Outrage Fight Fest is a fun fighter with a limited moveset

Outrage: Fight Fest is a simple concept: Put 16 players in an arena, give them a simple objective, and let them beat the living crap out of each other while trying to be the first to complete the task. In practice, it can be a lot of fun punching, kicking, and throwing opponents across the map, but it doesn’t take long for cracks to appear in its punchy facade.

One of Outrage’s best qualities is how quickly you can jump into a match. The journey from the main menu to the in-game lobby can sometimes be measured in seconds, which is paramount to a smaller indie title like this trying to find its footing; the faster people can play, the happier they’ll be. It’s also good that they allow you to make cosmetic adjustments to your character while in the lobby, rather than forcing them to figure things out in the main menus.

This belies a major issue with Outrage, however: The customization offerings are very limited. You’ll unlock new skins as you level up, but there aren’t many, and once they’re all unlocked, that’s all you get. There are no colour-swapping options and no extra personalization layers to pick through; you get the skin as is, and that’s that.

Furthermore, there are some other areas that seem rife for customization that simply don’t have any. The most egregious lies in our character’s fighting moves, as every character uses the same punches, kicks, and combos. There’s no alternate fighting styles, or no other punch or kick options that allow you to mix and match. While this does allow you to plan for anything your enemy throws at you – what’s theirs is yours, after all – it also means each fight breaks down into monotonous button-mashing quickly.

Outrage does try to counter this through the Rage system, which on the surface looks like a typical “fill meter to gain super moves” format, but it holds a clever twist. Each character on the field starts the same size, but as players fight and build their Rage meter, each level makes the fighter grow larger and more imposing – think of how Bruce Banner hulks up, and you’ll get the idea.

Aside from a larger body, building rage like this makes attacks slower, yet more powerful, and this creates a new approach when running toward a group of enemies. Fighters with more rage built up deal more damage to smaller foes, but those characters can outmanoeuvre the hulked-up characters thanks to increased speed. It’s a neat system, which does a decent job of breaking up the monotony created by the one-size-fits-all fighting style, and helps make each battle more fun in the process.

Most of Outrage’s game modes are team-based, with a full lobby broken up into four teams of four players each. From there, a single game mode is assigned – some creative, some run-of-the-mill – and the fight is on. Rage Bank is a creative new mode where players transfer the Rage built up through fighting into a large tank, with the first team to build a set amount of Rage taking the win.

“One of Outrage’s best qualities is how quickly you can jump into a match. The journey from the main menu to the in-game lobby can sometimes be measured in seconds, which is paramount to a smaller indie title like this trying to find its footing”

Crate Grab, meanwhile, is a classic capture-the-flag style match where players must grab crates matching their team’s colours and bring them back to the home base, while Domination is another previously-seen mode where teams must claim zones to score points.

The best mode, though, is the simplest one, and that’s Pain Points, where the goal is simply to punch, kick, and combo your way to the set scoring threshold before the other teams. From the opening fun, this match type devolves into a flurry of attacks so quickly that it’s hard not to laugh in the heat of the moment. Frankly, this mode serves as great stress relief after a hard day.

Separate from the main lobbies are Knockout lobbies, Outrage’s take on battle royale where matches begin with 16 players and slowly whittle down the numbers until one is left standing. Players can tackle these alone or with a pal, and full matches will start with 16 players, with Round 2 including eight and the last round including the final four.

The format is fine – the slow drop to the final fighters is a cool way to handle the mode – but Knockout suffers from the same issues as the rest of the game. Eventually, no matter what mode you’re in, the matches start to blend together. You’re fighting with the same skins, using the same moves, and all of the action is contained in maps that look identical to one another. This is an issue, as the lack of staying power shown here will see a lot of players hop off to other games in no time.

There’s a strong foundation at the core of Outrage: Fight Fest, but its footing is weakened by repetitive gameplay and a lack of robust rewards and customization options. The fighting mechanics are fun until the identical movesets start to bore, and the choice of five games means you’ll see the same matches again and again.

A copy of Outrage Fight Fest was supplied by the game’s developer for this review.