Outriders (video game)

Players can use different weapons such as

The game incorporates various

Plot

During the middle of the 21st century, Earth has passed the point of no return as climate disasters grow more frequent and dangerous, surpassing humanity's ability to mitigate them. The major governments of Earth combine their resources under the newly formed Enoch Colonization Authority (ECA) in a last-ditch effort to preserve humanity on Enoch, a distant Earth-like planet. Two massive colony ships, the Caravel and the Flores, are built, each holding 500,000 colonists. Despite the Caravel suffering a catastrophic explosion in the middle of construction, the Flores successfully reaches Enoch's orbit in 2159, after an 83-year journey. The Outriders, a team of elite soldiers tasked with scouting the landing zone and paving the way for the colonists, are the first to land. However, they quickly discover the Anomaly, an unexpectedly massive and deadly energy storm. The Outriders attempt to warn the ECA to abort the colonization, but the ECA leadership instead send their own security forces to silence the Outriders by purging them. One of the Outriders, having survived exposure to the Anomaly, is mortally wounded during the fighting and is put back into cryostasis by Shira Gutmann, an ECA engineer.

The Outrider is awakened from cryostasis 31 years later in 2190, where they find that the ECA's attempted colonization has failed, with the Anomaly destroying all the colony's advanced technology and trapping all the colonists within the confines of a single mountain valley. Beset by hostile alien wildlife and left with dwindling resources, the colonists split in a massive civil war pitting the remnants of the ECA against the Insurgents, militant rebels who seek to overthrow the ECA. In addition, people who have survived exposure to the Anomaly like the Outrider have become "Altered", mutated humans possessing supernatural powers. The Outrider manages to reunite with Shira, now the de facto leader of the ECA, who tasks the Outrider with fighting against the Insurgents and eliminating their Altered.

Shira then explains that she and scientist Dr Abraham Zahedi are trying to trace the source of a mysterious signal originating from the other side of the Anomaly. Having recorded the exact frequency of the signal when they first landed, the Outrider heads out to meet Zahedi. Zahedi reveals that he possesses the last satellite uplink capable of connecting to the Flores, which remains in orbit with half of the colony's supplies. If the colonists can relocate to an area safe from the Anomaly, they can establish a new colony. Taking Zahedi and several companions, the Outrider traverses a number of hazardous environments and is finally able to breach the Anomaly and reach the other side, only to find a vast, barren desert littered with derelict human installations but inhabited by a humanoid native species violently hostile to humans, which they call "Ferals".

As the group continues to follow the signal, they discover the wreck of the Caravel, which has inexplicably reached Enoch before the Flores. Upon entering the Caravel, the group learns that after the Flores left Earth, the people left behind were able to rebuild the Caravel with a more advanced engine. With this engine, the Caravel was able to reach Enoch before the Flores. Upon landing, the Caravel colonists encountered a native race they called the Pax, named after their peaceful nature. The Pax civilization also kept the strange energy native to the planet in balance, harnessing their own powers from it. The colonists craved this power and feared the Pax using it against them, so they violently subjugated the Pax in a vain attempt to gain their abilities. Increasingly abusive and cruel treatment of the Pax progressed to genocide. Left with no choice, the surviving Pax converted themselves through a ritual into a form capable of violence to resist and wiped out the Caravel colonists. However, this form removes their ability to reason and behave peacefully, which in turn unleashes the unbalanced energies of the planet as the Anomaly across Enoch without the Pax to tend to it. The signal the Outriders had followed all this time was the Caravel's automated distress beacon. The Ferals assault the Caravel, but the Outrider and their group are able to fight them back, allowing Zahedi to signal the Flores to launch its cargo pods.

As the group watches the cargo pods land, they are met by a group of humans who have followed their trail, inspired by the stories of the Outrider. Still determined to fulfill their mission, the Outrider presses on to look for a suitable area to colonize.

Development