OutRage: Fight Fest Review (PC)

To aid its continuing efforts to keep the world of online beat ‘em-up brawlers alive and kicking, developer Hardball Games has rustled up a new set of scenarios for PC, one of which just so happens to  involve a purple dinosaur and a baseball bat, weirdly enough. That’s right, OutRage: Fight Fest, the highly-anticipated sixteen-player battle-centric brawler is finally afloat, and it’s promising to bring a fresh array of “chaotic sessions” to an ever-evolving arena that, if all goes according to plan, will pave the way for an additional layer of original maps, characters, and other exciting materials in future patches. Well played, Hardball — you’ve caught our attention.

If you’re asking yourself whether or not OutRage: Fight Fest is perfectly capable of holding a candle to the likes of Party Animals or—dare I say—Super Smash Bros, then you’ve come to the right place. With that said, in order for us to answer that question, we’ll first need to strip away the layers and break it down, piece by piece.

Of course, it’s early days yet, so while there isn’t a huge amount of post-launch content for us to analyze with a fine-tooth comb at the time of writing, there’s still just enough in the cauldron for us to critique and mesh into a conclusive piece — at least to a certain extent, anyway. So, if you are looking to bridge that divide between your previous beat ‘em-up endeavor and the next, then allow us to lather a bit of context over the matter. Is OutRage: Fight Fest worth playing, or is it one for the bargain bin? Let’s get down to business, onesie wearers.

Fists & Onesies

OutRage: Fight Fest derives from a blueprint that dates way back to the conceptual era of beat ‘em-up brawlers—an era that just so happened to spout an influx of couch co-op and online PvP games into the mainstream. Since then, the popularity of the genre has soared to new and influential heights, further enabling the scene to become one of the greatest and most sought-after categories in gaming, period. To essentially capitalize on this ever-growing demand for fresh arena shooters and brawlers, OutRage: Fight Fest has come clean with its own spin on the concept—a spin that, while still playing it awfully close to the source, provides its own unique twist on the blueprint by way of adding large-scale maps, character evolution arcs, and numerous progression options.

At the core of OutRage: Fight Fest, similar to what its peers offer across a plethora of platforms, lies a gameplay loop that allows players to embark on their own troubling quests to eradicate fledgling fighters from the board in exchange for various perks, cosmetics, and eternal bragging rights. And with all of that, unsurprisingly, comes a host of game modes, including but not limited to a generic Free for All, Team Knockout, and a Battle Royale, all of which are available to play with up to sixteen other brawlers. Suffice it to say, this isn’t anything we haven’t seen countless times before; in fact, if you were to take a leaf out of any other book that also hails from the same pedigree, then you’d no doubt find the exact same options sprawled out across their menus. Still, as the saying goes: if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.

Take Your Pick

It doesn’t take a genius to figure out what each of the game modes is in possession of, let alone how they operate and what the victory criteria for each of the available bouts is. Much like its adversaries, the game revolves around the simple act of thrashing it out with fifteen other users across a series of maps, and having each player take full advantage of a wealth of melee weapons and other projectiles to create absolute chaos over relatively short rounds. And far as all of that goes, nothing is particularly special; it adheres to a set of principles that, while highly predictable and rather uninspired, are as equally as effective and digestible. Truth is, though, other than a slew of fresh faces, maps, and cosmetic features, OutRage: Fight Fest is, for lack of a better description, a love letter to dozens, if not hundreds of signature brawlers.

Of course, imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, and therefore it’s difficult to slate something that, quite frankly, can still manage to emulate a lot of the same mechanics and techniques and still find other ways to broaden the scope just a little. Sure, its modes hardly fall into the extraordinary categories, but that isn’t to say that it’s completely without merit or any form of replay value. It does have a lot of that, and it’s thanks to certain features like its high-octane combat, destructible environments, and limitless supply of projectiles and other hilarious weapons that make it the addictive sandbox that it is. The fact that it also touts a sixteen-player format, too, further boosts its appeal and overall unpredictability — again, further enhancing its replay value, in general.

One for the Beginners

As it turns out, OutRage: Fight Fest isn’t a game that requires laser-sharp focus or any level of skill in the field, for that matter. Why? Well, simply because, strategy or not, wins are often conceived by those who throw caution to the wind and, in most cases, their opponents out of the ring or with some form of blunt object. And that’s about it, funnily enough. Point is, there isn’t a great deal to learn when it comes to the world of beat ‘em-up brawlers, and unsurprisingly, OutRage: Fight Fest really is no different from the vast majority of its counterparts in that regard. Simply put, you drop into a map, and you mash several buttons until something—anything, be it a throwable item or a piece of debris, finds its target. So, to say that it isn’t a combination of trial and error and dumb luck isn’t true.

It goes without saying at this point, but if you are a bit of a sucker for breakable set pieces and comic book-style action sequences, and not to mention the occasional buffer of upgrades, abilities, and other in-game perks, then you’ll absolutely adore just about everything that fleshes out the borders of this unruly incarnation. Sure, it is, more or less, a clone of several other modern-day brawlers, but that isn’t to say that it’s a bad game; on the contrary, it’s actually a very good game, and one that, thanks to its simplified mechanics and design, can draw blood from even the most distinguished players. Can’t complain about that — like, at all.

Verdict

Given the sheer volume of beat ‘em-up brawlers that we already have in the palms of our hands, it seems that Hardball Games’ approach to finding a foothold on the ladder is destined to be marred by its lack of substance and originality. And yet, even with all odds stacked firmly against it, it still finds a way to breathe new life into the timeless world of online PvP by introducing stupidly addictive combat mechanics and a sense of progression that’s both rewarding and rife with lavish incentives, to boot. Again, I’m not saying that it pokes out from the hay bale, because truthfully, it’s still like trying to find a needle in haystack. But, for what it’s worth, it’s still a fantastic, albeit somewhat textbook representative for the genre — and that speaks volumes about its potential as an aspiring torchbearer for the online scene, truly.

It’s only natural that we slot OutRage: Fight Fest into the same gene pool as cult favorites like Super Smash Bros, Party Animals, and Rubber Bandits. It’s fair, mainly due to the fact that, original branding and roster cast aside, it still sports a lot of the same features — and that’s fine. To say that there’s a whole lot of potential in the future of the game wouldn’t be giving it enough credit, for what it does already have in its casket of cards is more than enough to span countless hours of genuinely enjoyable gameplay. As for what the devs will conjure next for the brawler, of course, is still a bit of a mystery. Still, if it is able to retain its original concept and continue to explore new avenues of growth, then the sky is well and truly the limit at this point.