Love the multiplayer chaos of games like Fortnite and Apex Legends, but bored of guns? Enjoy the brawls of Street Fighter 6, Streets of Rage 4, and WWE 2K23, but wish they were bigger? OutRage might be just the game you’re looking for. OutRage is a 32-player, massively multiplayer fighting game that offers free-for-all, team-based, and battle royale modes.
Made by Brighton-based Hardball Games, who have previously worked on cult classic racing games Pure and Split Second, along with work on the LEGO Star Wars series, OutRage is starting out with PC playtests on Steam, and will then be coming to consoles and mobile devices when the full launch arrives.
Set in a dangerous near-future alternative reality, OutRage centres on an underground fighting competition that’s boosted by the introduction of “a wellness product with unintended ‘Rage’ enhancing side effects” to the action. This is core to its gameplay, and you’ll be able to ‘Rage Up’ during fights, making you bigger, tougher, and stronger for a brief while. The battles take place in fully destructible environments packed with traps and hazards for you to take advantage of.
“We love playing team-based games together but don’t always have the time to invest weeks or months mastering a new game,” developer Hardball Games says. “We wanted to create something that anyone could pick up and play with their friends but had a reward system and progression for players that wanted to put in the extra time, so with OutRage we’ve been really creative in the ways we’re dialling up the fun and making the game accessible.”
OutRage will offer a range of different ways to play: Domination, a map-control mode; Survival, a series of three mini-battle royale rounds; Rage Bank, a mode where you must collect and store built-up Rage; Pain Points, a simple score-based showdown; and Crate Grab, a spin on the tried and tested capture the flag mode.
OutRage releases Spring 2024 via Steam Early Access. If the promise of large-scale multiplayer brawling has you excited, you can head over to the Steam store page to add it to your wishlist, as well as registering your interest to take part in upcoming playtests.
If you’re after more multiplayer mayhem in the meantime, be sure to check out the best battle royale games you should be playing in 2023. Alternatively, browse the best free Steam games for plenty to play that won’t cost you a thing.