With over 80 hours of Outriders under my belt, I’ve already started my review of the game. At the same time, I’ve found myself looking at ways that People Can Fly could make the game better. Now, there’s a pretty long list, and I won’t go into it all here, but you can check out my article that talks about that. However, one of those ideas is to add an in-game session browser.
Why? Let me explain.
Multiplayer, both the expeditions and co-op story progression all work off of randomness. And that shouldn’t be the case because it’s a crapshoot. You hope you end up in a game with both a valid connection and someone who’s actually doing something and not being AFK. In some games, I end up in a session with the connection being completely terrible and rending the session unplayable. The connection goes from yellow to red, over and over, while the characters I’m playing with are teleporting around the levels. Other times, which have been the majority, I must add, have been better. Better, but still benefit from a simple change.
This is where an in-game browser would come in handy. Let’s take the in-game browser implemented in Remnant From the Ashes. If you haven’t played the game, I’ve provided a screenshot of the browser for reference.
Here you can see several things; Number of players in a session, Gear Score, Difficulty, Location, and Name of the person hosting the session. You can also filter out via game modes or join a game you may have left by accident or if the game crashed. Granted, these are specific to Remnant, but the browser list could be applied to Outriders. Swap out gear score to a minimum world tier or challenge tier, and add a connection indication (good/bad/stay away), and we’re in business.
This is what I envision that People Can Fly should implement due to several things. Players can join on their favorite levels or needed levels, removing any surprises. Or easily set up custom online games, more so than they can now. People Can Fly could also show what platform the host is playing on as well; PlayStation, Xbox, or PC.
Maybe I’m spoiled, or maybe I want a better online experience. Either way, I do feel that an in-game browser list would be something that would be appreciated by everyone else who plays the game. Honestly, I don’t understand how this wasn’t a priority on People Can Fly’s mind when the game was in development. Or maybe they are already thinking about it but didn’t have time to implement it. Either way, I really hope this makes its way into the game.
But what do you think? Do you often play co-op in Outriders, and if so, are you a fan of how online sessions are handled? Let us know in the comments.
Outriders is available for PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series S|X, PC, and Stadia.
