Hands-On: LawBreakers
Every year at PAX, there’s one game that really captures the attendees’ attention. Last year, it was Blizzard’s imminent first-person shooter juggernaut Overwatch, which was still a commanding presence this year. This year, however, the new star of the show was undoubtedly LawBreakers, a brand-new shooter from Boss Key Productions and its co-founder Cliff Bleszinski, who had a big hand in creating Unreal Tournament and Gears of War.
LawBreakers pits players against each other in 5v5 matches with varying objectives. The demo on the show floor premiered a gameplay mode called Overcharge, which boils down to Capture the Flag with a twist or two. In this mode, a battery acts as the “flag” and needs to be delivered to a base in order to earn points – nothing new there. However, once you take control of the battery at your base, it’ll need to start charging, and only after it reaches 100% and you defend it for twenty seconds beyond that can your team then finally score. The battery never loses charge, so the opposing team can steal it and resume charging it at their base with no penalty. They can even steal it while it’s at 100% and complete the twenty-second countdown on their side, resulting in a quick and efficient point steal.
How you move around and engage your opponents forms a big part of whether or not you’ll control the battery. Four different classes were revealed with this demo, and each has their own set of pros and cons. Enforcers are well-rounded soldiers who can use an electromagnetic charge to suppress opponents’ powers. Assassins are fragile acrobats with very limited health offset by their ability to grapple around the map and get up-close for powerful swordplay. Titans are slow, plodding powerhouses that wield rocket launchers and a Hulk-like freak-out mode that boosts their health and damage output. Finally, the Vanguard (my personal favorite) leverages cluster grenades, a jetpack boost, and a killer ground-pound to great effect.
These classes and gameplay mechanics all come together in arenas that emphasize the fast-paced and unpredictable nature of the experience. Each battery spawns in the middle of the map, which is intentionally built as a lower-gravity area where things change quickly. Your meager jump now propels you several stories high, and blindfiring by shooting behind you will actually propel you forward. It’s a busy and speedy game in more ways than one; getting into and staying in the fray is critically important here, and you need to stay on your toes.
If this all sounds a bit Unreal Tournament-like, fear not – that’s the point. We’ve seen a resurgence of the arena shooter in recent years, and an ever-growing number of developers and publishers are getting in on the trend. Arena shooters, fast-paced and hyper-competitive as they are, make for ideal YouTube and streaming fodder; they generate flashy moments and visceral kills all the time, and since people love that sort of thing, it’s not hard to see why these games are back in vogue.
There’s a reason LawBreakers is among these new arena shooters that enjoy so much attention – it’s a lot of fun. Each class offers some obvious situational advantages, and none of them felt immediately overpowered or cheap. I was able to come to terms with the Vanguard’s game flow pretty quickly, and this helped me become a productive member of my team much faster than I was expecting. Shooting feels solid and responsive, with the special abilities adding layers of strategy to each firefight; as a flimsier character, I never hesitated to book it if I saw a Titan start freaking out. Though the games move very quickly and conflict occurs frequently, the quiet moments can be just as tense; with no radar in sight, I was always braced for an Assassin to sneak up from out of sight and tear me apart. Lots of games nowadays are focusing on improving the pace and fluidity of their multiplayer offerings, and LawBreakers does so in a very fun, yet manageable, way.
Though all eyes were on it at PAX, LawBreakers still has its work cut out for it; it will compete directly with the likes of Overwatch and similar arena shooters. Time will tell whether the game can muster up an identity unique enough to stand out in the crowded eSports field, but if it can continue to build on the goodwill and excitement it generated this weekend, Boss Key’s first game may have a bright future ahead of it.
LawBreakers arrives on Windows later this year.
