LawBreakers: 5 Things We Like So Far

I’ve spent a good few hours with professional madman Cliff Bleszinski’s LawBreakers so far and -following a rough first hour- I have plenty of good things to say about it. A fast-paced role-based shooter with attitude to burn, it’s a solid mix of bullets and teamwork that’s the perfect palate cleanser for more serious fare. I can quite easily see myself spending upwards of a few dozen hours trying and failing to be any good as Wraith.

Released on August 8th, reviews have been middling to positive, but that’s to be expected – its meme-tastic nature and abrasive style doesn’t rub everyone up the right way. Couple that with sometimes turgid connections and there are plenty of reasons to gripe about LawBreakers, but from what I’ve played so far there’s an even greater amount of things to praise.

Here’s what I’m liking about LawBreakers so far.

 

1. Intuitive gameplay

Perhaps it owes a debt to other role-based shooters for effectively setting the table, but it’s pretty easy to know which character does what and how to make the most of them. The Law and the Breakers (basically the good and the bad guys, which is the game’s pretty ropey explanation for some hearty murder) are varying in terms of accessibility to new players, though it feels like that was somewhat intentional. Start things off with the pretty straightforward Enforcer and gradually work your way through everyone else once you’ve “settled” into the game.

 

2. Varied gameplay modes

While some of its competitors are complacent to focus on one or two modes, LawBreakers is going for a whole bunch instead. Admittedly, not all of them are brilliant (Uplink is fairly uninspired), but the idiotic brilliance of Blitzball makes up for it. It’s not quite like the FFX sport, however: it’s closer to Halo’s Oddball mixed with Rocket League. It’s, quite frankly, dumb as all shit, and with Justin Roiland voicing the exasperated ball, Blitzball is the perfect reminder of LawBreakers doing things differently.

 

3. It’s smarter than it looks

If you’ve just watched the CG trailers for LawBreakers, you could be forgiven for thinking that it’s just one explosion and hail of bullets after another. While that is partly true, there’s a lot more than that under its hood. LawBreakers quietly teaches you about the values of teamwork and has maps that are fairly easy to learn and make logical sense. You could theoretically still jump around the map with a rocket launcher and hope for the best, but that really won’t get you far.

 

4. Zero-G combat

The first time LawBreakers lifts you off the ground and floats you helplessly around a battle arena, it’s going to be a little disorientating. Work with it, however, and battles take on a whole new layer of strategy – how are you going to deal with a projectile-based attacker when you’re on the ground? It’s simple: meet them face-to-face and stare the devil in the eyes, twisting and turning in the skies like a pair of majestic bald eagles locked in mortal com–fighting in zero gravity is fun, is what I’m saying.

 

5. Multiplayer melee attacks feels satisfying again

There’s been a slow trend appearing in shooters of late: melee attacks are like hitting kittens with kitten-sized pillows. LawBreakers remedies that with aplomb because each landed attack feels strong and does the damage to back that up. If you’re anywhere near decent with melee attacks, dashing around zero gravity and booting your opponents in the face to death is more cathartic than a lifetime of therapy. It all comes together to make LawBreakers seems like a multiplayer version of BulletStorm and that is something that I am absolutely okay with.

LawBreakers is available now for PS4 and PC.