After almost a year and half of teasers, previews, and gameplay trailers, players are finally going to get their hands on People Can Fly's upcoming looter shooter Outriders in February (in the form of a demo). However, as fans prepare to jump into the upcoming Outriders demo, players still aren't entirely sure what to expect from the limited experience available in the public preview.
Given what Square Enix has revealed about the Outriders demo, it looks like players will be jumping right into the opening of the game, with access to all four classes. It's what the demo could mean for players when they get the chance to play the game after release that could be the biggest reason to test out what People Can Fly is preparing.
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The best surprise that People Can Fly has for the Outriders demo is that players will be able to keep their progress when moving from this early preview to the full game. This could let players burn through the first few hours of the game in the demo, but not be forced to repeat the process if early gameplay is enough to convince them to jump on board at release. It's a huge step that could get players started on some strong footing right from launch, leading to a thriving community that can quickly jump to the co-op endgame that the genre emphasizes.
Considering how often Outriders is compared to Destiny, this could already put People Can Fly's new game a step above, thanks to the fact that none of Bungies early alphas or betas have allowed players to transfer anything into the full game. On top of this, giving the demo permanent progression also means that players can be assured that what they get to play on February 25th will be representative of what will release on April 1st. There could possibly be balance or polish changes between the demo and the full release, but the builds will need to at least be within striking distance in order for a seamless transition from one to the other to take place.
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Given that players will have over a month to play around with what People Can Fly describes as the first few hours of the game, there should be plenty of time to test out every class in Outriders. However, it isn't entirely clear how many characters each player will be able keep both during the demo and when transferring the data over to the full game. As a result, cycling through classes might be best done when first jumping into the demo, before deciding to dedicate time to getting a head start on collecting materials and powering up a specific character.
Regardless of whether or not all of the characters will be kept, it's a demo, and there will be plenty of time before the full game releases. Players should really do themselves a favor and take this downtime before the official launch to test out the different classes and see which one matches their specific playstyle. While Outriders' Technomancer might call out to some players, they should still give the others the opportunity to wow them, as its often difficult to know which class is best without hands-on experience.
When it comes to making a character in a demo, there's a natural urge for some players to go into full on monster maker mode and create some horrifying monstrosity, since it won't matter anyway. Of course, those players will absolutely still be able to take their personalized nightmares into the full game, but some players might want to be careful about how they approach the character customization. Since demo characters can be taken into the game, players might want to think about exactly what they want to bring into Outriders' endgame once the content becomes available.
Outriders is set to launch on April 1st, for PC, PS4, PS5, Stadia, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
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