Merger of genres. It is only thanks to this trick that the shooters arena, in great dust in the 90s, have been able to reinvent themselves and return to be attractive for an audience that was veering towards other shores and genres. The competitive shooter has therefore undergone a critical evolution in recent years inspired by the MOBA, placing the emphasis on charismatic characters and the strong characterization of the same. We are certainly not talking about a mere aesthetic work as much as a real massive diversification obtained through particular weapons, abilities and final moves with devastating power. If we analyze the latest competitive titles it is easy to see how the target audience goes hand in hand with the power of the final skills. An ultimate able to obliterate an entire team, in short,Overwatch
has exploited in an excellent way but that had already been traced in the past by the devastating rewards for Call of Duty killstreaks and, more generally, by a gameplay that guaranteed substantially some killing. Lawbreakers, the new work of the good
Cliff Bleszinsky, instead takes a step back trying to get away from the chaos generated by randomness, proposing a more meritocratic game system, with less powerful abilities and ultimately more directed towards the speed of movements and skill in the aim. The result? A title addressed to a distinctly hardcore audience but not for this to be underestimated.
NO STORY, THE IMPORTANT THING IS TO KILL YOURSELF
Overwatch has made the background of his characters one of the greatest strengths. The stories told by designers Blizzard have undoubtedly hit the mark and this has allowed the title to enter the hearts of many fans and supporters, people not necessarily passionate about gaming but who are fond of their virtual alter egos for the most diverse reasons. Lawbreakers is not, and will never, be able to get to that level, due to a much more anonymous design of the characters but also for the absence of a solid background story and able to capture the attention of non-players.
Lawbreakers is pure essence, it is a game that has decided to shake off all the sequins showing only its old school shooter structure.And this is fine if you want to cut out a small slice of the market, a little ‘less good, however, if the goal is to become one of the reference points for the genre. Cliff Bleszinsky has always considered to be one of the smartest
designers in this field with Gears and Unreal ready to fully endorse this idea but the weight of the two productions remains really light years away from the first effort of Boss Key Productions. From a “naked” title like Lawbreakers you would expect a unique gameplay, able to hit and keep
glued to the screen and instead, after a little practice, you find yourself wandering easily for good sized maps, but without playing nothing really new. We try to be clearer: in Lawbreakers the news is certainly not lacking,
UNIQUENESS
The world of Lawbreakers was devastated by a sudden catastrophe, which led to an alteration of gravity in some specific areas. The game maps exploit this idea to propose even more dynamic clashes, where the enemies can basically take you aiming at three hundred and sixty degrees. Many of the nine classes present can take advantage of some shots to continue to remain suspended in
the air but there is also another change, underestimated by most, which allows you to shoot back blindly to give yourself an additional boost. Obviously rocket jump can be performed with rockets, but even simple machine guns increase your speed to zero gravity. Unfortunately, this mechanism is much less effective in normal areas, where to shoot at back without looking it almost never brings the desired results, completely lacking in effectiveness.
Released from these special areas, however, Lawbreakers behaves like any other arena shooter, placing itself halfway between the speed of Quake Champions and the more compassionate movements of Overwatch.It is a title, as we said at the beginning, which still makes the skill of the player his main weapon and, if the aim is very important, the real level of difficulty is perceived when you need to match jumps and sprints to head shots, the only way to excel and dominate any kind of match.Boss Key Productions has also thought to remove from the match the trinity composed of tanks, curator, and assassins, proposing hybrid classes with specific strengths and weaknesses but not strictly related to each other and all voted mainly to aggression.
The frenzy of the game does not allow the only curator available at the moment to be so fundamental, despite the absence of automatic regeneration of life, so that it is more important to know by heart the location of the medikit scattered around the corridors and stations health hidden in the game areas. Depending on how you can abuse these stations to completely restore your
energy after each fight, which makes the task of the defenders much easier, especially when this advantage is accompanied by barriers and shields that can be erected using the basic skills of many of the characters on the roster. Staying on the subject of weapons and skills we discover a nerve discovered for production that relies on concepts already seen in other titles without trying to propose something really new.
