I have recently started to play the LawBreakers Multiplayer FPS game developed by Boss Key Productions. It is currently in Open Beta which seems to
be the norm of a "ready to go" game these days.
The game is a great shooting arena game, amazing graphics, interesting classes... however this was done 20 years ago with Quake Arena and Unreal Tournament:(
Yes, it is shiny and looks the part but it is still just a copy of the older much better games. Since Overwatch and its Blizzard Fans are pretty string I am unsure if LawBreaks will be able to match it. Battleborn was/is an amazing game but they went with a really bad release date, should have done it months before Overwatch.
LawBreakers is sooo much late to the table that I honestly don't think it will gain a big player-base. It is a fun game so if it does gain followers I will be there to enjoy it.
I would just hate to see it die due to low players, however the games does have a card up its sleeve to combat that. It allows for cross server selection. Not many current games offer this ability, using one profile connecting to different regions.
This is a great function in online games as you don't need another client for a different region. If you have a good enough connection you could play on the different region servers. I tend to swap between EU and US servers on games that allow it.
The game is action packed and quite frantic. The matchmaking happens fairly quick (We'll see how it is after release).
You select your character and spawn, usually you have a few seconds before the match begins.
The game is a great shooting arena game, amazing graphics, interesting classes... however this was done 20 years ago with Quake Arena and Unreal Tournament:(
Yes, it is shiny and looks the part but it is still just a copy of the older much better games. Since Overwatch and its Blizzard Fans are pretty string I am unsure if LawBreaks will be able to match it. Battleborn was/is an amazing game but they went with a really bad release date, should have done it months before Overwatch.
LawBreakers is sooo much late to the table that I honestly don't think it will gain a big player-base. It is a fun game so if it does gain followers I will be there to enjoy it.
I would just hate to see it die due to low players, however the games does have a card up its sleeve to combat that. It allows for cross server selection. Not many current games offer this ability, using one profile connecting to different regions.
This is a great function in online games as you don't need another client for a different region. If you have a good enough connection you could play on the different region servers. I tend to swap between EU and US servers on games that allow it.
The game is action packed and quite frantic. The matchmaking happens fairly quick (We'll see how it is after release).
You select your character and spawn, usually you have a few seconds before the match begins.
In addition, throughout the game you are allowed to change to another character class from the same faction after a death.
Currently there are only two game modes, Overcharge (Capture the Flag) and Turf War (Resource Capture Race).
I have had very satisfying games and some extremely frustrating games as people did not bother to complete the objectives. They were going for kills in the middle of the map like mindless morons.
The game is pretty simple:
Overcharge you get the Battery/"Flag" you go to your base and you defend it... that's it. The longer you hold the Battery the faster your points accumulate and you win. There is no need to go solo or fight in the middle for kills.
Turf War you go to each Capping point A, B and C and you capture them. The team with most caps wins, simple:)
When your team can't follow these simple rules the games start to become boring and frustrating. All you can do at that point is try to do the objectives, however doing so solo won't work so you might as well embrace the stupidity that is killing each other in the middle whilst the opposing team wins the game as no one is challenging them. After 2 or 3 games like that you just want to turn it off. I have had similar experience playing Star Wars Battlefront, a game which has and amazing easy gameplay and graphics but was a major let-down due to lack of players, hackers and bad team play.
LawBreakers does have tutorials for each class and then some, however I did not bother with it as everything is so basic.
The 14 characters are really just 7 but with different skins. Two factions with 7 classes hence 14 characters. So really all you get is a Shooting Deathmatch Arena game with 7 classes which is extremely poor. They could have at least tried to create some kind of variation between the two faction. Rainbow Six Siege has managed to do that. Even the weapons are identical for each faction.
As I mentioned earlier the game is an identical copy of the old 90's FPS games even though many people compare it to Overwatch. Yet a lot of what made those games fun has been removed. Then again I would imagine that %80 of the target audience don't know Quake or Unreal hence why it is sooo new and completely "never done before". Even some of the devs and people working on LawBreakers may not remember those games. The reason the game is compared to Overwatch, I assume is because it is an Arena Shooter and that it does have skills which are on cooldown. Each class has their own unique abilities.
I have no idea what the "Innovation" is in this game because I have seen everything done before.
Jedi Knight 2 had all of those features and more. The multiplayer capability, arena matches, gravity, the different powers/abilities, the guns and so forth.
The weapons are pretty much the same as in Unreal/Quake but the twist is that you only get to use 1 or 2 as each class only has 1 or 2 weapons. The old games actually allowed you to use any weapon in the game and you had 100's of character models if you include the ones made by modders. I would have like more customisation to gear, something similar to Mass Effect 3 Multiplayer, Battlefield 4 or Siege.
This is indeed correct, "Not just another Hero shooter". Why is this? Because there aren't many shooters out there that are as fast, look as good and are as fun yo play as the old FPS games used to be. How would Unreal Tournament look like today with a face lift? Probably the same as LawBreakers:)
Speaking about Unreal, there is a 2015 version still in the making. It doesn't look quite as good as LawBreakers but as you can see from the videos and screenshots there isn't any innovation.
Possible Beta Issue (may not reflect the release version)
I should also add that I have encountered plenty of bugs, most were due to server issues, getting disconnected, getting kicked out of matches ( kinda frustrating losing the time, credits, xp etc earned during that match).
I have also seen all kind of error throwing "Error:SERVICE_UNAVAILABLE" and "Error:UNKNOWN_ERROR" for all kind of menu access.
This is another good one, the server will tell you it is offline every now and then, when it clearly is not:
I have also ran into huge delays when changing menu options especially waiting about 5 minutes when changing between any of the character customisation options. The image below shows the loading sequence which comes up between each change.
You would also change the skins and yet they would not set, so you end up going back and forth about 100 times hoping that eventually they would become equipped. This seemed to work.
Currently there are only two game modes, Overcharge (Capture the Flag) and Turf War (Resource Capture Race).
I have had very satisfying games and some extremely frustrating games as people did not bother to complete the objectives. They were going for kills in the middle of the map like mindless morons.
The game is pretty simple:
Overcharge you get the Battery/"Flag" you go to your base and you defend it... that's it. The longer you hold the Battery the faster your points accumulate and you win. There is no need to go solo or fight in the middle for kills.
Turf War you go to each Capping point A, B and C and you capture them. The team with most caps wins, simple:)
When your team can't follow these simple rules the games start to become boring and frustrating. All you can do at that point is try to do the objectives, however doing so solo won't work so you might as well embrace the stupidity that is killing each other in the middle whilst the opposing team wins the game as no one is challenging them. After 2 or 3 games like that you just want to turn it off. I have had similar experience playing Star Wars Battlefront, a game which has and amazing easy gameplay and graphics but was a major let-down due to lack of players, hackers and bad team play.
LawBreakers does have tutorials for each class and then some, however I did not bother with it as everything is so basic.
The 14 characters are really just 7 but with different skins. Two factions with 7 classes hence 14 characters. So really all you get is a Shooting Deathmatch Arena game with 7 classes which is extremely poor. They could have at least tried to create some kind of variation between the two faction. Rainbow Six Siege has managed to do that. Even the weapons are identical for each faction.
The LAW Team
The BREAKERS Team
As I mentioned earlier the game is an identical copy of the old 90's FPS games even though many people compare it to Overwatch. Yet a lot of what made those games fun has been removed. Then again I would imagine that %80 of the target audience don't know Quake or Unreal hence why it is sooo new and completely "never done before". Even some of the devs and people working on LawBreakers may not remember those games. The reason the game is compared to Overwatch, I assume is because it is an Arena Shooter and that it does have skills which are on cooldown. Each class has their own unique abilities.
I have no idea what the "Innovation" is in this game because I have seen everything done before.
Jedi Knight 2 had all of those features and more. The multiplayer capability, arena matches, gravity, the different powers/abilities, the guns and so forth.
The weapons are pretty much the same as in Unreal/Quake but the twist is that you only get to use 1 or 2 as each class only has 1 or 2 weapons. The old games actually allowed you to use any weapon in the game and you had 100's of character models if you include the ones made by modders. I would have like more customisation to gear, something similar to Mass Effect 3 Multiplayer, Battlefield 4 or Siege.
This is indeed correct, "Not just another Hero shooter". Why is this? Because there aren't many shooters out there that are as fast, look as good and are as fun yo play as the old FPS games used to be. How would Unreal Tournament look like today with a face lift? Probably the same as LawBreakers:)
Speaking about Unreal, there is a 2015 version still in the making. It doesn't look quite as good as LawBreakers but as you can see from the videos and screenshots there isn't any innovation.
If you mash up 1 or 2 FPS games you will get LawBreakers.
Possible Beta Issue (may not reflect the release version)
I should also add that I have encountered plenty of bugs, most were due to server issues, getting disconnected, getting kicked out of matches ( kinda frustrating losing the time, credits, xp etc earned during that match).
I have also seen all kind of error throwing "Error:SERVICE_UNAVAILABLE" and "Error:UNKNOWN_ERROR" for all kind of menu access.
This is another good one, the server will tell you it is offline every now and then, when it clearly is not:
I have also ran into huge delays when changing menu options especially waiting about 5 minutes when changing between any of the character customisation options. The image below shows the loading sequence which comes up between each change.
You would also change the skins and yet they would not set, so you end up going back and forth about 100 times hoping that eventually they would become equipped. This seemed to work.
In regards to skins, I wasn't quite impressed as they are just different variation of the default skins. We need to see some skins that change how the character model looks. As an added minus point the character skins and weapon skins don't even match. You can't have a nice matching character as your character skin may be blue and your weapon may be pink. I hope they are looking into adding a much better selection if they expect people to pay for those with real money.
I do like it as there isn't anything out there right now that matches its design and graphics however I have no idea how much they will be charging for the game but any amount will be too much for what you get (if it remains the same on launch). Evolve did the same thing and messed up. It is worth keeping an eye on it, would be nice if it became the Overwatch beater but Boss Key Productions has a lot of ground to catch up to be successful. For starters Overwatch has 24 characters and Lawbreakers just 7 (as they are repeats without any variation of the same classes I will consider that they ONLY have 7 characters, same class each with 2 different skins). Lawbreakers will have to offer a lot more for your buck or for in game micro-transactions.
As far as I am aware the game will be similar to the Overwatch pricing. Pay for the game and in game micro transactions. We'll just have to wait and see.
KEYBINDS for anyone interested:
P.S. Please pardon some of the screenshots but I had some issues getting Steam to make screenshots and I had to use my phone.
Some old Unreal Tournament videos:) See any resemblance?
