Over a year after the game’s original bumpy launch, People Can Fly has remained faithful to the promise thatOutriderswould not be a traditional live service game despite sharing many similarities with other co-op looter shooters. Even with thefree New Horizons updatein November, the core experience of Outriders has been fine tuned but rarely expanded upon as faithful players continued to throw themselves into the expeditions that represented the endgame. In comes Worldslayer, a substantial expansion that attempts to both serve as a finale for the main plot and an entrypoint for a second endgame, The Trial of Tarya Gratar. Although it fails to offer any compelling reasons for new players to skip past the main campaign despite including a level 30 boost for newcomers, Worldslayer sticks to what made Outriders as addicting and challenging as it ever was thanks to a revamped difficulty tier system and plenty of new loot.
Worldslayer picks off right after the endgame, as the anomaly continues to threaten the planet of Enoch and its inhabitants that represent what’s left of humanity. After the expeditions fail to turn up anything that will stave off extinction, your Outrider and their team must turn to more elusive sources and dive deeper into the mystery of what happened to the planet’s native population. A handful of unique locations and a willingness to wrap up the base story’s loose threads stops the short Worldslayer campaign from being completely forgettable, but there’s little introduced that returning players haven’t already experienced. There are a few new enemy types, but they rarely encourage players to use their maxed out characters in new or interesting ways, and a lack of new skills or mechanics for players to engage with leaves Worldslayer feeling like a missed opportunity for fresh ideas leading up to the new endgame.
As if one skill tree per class wasn’t enough, Worldslayer introduces two additional ways for players to bank and spend points to improve their character: Pax points which are rewarded after reaching key points in the story, and Ascension which functions as the post-level 30 XP system and caps out at a staggering 200 points. But the true draw is the Apocalypse tiers, an all-encompassing difficulty system that replaces the Challenge tiers found in expeditions and expands upon the World tiers of the base campaign. It functions similarly to the previous systems, increasing the quality of loot and the levels of enemies to create impressively-balanced combat scenarios that feel equal parts frustrating and satisfying to overcome. But with an additional forty tiers to master and a new max gear level cap of 75, plus the chance for exclusive Apocalypse loot that drops with a third mod slot, the enhanced difficulty system manages to feel fresh all over again and makes for a welcome opportunity for veteran players to test their skills against waves of increasingly more challenging enemies.
At the end of the Worldslayer campaign awaits the Trial of Tarya Gratar, a co-op focused endgame that serves as an alternative instead of a replacement for expeditions. Each run into the city has a limited number of attempts, and offers branching paths with optional encounters for the chance at more loot and Ascension XP. The expeditions still have an edge with their environmental variety, but the freedom to choose how you progress and the ever-increasing challenges that lie in wait as your squad increases their Apocalypse tier bodes well for the players that want another opportunity to max out their Outrider with the best loot available and face the toughest battles the game has to offer. Ultimately, Worldslayer offers little that feels original or innovative to motivate players to begin or continue their Outriders journey, but anyone looking for a satisfying story conclusion or an excuse to spend dozens or perhaps hundreds of more hours mowing down the scum of Enoch should be pleased with how Worldslayer expands upon the core Outriders experience.
