Today, publisher Square Enix and developer People Can Fly have shared more details about the upcoming Outriders demo which releases next week. They shared and stressed that this is a demo and not a beta. It will be free with no pre-order or purchase required. In Germany, the demo will be available on PlayStation, Xbox, and PC (Steam). A PlayStation Plus subscription is required to download the demo in Germany. The demo will still be available for those without a PS Plus subscription but you will have to undergo the usual age verification process. There is no time limit for the demo. It will even remain available to download after the game launches. It will be available for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PC (Steam & streaming with NVIDIA GeForce). The demo launches on February 25, 2021. You can see when the demo is available in your region below.
The demo will include the prologue and the opening chapter which means that gear and enemies that you come across will be the early game variants. The game goes up towards the showdown with a character named Gauss, the first rival Altered you meet in the game. Altered refers to characters in the game such as yourself who have been affected by the “Anomaly,” a mysterious storm that gets discovered on the planet you travel to. This is what grants you the powers and abilities that come with each class. Speaking of classes, all 4 classes will be available to try in the demo. There will also be 6 character slots so you can try out every class without needing to delete any characters. Character level is capped to level 7 which grants access to your class’s fourth ability so you can mix and match active skills in the demo. You will also earn 2 skill points that you can apply in the skill tree.
Outriders uses a dynamic difficulty system called World Tiers. The higher the Tier, the better chance at higher rarity gear is increased, but the drop chance at Legendary Gear is still extremely low. You can progress up to World Tier 5 in the demo. Resources will also be capped in the demo in order to safeguard balancing for when you go to the main game. Resources are mainly used in the crafting system but you can also trade resources for better gear. The crafting system unlocks in the full game when you’ve gone past the demo content. Progress can be transferred over to the main game on the same platform account (PlayStation, Xbox, Steam); However, you cannot transfer progress between the demo on Steam and the full game on the Epic Game Store. Crossplay will be available in the demo, but it will be in beta form and you have to manually enable it if you want to use it. There are no streaming restrictions but Square Enix and People Can Fly note that a trailer that plays at the end of the demo will contain licensed music and recommends caution when streaming this section.
Outriders launches on April 1, 2021, for PC, PS4|PS5, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, and Google Stadia.