Video Game Review - OutRage: Fight Fest
16 characters brawling whilst dressed as dinosaurs! What could go wrong?…
OutRage: Fight Fest is a party brawler that’s been developed by Hardball Games. The main premise of OutRage is to pit 16 players and allow them to pummel the snot out of each other in various ways. Where other brawlers task you with being the last fighter standing, OutRage mixes this up by adding objectives into the mix.
While I’m no stranger to battling my friends across various brawlers, I’m not a fan of performing complex combos. Where one of my mates reigns supreme in button combinations and flashy moves, I can just about perform a Hadouken! Thankfully OutRage forgoes these for a more casual experience that allows for anyone of any skill to pick up and play. It’s a simple brawler that’s not afraid to poke fun at itself and offers lightning-quick rounds that’ll throw you straight into the action.
There are plenty of brawlers to choose from and each comes with its over-the-top look. Costumes borderline on the absurdity and character names are a mini-game of “guess the pun”. If you’re after an alternate to the likes of Street Fighter and Super Smash Bros., OutRage certainly has you in its sights. It’s a chaotic fuelled mash-up that takes the likes of Human Fall Flat and Fall Guys to then blend them into a fairly competent party brawler.
When it comes to dominating the arena, OutRage offers you various ways to become the top dog. From punch and kick combos to launching your opponents across the battlefield, Hardball Games drops you straight into a well-crafted sandbox. Hell, even the arena itself can be used as a weapon with various destructible assets, and objects to launch at unsuspecting opponents.
Progression comes in the form of cosmetics and new skills which doesn’t necessarily reflect a play-to-win aspect, it allows you to simply stand out from the crowd. This works in both favour and decrement to OutRage’s ability. While having everything unlocked naturally through progression does eliminate the need for seasonal content drops, and the cases of FOMO, once you’ve unlocked everything that’s it. What would have been more interesting is allowing you to customise each character's move list. Even though the fighting aspect is incredibly tight and very well-balanced, there’s no difference in fighting style between any of the characters. Each character has access to the same punch, kick, and grapple moves. But with no variety fights boil down to a slugfest of who can hammer their buttons quickest.
OutRage does have a clever twist to its fighting and that’s how it handles those fancy ultra-powerful super moves. Where the likes of Street Fighter and Mortal Kombat have their super-special moves and fatalities, OutRage simply has rage. Put simply each player starts the round all the normal size. Dealing damage and generally getting involved then seeing your character slowly swell in size. As your attacks become more powerful, you become a lot slower and once you’ve built up enough rage you’re then able to unleash it spectacularly. This certainly helps to keep the game balanced as the “weaker” players can outmanoeuvre the heavy hitters while attempting to build their rage.
With being a party-based brawler, it comes as no surprise that the vast majority of the game modes are team-based. With a full lobby of 16 players, this is then divided into four teams of four who’ll battle it out across a randomly assigned game mode and arena. A couple of the match types are your traditional modes such as Crate Grab which acts much like capture-the-flag, and Domination where each team attempts to claim all the zones on the map. For those who want things very simple, there’s also Pain Points which acts as a traditional team deathmatch albeit with a brawler twist.
Rounding things off and OutRage: Fight Fest also features a battle royale game type. Set over four rounds, each player attempts to brawl their opponents to be the last fighter standing. To be honest in fed up with every game now including a battle royale mode. However, with OutRage it does feel right at home. Here it’s more like a chaotic WWE Royal Rumble with plenty of smaller fights exploding into mass brawls.
At its heart Outrage: Fight Fest is a competent brawler that sets out to deliver a fun alternative to the more hardcore brawlers on the market. While its fighting mechanics originally feel fresh, the lack of variety soon starts to show. You’ll very quickly start to see the same combos performed with bawls devolving into button-bashing mayhem. The same can be said for the game modes on offer. Where the 5 modes on offer do offer some variety there’s not a lot of variation between them with all becoming stale after a few bouts. The included battle royale mode also offers something different but like the rest of the game, there are not enough rewards in the tank to make you want to keep playing.
Overall while I enjoyed my time with OutRage: Fight Fest it wouldn’t be a game that’ll feature within my monthly meet-up with friends. Don’t get me wrong, at its core Hardball Games has produced a fun-action-packed brawler where with enough time can be up there either the best of them. However right now, with its lack of customisation options and small amount of game modes, it’s going to struggle to keep its player base invested.
Rating: 6.5/10
OutRage: Fight Fest is available now and can be purchased via Steam by clicking here.
A code was kindly provided by the publisher for this review.
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