Outriders has a 'hub and spoke' structure and an 'RPG village' truck

People Can Fly's forthcoming loot shooter Outriders has been subject to a steady stream of info dumps these past couple of months, but today's drop is arguably the most interesting. It provides an overview of how the game is structured, which is nice, because it's always been unclear whether the game takes place in a seamless open world, or if it's something more akin to Destiny.

The answer is basically that it's something more akin to Destiny, but not quite. The studio describes it as a 'hub and spoke' structure, which means that "combat arenas and free roam areas" (the spokes) branch off of "busy, settled areas" (the hubs). These settled areas are what you'd expect from an RPG village: there are vendors, NPCs with side-quests, and various other distractions.

The side-quests sound quite meaty: rather than the usual "go here and shoot ten of these type of monster" they'll take place in "new bespoke areas of Enoch." They'll also scale to your level, so if you choose to skip side-quests at the beginning of the game, they'll still provide a challenge if you return to them later.

Finally, you'll have a truck in Outriders. You won't be driving it yourself: consider it more as a moving hub, or as the devs describe it, a "moving RPG village." If you want to upgrade weapons or sell scrap without legging it back to a settlement, the truck will let you do that.

Outriders is still scheduled to release late this year.

Shaun Prescott is the Australian editor of PC Gamer. With over ten years experience covering the games industry, his work has appeared on GamesRadar+, TechRadar, The Guardian, PLAY Magazine, the Sydney Morning Herald, and more. Specific interests include indie games, obscure Metroidvanias, speedrunning, experimental games and FPSs. He thinks Lulu by Metallica and Lou Reed is an all-time classic that will receive its due critical reappraisal one day.