LawBreakers

In recent years the world has witnessed the valiant return of FPS classics in Doom and Quake Champions, signifying that arena shooters are back, and potentially better than ever. LawBreakers joins the club of fast-paced competitive multiplayer action and manages to carve out a space of its own within a genre brimming with wildly popular shooters including Titanfall, Battlefield 1, and Call of Duty. In fact, Boss Key Productions’ debut title is one of the most mesmerizing and infatuating shooters I’ve played this generation.

LawBreakers innovates at every turn, backing up its demanding learning curve with rock solid gameplay that rewards skill and style in equal measure.

Boss Key’s philosophy allows for a more old-school arena shooter approach where skill-based twitch reaction is more important than team composition. That’s not a knock on any other game, it’s just a different feel that Boss Key was going for with LawBreakers, and succeeded. It might not have the flair of a few other games on the market, but it has strong bones that can grow over time.

Boss Key's first game is a high-speed, high-skill FPS grown in the soil of Unreal Tournament and other arena shooters.

Fighting In The Unfriendly Skies.

Despite my problems with LawBreakers, at the end of the day, the most important thing I can say about this game is that it is fun. Very, very fun. When I open the game, join a match and start playing, I have an amazing time. The raw energy behind the movement, the weight behind the weapons, the satisfaction of landing hits and bouncing off walls. It all comes together to create a unique, memorable FPS experience, and I look forward to seeing what Boss Key Productions does to expand it in the future.

In its best game modes, LawBreakers manages to make simply moving around feel amazing. Learning how to fall with style in the most deadly way possible is a thrilling challenge. Getting stuck playing a weak mode and map thanks to the grab-bag matchmaking can be frustrating, but it doesn’t ruin an otherwise fast and tense shooter that lets you gleefully propel yourself through low-gravity with rocket boots and miniguns.

LawBreakers attempts to reconcile the hero shooter genre with the arena shooter genre and somewhat succeeds. However, for as fun as it can be, it needs more than nifty movement and fast action for the long run.

Beneath a brash exterior of dated ‘attitude’ and unwelcoming presentation lies a finely tuned jet engine of a shooter, that has the technical chops to distinguish itself in a crowded and fickle genre.

LawBreakers has a lot of room for growth, particularly given that the objective-based modes start to feel old and limited over time. In fact, the game design that rewards individual skill above all else makes the lack of any kind of Deathmatch mode feel like a head-scratcher. However, while Boss Key doesn't quite have an instant classic on its hands, there are enough cool ideas like anti-gravity combat in place that there's a sense of a foundation for something truly great. It's debatable whether it's the "Dark Souls of competitive first-person shooters," but it definitely stands out as a game...

A handful of the ideas in LawBreakers seem like concepts that are past their sell-by date, from the dubstep soundtrack to the cyber soldier aesthetic. That’s a genuine shame because beneath all that, is a mechanically exciting game. The aerial combat feels fresh, and the twists on standard shooter game modes are solid attempts at flipping the script. But LawBreakers’ confusing hero design, poor tutorial system and unbalanced maps all sabotage an otherwise good game.

That would be a real shame, because LawBreakers is more than good enough to foster a large community. Its zero gravity segments offer something that no other FPS can, and everywhere else it’s a solid, polished shooter. If you like the sound of it then I’d jump in now and build up some experience. That way, when ranked play launches, you’re ready to blast off.