, but it has none of the waiting or drawback. To top it all off, there's no shortage of content—there's no 3 endgame missions to repeatedly play.
When Outriders launches, there will be 14 Expeditions ready for players. Completing all of them, which sounds like no easy feat, will unlock the final Expedition dubbed Eye of the Storm. While People Can Fly seemingly avoided diving into the importance of that, it would seem that this mission is designed to be the endgame of endgame content, which sounds incredibly compelling.
Outriders Packs a Punch with Endgame Features
Most importantly, it's clear that Outriders' endgame isn't some random attache. Not only is it designed to test and push Technomancer, Devastator, Pyromancer, or Trickster builds to their limit, but it's designed to take advantage of the cross-platform co-op and test a full squad of them. This alone seems worthy enough of "endgame" content, but the broadcast also dives into how weapon abilities can be used to customize every aspect of the weapon. In other words, builds aren't just the best guns players find and the way they choose their abilities, it's as granular as how players customize their weapons' abilities.
There's a lot still to be said, and still a few months from release. Outriders' future, if it wasn't already clear, is looking up as it leads the charge of sci-fi RPGS on next-gen consoles.
Outriders releases February 2, 2021 for PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S, with a Stadia version in development for later in 2021.