Just two days ago I wrote about my first impressions of Outriders. Every point in that post still stands. I'm having a great time with the game and honestly it's only getting better the further I go. The story is starting to pick up and now that I'm getting mods for my gear the combat is starting to get really fun. The Pyromancer is a real powerhouse with the right mods and talents.
I've just finished up the third zone of the game and I've reached level 14. I'm all geared up in blue gear and I have some decent weapons. I've also killed my first big boss which was pretty neat. That was a pretty cool fight inside a volcano.
Even though the game is great there are some changes I would like to see. It's nothing major or gamebreaking but rather smaller quality of life fixes.
Fast travel
I have to mention fast travel first. The system for fast travel is really weird and annoying in this game. There are certain fast travel points that you unlock as you progress through each region and chapter. That's great. Using these is no issue and I don't mind having to run to them to fast travel. I'm not in so big of a rush that I need to be able to fast travel from anywhere.
It's when you're travelling across regions the annoyance starts. Say I'm deep in region A and want to go somewhere in region B. That would take me three fast travels to do. I would have to run from where I am to a fast travel point. From there I would have to use the truck to move regions, and when I've reached the next region I need to run to another fast travel point to get o my final destination.
I see no reason why this would be necessary. Just make us able to fast travel from any fast travel point to any other fast travel point within or outside the zone we're currently in.
The map, mini-map and adding a compass
Let's start with the map. The map is quite poor and very basic. It doesn't give any indication as to where you are exactly but instead just highlights the area you're in. There are no details on it and it just gives you a basic idea of the general layout of the entire zone. Because there's no compass in the game you don't really know if you're currently running north or south.
I really wish they would make the map more detailed and useful. Right now I pretty much only use it to select where I want to fast travel to. Just make it more useful and at least add a compass to the game.
I was gonna complain a little bit about the mini-map as well but while starting my little rant I realized that wouldn't be fair. It's not a mini-map at all but a radar, and that's something I've just realized. I was annoyed that it didn't have any details either and just red dots for where the enemies are and icons for NPCs and vendors, but in reality that's exactly what a radar is meant to do. This is however where they should have put a marker for which was north is.
Locking gear
You get a ton of loot in this game and most of it ends up dismantled or sold. The fact that you can mass dismantle gear is great. The fact that you can't exclude items from mass dismantling isn't. I haven't dismantled any gear I wanted to keep yet but I can see it becoming a problem in the future. I just want a way to lock items to exclude them from accidentally being dismantled.
Improving the cover system
I love a good cover system and this game takes the best from both the Division and Gears of War. It is however a little bit unresponsive and weird. When you're behind cover you can easily reposition by aiming where you want to reposition to and holding the space bar. That doesn't always work. I have to manually exit cover, run over and enter cover again. This is really the only issue I'm having with the combat and something I hope they will look into. It would make combat much smoother for sure.
That's pretty much it. None of these are in any way intruding on my gameplay but they are things that could easily be fixed or changed to make the game slightly better. So called quality of life fixes. Expect for the cover problem perhaps which is actually affecting gameplay.
Now it's time for me to stop complaining and get back in there. There's insurgents and mutants to be killed.
Shout me out if you're playing Outriders. Would love to try out some coop with y'all. I can currently only play with other PC players but eventually PC and console will be able to play together as well.
All images in this post are screenshots from Outriders taken by me.