Skip to main content

Outriders: Worldslayer bucks the live service trend

Last year, Outriders bucked the live service trend of most modern shooters. Its content updates were rare but significant, instead of thinly stretched additions that begged players to not put the game down. That approach meant I stopped playing Outriders months ago, but its Worldslayer expansion is regaining my attention.

Harkening back to the classic era of DLC, a meaty expansion called Outriders: Worldslayer is on the way. Launching in June, Worldslayer will significantly expand Outriders’ story and extend the endgame in a way that no Outriders update has yet. Developer People Can Fly gave me an overview of what the expansion will add, and I even got to go hands-on with the first couple of levels in Worldslayer.

Related Videos

While it’s not revolutionizing Outriders, Worldslayer plays to the game’s strengths and will energize and extend playtime by hundreds of hours for hardcore players.

For whom the bell tolls

Worldslayer takes place immediately after the events of Outriders’ plot, and its story is as over-the-top, gruff, and hilariously edgy as ever. The raging Anomaly storm is exponentially worsening despite the player’s efforts in Outriders’ campaign. In fighting it back, the expansion brings players to plenty of new places on the alien planet of Enoch and forces them to take on the Insurgents and their altered leader, Ereshkigal.

Ereshkigal stares menacingly in Outriders: Worldslayer key art.

In the first two levels of Worldslayer, I explored the snowy Glacier’s Edge and the abandoned Driftwater village. Although the game’s linear-level design approach hasn’t changed much with this expansion, the combat and enemy design have only improved. Enemies of all sizes, shapes, and forms attacked me from the ground and the air, and using my Altered’s powers was essential for survival.

Glacier’s Edge was a short and story-driven level where the stakes of the worsening anomaly and Ereshkigal were teased. Still, it capped off with a thrilling fight against a giant Snow Behemoth that wasn’t afraid to quickly charge at and decimate me if I got its attention. Meanwhile, Driftwater is as eerie and atmospheric as you’d expect an abandoned fishing village to be.

Although the game’s linear-level design approach hasn’t changed much with this expansion, the combat and enemy design have only improved.

It turns out that Driftwater wasn’t as abandoned as I thought, as my team was ambushed by Insurgents when looking for a boat. This culminated with a new boss called the Fisherman, a ghost of myth tied to Driftwater and the town’s bell. He wielded two sharp blades and could quickly spin towards me and chop down my health bar if I wasn’t careful. This fight kept me on my toes, and I’d consider it one of the best Outriders’ boss fights yet.

Outriders is now in top form, so Worldslayer gives People Can Fly the chance to continue engaging players with more story content and new levels to explore and fight hordes of enemies.

The grind continues

While my early look at Worldslayer’s campaign was promising, this new story content will eventually end. After that, players will dig into an endgame grind that culminates in a mysterious raid. While People Can Fly isn’t sharing much about that raid just yet, we know how progression is getting reworked as part of Worldslayer.

Outriders fight a large enemy in Glacier's Edge in Worldslayer

First off, some changes are coming to the World Tier difficulty system unique to Outriders. Challenge Tiers will be replaced with 40 new Apocalypse Tiers. The first 15 tiers will be available to all players, but those who buy Worldslayer can exclusively access Apocalypse Tiers 16 through 40. Completing these tiers grants Apocalypse gear, which can have a third ability mod and be up to level 75. Expect some wildly powerful character builds to come out of this expansion.

Character progression is also getting some significant additions. Players will gain Pax Points as they complete Worldslayer objectives and can use those points to progress through two new subclass skill trees for each class. These new skills should make that character I used for dozens of hours feel a lot more fresh.

If that’s not enough, Worldslayer players will also constantly gain experience to raise their Ascension level. With each level, players get a point they can use to buff stats like their health, armor, and critical hit chats. Although they are just percentile stat buffs, there are 200 Ascension points to earn. People Can Fly says maxing out Ascension points will take upwards of 360 hours. The new story and levels might initially draw players back to Outriders, but the addition of these progression elements affirms that Worldslayer’s real goal is to extend the runway of content for its hardcore players so the adventure won’t end for a long time. People Can Fly has just chosen to do this with one large expansion, not a drip-feed of weekly content.

Expect some wildly powerful character builds to come out of this expansion.

The only major caveat of Worldslayer is that it won’t be available through Game Pass. That’s unfortunate for new players intrigued by this content, but the hardcore players that will get the most out of Worldslayer likely won’t mind buying the game and its first paid expansion. If you weren’t in love with Outriders before, Worldslayer probably won’t change your mind, but if Outriders was one of your favorite games of 2021 and you’re looking for more, it’ll be worth the wait.

Outriders: Worldslayer will release for PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, and Google Stadia on June 30.

Editors' Recommendations

Time is running out to play Battlefield 2042 for free
Crawford shoots enemies with a turret he place in Battlefield 2042.

If you want to try Battlefield 2042 for free on PC, your time is running out. You have just over a day to download and play it on Steam before it goes back to being a full-price release.
Battlefield 2042's free access period on Steam began on March 13, about two weeks after the start of Season 4: Eleventh Hour. If you go to its store page on Steam, you can download and play it for free until 12 p.m. ET on March 16. The game is also discounted on Steam during this time, so you can pick Battlefield 2042 up for $18 instead of $60.
If you don't want to buy the game directly but still want to continue playing after this free trial period, you have some options. Battlefield 2042 is included in multiple subscription services at the moment. It is one of March 2023's monthly PlayStation Plus titles for both PS4 and PS5 subscribers. Meanwhile, it's available as part of the EA Play game library, which Xbox Game Pass Ultimate subscribers on PC, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S all have access to.
If you use the same EA account on those platforms, you'll be able to carry over all of your account progression and items and not lose any progress. As such, this free access period on Steam is a great time to check out Battlefield 2042 if you've been on the fence about picking it up. 
Battlefield 2042 is available now for PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S. Its free Steam demo ends on March 16.

Read more
Exoprimal: release date, trailers, gameplay, and more
A group of players fights a T-Rex in Exoprimal.

Warning: There's been a crisis detected. You might call it a dino crisis, but Capcom won't. Exoprimal may look like the long-awaited revival of the Resident Evil spinoff series that replaced zombies with dinosaurs for a new twist on survival horror, but it's not. It's a new IP entirely.

Revealed at the March 2022 State of Play showcase, Exoprimal was a very unexpected announcement from Capcom. We didn't know what to expect going into the showcase, let alone that Capcom would be there with a brand new game. Unlike its other popular ongoing series and recent output of new IP, Exoprimal appears to take itself a bit less seriously, judging by the trailer and premise -- and it looks like a ton of fun. While it might not be the next Dino Crisis as some had hoped, here's everything we know about the chaotic dinosaur-filled shooter game Exoprimal.

Read more
Pikmin 4: release date, trailers, news, gameplay, and more
Pikmin 4 release date

When compared to Super Mario, The Legend of Zelda, and even Metroid, the Pikmin series was never a runaway success, but that hasn't stopped Nintendo from developing new installments. And we're glad, because the Pikmin series is full of wit, charm, and originality. During the September 2022 Direct, Nintendo finally unveiled the next entry, aptly titled Pikmin 4.

This announcement came nearly a decade after the previous entry, and although we don't know much about it, we're excited it's happening. The latest installment of the oddball strategy series is bringing some new features, including a brand new Pikmin type and an adorable dog companion. Positioned as the Switch's big summer 2023 release, it has the chance to get more eyes on the series than ever before.

Read more