Chris InglisOutriders Worldslayer is the first expansion for the base game which released in April 2021. Developed by People Can Fly and published by Square Enix, Outriders Worldslayer released on all platforms on June 30 and I have been playing it everyday since. It’s taken all of the better things from the base game, which I thoroughly enjoyed, and adds extra dimensions with a new story campaign, tonnes of new loot, and new pathways to advance your character. It’s what the game has needed for some time.
The new campaign will take you to Glacier’s Edge and pits you against new enemies, including a powerful new boss by the name of Ereshkigal. The story will also delve into a bit more detail about the alien nature of the planet Enoch and the history of the world itself via Otarah Atuma, a Pax Shaman. It’s all quite interesting if you like diving deep into a game’s lore.
Once you have installed the expansion, you can either start a fresh character or continue an existing level 30. I chose to make a new Pyromancer character specifically for Worldslayer and once created, you select the Worldslayer story starting point and get boosted to level 30. This process gives you a default specialisation for your chosen class but you don’t get to choose your own spec. You may want to review this if you have a favourite class build in mind. Once at the expedition camp from the end of the base game, you talk to Channa to start the quest chain.
Upon arriving at Glacier’s Edge, we are thrown straight into combat and go up against a huge snow beast. The fight doesn’t last long before it runs off, but it gives you enough muscle memory for dodging, using class skills and unleashing the pain with your weapons, and it quickly feels familiar again. I always admired the environment art of the base Outriders game and Worldslayer is no different. I took so many screenshots of cool vistas and landscapes as I ran through the levels.
It wasn’t much further before I advanced to the next apocalypse tier and gained an ascension level. Post level 30, this is the new advancement method and, like world tiers of the base game, apocalypse tiers increase monster difficulty in turn with providing bigger and better loot drops. There are 200 ascension levels, and each gives you ascension points which you can spend in a new ascension tree for each class. I could choose options to increase my character’s short and long range damage, armor absorption, health drain, reduce cooldowns, and more.
In addition to the ascension tree, each character has a Pax tree which allows you to make your class skills stronger, so every class will feel fresh and worth coming back to. After playing for another hour or so, new epic apocalypse gear started dropping. This is designated with a little symbol and a darker purple coloured item card, and they contain three mods. This meant that when you came across a crafting station, it gave you a reason to stop and reassess your equipment mods to ensure you’re getting the most out of your character’s skills. By the time I finished the story and had salvaged a heck of a lot of items, there were still some tier 2 mods that I still hadn’t unlocked yet.
One thing I noticed was that there are no side quests in Worldslayer, so it was good to have these crafting and storage stations at key points in the campaign. It did mean you don’t linger in each new zone for long as the story moves you on pretty quickly. Part of me would prefer to explore more, but on the other hand it meant that after about 6-7 hours, I finally rolled credits on the Outriders Worldslayer campaign. It was cool to see a little tease of what could come next for Outriders too.
A lot of other reviews are showing about 5 hours played, however I started struggling about halfway through in trying to beat major encounters on the highest tier I had unlocked. I would do 2-3 attempts to try beat it, drop the apocalypse tier, try again, fail, drop the tier, until I could beat it. My patience for this kind of frustrating gameplay wained easily, so rather than get angry I would just drop down a few tiers to ensure I could pass that section and continue the story.
The Worldslayer campaign will take you to an ancient city called Tarya Gratar, where a new endgame challenge awaits – the Trial of Tarya Gratar. This is a dungeon where you have four attempts to get as deep as you can before it resets. You will also encounter branching crossroads that lead to rooms called troves. Each trove offers a specific type of loot drop — one might drop helmets while another drops chest armor. If you die, you can return to the previous crossroad you passed and continue from there, though if you die too many times, the run will fully reset. The developers stated the Trial of Tarya Gratar has been balanced for three players and that it does not scaled down the difficulty for duos or solo runs. They have intended for it not to be soloable at the highest apocalypse tiers, however no doubt players will be able to maximise their builds and gear to do so. I will leave that gameplay style to the experts.
If you don’t necessarily want to play multiplayer but want to push your character progression as far as possible, you can also tackle the whole original Outriders campaign on apocalypse tiers which effectively becomes a new game + method of getting new gear. This end-game grinding mechanic is no stranger to looter shooter players, and some love this repetitive grind to get better gear. For me though, I ran a couple of Trials but after seeing most of the troves on offer and getting some additional loot upgrades, I was happy enough to go back and revisit some older content that I couldn’t remember from the base game.
The Outriders Worldslayer upgrade costs AUD54.95 for those that already own Outriders. That’s a pretty steep price for an expansion, especially for one that has only ~5 hours of story content (7 for me). You could spend that amount of time again plus heaps more more grinding the Trial and older expeditions to keep maxing out your build, but that gameplay isn’t my cup of tea. I much prefer the levelling and character progression through story or zone exploration. Once I have hit max level and seen every zone I have access to once, I’m ready to move on to other things like achievement hunting or crafting, both of which aren’t a viable option in Outriders. For some players, this may not be enough content to justify the cost so it’s something to consider for yourself and your playstyle.
Overall, the extra story campaign content is excellent, and the environments, characters and level of detail in the new weapons and armour is fantastic. Voice acting is superb and the story is engaging, and I am hungry for more given the tease at the end. The changes to the classes makes your characters feel stronger and adds more fun to an already great game. However once the story is complete, I am not personally fond of grinding for better gear to keep repeating the same content over and over. It will just come down to whether you’re a fan of the grind in these looter shooters or are just in it for more story.
This review utilised a Xbox key provided by Bandai Namco AU. Outriders Worldslayer is available now for Xbox, PlayStation, and PC.
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Johnny
