LawBreakers Reviews

Lawbreakers is a great game, both in terms of its construction and its gameplay. Defying gravity and utilizing 9 different classes opens up a ton of fun new options for gameplay. The skill curve is intimidating and the content can feel used up after a moderate amount of time, but Lawbreakers is incredibly rewarding for those who can master its fast-paced mechanics.

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.

An arena shooter in the same vein as Quake and Overwatch, but with its own gameplay and mechanics, Lawbreakers seeks to throw some punches at the competition. Low gravity portions of the map mean verticality like few have done before it means you'll find a great amount of competition in the community as it looks forward to growth and excitement.

Team based hero shooters aren’t anything new. In 2007 the most recognisable and long lasting addition to the range Team Fortress 2 was top dog, and for close to 9 years there was nobody else to play with in the playground. However in the last year if you were to throw a rock in the playground you’d have no trouble hitting a hero shooter — but why would you do that? Who throws a rock in a playground? Get help, but before you do that welcome to LawBreakers.

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.

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 with strong potential.

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.

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 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.

We tell you, it’s a good game! It’s not average! It might have some problems here and there, but you have to admit it is a “Good” game.

Fighting In The Unfriendly Skies.

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.

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

LawBreakers is a smart arena-shooter that hearkens back to the early age of digital slaying, where mobility is essential, battles are decided in split seconds, and skill determines who thrives and who dies. Despite putting critical pieces together to deliver tight action and unique play styles, LawBreakers lacks a sense of identity outside of the assortment of various weapon and ability templates. The maps, modes, and characters just blend together to form a lackluster wrapping to the adrenaline-laced kill counts.

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 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.