Outrage: Battle Fest is a straightforward idea: Put 16 gamers in an area, give them a easy goal, and allow them to beat the dwelling crap out of one another whereas making an attempt to be the primary to finish the duty. In observe, it may be a whole lot of enjoyable punching, kicking, and throwing opponents throughout the map, however it doesn’t take lengthy for cracks to seem in its punchy facade.
Considered one of Outrage’s finest qualities is how rapidly you may soar right into a match. The journey from the principle menu to the in-game foyer can typically be measured in seconds, which is paramount to a smaller indie title like this looking for its footing; the quicker individuals can play, the happier they’ll be. It’s additionally good that they assist you to make beauty changes to your character whereas within the foyer, relatively than forcing them to determine issues out in the principle menus.
This belies a significant problem with Outrage, nevertheless: The customization choices are very restricted. You’ll unlock new skins as you stage up, however there aren’t many, and as soon as they’re all unlocked, that’s all you get. There aren’t any colour-swapping choices and no further personalization layers to choose via; you get the pores and skin as is, and that’s that.
Moreover, there are another areas that appear rife for personalisation that merely don’t have any. Probably the most egregious lies in our character’s combating strikes, as each character makes use of the identical punches, kicks, and combos. There’s no alternate combating types, or no different punch or kick choices that assist you to combine and match. Whereas this does assist you to plan for something your enemy throws at you – what’s theirs is yours, in spite of everything – it additionally means every combat breaks down into monotonous button-mashing rapidly.
Outrage does attempt to counter this via the Rage system, which on the floor appears to be like like a typical “fill meter to realize tremendous strikes” format, however it holds a intelligent twist. Every character on the sphere begins the identical dimension, however as gamers combat and construct their Rage meter, every stage makes the fighter develop bigger and extra imposing – consider how Bruce Banner hulks up, and also you’ll get the concept.
Other than a bigger physique, constructing rage like this makes assaults slower, but extra highly effective, and this creates a brand new strategy when operating towards a bunch of enemies. Fighters with extra rage constructed up deal extra injury to smaller foes, however these characters can outmanoeuvre the hulked-up characters because of elevated pace. It’s a neat system, which does an honest job of breaking apart the monotony created by the one-size-fits-all combating type, and helps make every battle extra enjoyable within the course of.
Most of Outrage’s sport modes are team-based, with a full foyer damaged up into 4 groups of 4 gamers every. From there, a single sport mode is assigned – some inventive, some run-of-the-mill – and the combat is on. Rage Financial institution is a inventive new mode the place gamers switch the Rage constructed up via combating into a big tank, with the primary workforce to construct a set quantity of Rage taking the win.
“Considered one of Outrage’s finest qualities is how rapidly you may soar right into a match. The journey from the principle menu to the in-game foyer can typically be measured in seconds, which is paramount to a smaller indie title like this looking for its footing”
Crate Seize, in the meantime, is a basic capture-the-flag type match the place gamers should seize crates matching their workforce’s colors and convey them again to the house base, whereas Domination is one other previously-seen mode the place groups should declare zones to attain factors.
The very best mode, although, is the only one, and that’s Ache Factors, the place the purpose is solely to punch, kick, and combo your option to the set scoring threshold earlier than the opposite groups. From the opening enjoyable, this match kind devolves right into a flurry of assaults so rapidly that it’s onerous to not giggle within the warmth of the second. Frankly, this mode serves as nice stress reduction after a tough day.
Separate from the principle lobbies are Knockout lobbies, Outrage’s tackle battle royale the place matches start with 16 gamers and slowly whittle down the numbers till one is left standing. Gamers can sort out these alone or with a pal, and full matches will begin with 16 gamers, with Spherical 2 together with eight and the final spherical together with the ultimate 4.
The format is ok – the sluggish drop to the ultimate fighters is a cool option to deal with the mode – however Knockout suffers from the identical points as the remainder of the sport. Ultimately, it doesn’t matter what mode you’re in, the matches begin to mix collectively. You’re combating with the identical skins, utilizing the identical strikes, and the entire motion is contained in maps that look an identical to 1 one other. This is a matter, as the dearth of endurance proven right here will see a whole lot of gamers hop off to different video games very quickly.
There’s a powerful basis on the core of Outrage: Battle Fest, however its footing is weakened by repetitive gameplay and a scarcity of strong rewards and customization choices. The combating mechanics are enjoyable till the an identical movesets begin to bore, and the selection of 5 video games means you’ll see the identical matches many times.
A replica of Outrage Battle Fest was equipped by the sport’s developer for this evaluation.
