On a rainy evening last week in Raleigh, North Carolina, I broke some laws. The scene of the crime was a press event held at the studio of Boss Key Productions, founded by Arjan Brussee and Cliff Bleszinski in 2014. Aided and abetted by several other games journalists, I got the chance to play LawBreakers, the game that marks Cliffy B’s return to the games industry from his short-lived retirement. Boss Key’s debut title is a first-person, Steam-exclusive arena shooter intended to compete with the likes of Battleborn and Overwatch. But is LawBreakers a thrilling crime of passion, or only a misdemeanor?
Throughout LawBreakers’ development, Boss Key has been pretty tight lipped on details. However, if you’ve been following the game, you’re probably aware they’ve since abandoned the original, cartoonish art style for a more adult-oriented tone in order to differentiate the game from Gearbox and Activision’s shooters. The other most notable announcement has been the game’s price, which at a recent GDC panel was confirmed to no longer be free-to-play. I confirmed with Boss Key that when the game is launched, all available content, including weapons, maps and characters will be available with one upfront payment. The game will include future paid DLC, all of which was promised to be cosmetic only and not affect gameplay in any way. When discussing the typical, free-to-play model found in many modern games, it became apparent that there was a general, studio-wide dislike for this pay structure. The terms “slippery slope,” “pay-to-win” and “sleazy” were often thrown around, making the decision to move away from this original price point seem to be unanimous throughout the studio.
Breaking the Law, Breaking the Law…
Our demo consisted of several 5v5 games of “Overcharge,” LawBreakers’ twist on single-flag CTF. The “flag” is a battery that must be grabbed from the middle of the map, carried back to your base and placed in a “charging station,” and defended until the charge reaches 100%. The twist is that the battery never loses it’s charge. Therefore, even if one team charges it all the way to 100%, the other team can still win by swiping it at the last second and bringing it to their own base. To score, a team must keep a fully charged battery in their own base for 20 seconds. The first team to 2 points, wins. Born out of Cliff Bleszinski’s love for “buzzer-beater” sports moments, this dynamic successfully created more than a few intense, dramatic situations in our demo as victories and losses were often determined in the final, harrowing few seconds of a match. According to Bleszinski, this encapsulates the “end with drama” theme he hopes to incorporate in every game mode. While no other game modes were confirmed, other twists on traditional modes such as TDM and Domination were inferred.
The mode I played featured no weapon pickups and players were restricted to the weapons and abilities specific to their character class, but more on that later. Speaking of pickups, LawBreakers forgoes both instant health pickups and regenerating health (found in practically every shooter today), and instead opts for “health stations.” These stations, strategically placed around the map, are essentially booths that recharge your health meter while you stand inside them. Multiple players can use them at once and they are not specific to either team. The nice thing about these stations are that they do not interrupt the momentum of the game. There is no “injecting yourself with health” animation and players can reload, and engage in combat while standing in the booths. However, they are purposely designed to be less convenient than regenerating health as we had to walk into the next room, away from an objective we were defending, to use one. As you can freely walk in and out of these stations whenever you please, regenerating as much or as little health as you like, it creates a risk/reward tension not found with typical “health” systems. “Do I run back into the next room to help defend the objective, or do I stay in the station a bit longer to get a little more health?” was a question I was faced with often throughout the demo.
Currently, the team is hard at work on 4 different maps, all of which are “built for duality” in order to accommodate LawBreakers’ symmetrical gameplay, a nod to old-school arena shooters. According to Lead Designer Dan Nanni, all maps will be “game mode agnostic,” meaning every map can host every game mode.
The post post-apocalyptic world of LawBreakers is one that has been rebuilt from the cataclysm known as “The Shattering,” in which the moon broke open and created gravitational anomalies around the planet. According to Bleszinski, every map is reflective of this incident by way of combining future tech and gravity shifts with “famous locations your grandparents might visit in an RV.” Our demo took place on “Grand View,” a reimagined portion of the Grand Canyon where crime lords have built their new headquarters. The unique amalgamation of traditional Japanese architecture, high technology and a rugged desert canyon flowed together oddly well and to my happy surprise, was not brown and boring as many people feared would be the case when the studio announced the grittier art direction. The map felt appropriately small, at least for the game mode we played and at no point did I feel isolated from the action.
The game’s current, somewhat cringe-worthy tagline “beat gravity into submission” effectively conveys the game’s aggressive attitude and gravity manipulation mechanics. Personally however, I don’t feel as though it accurately reflects the game’s true theme; intensely fun and unique kinetic momentum, both in and out of zero G. The center of “Grand View” did contain a zero G anomaly, which facilitated momentum in that area, but mastery over each character’s distinct form of mobility in all areas quickly proved to spell the difference between victory and defeat.
The Unusual Suspects
LawBreakers will enter alpha with the 4 different character roles (classes) available during our demo, each of which are playable as both a law-abiding anti-hero or villain. We were shown the character design of a fifth class, but as it’s still a work in progress with no word on when (or even if) it would be included in the final game, it was not playable. Each role has three unique abilities (a throwable, a powerful special attack, and a “forward velocity” move), all of which operate on their own individual cool down. Most character’s “forward velocity” ability can be used multiple times, or for a period of time, before a meter is drained and it goes into cool down mode. As the game features no “sprint” button, it became apparent early on that learning to manage your “forward velocity” meter was incredibly important when it comes to getting around effectively. In addition to each role’s 3 unique abilities, all roles can kick (melee), use a secondary weapon, and blind fire behind themselves (which also aids in movement while in zero G).
TITAN (Bomchelle/Chronos)
This is the standard “tank” class you’d find in most other shooters. He wields a Crisper electricity cannon and a sweet Hammerhead rocket launcher that can both be used to rocket jump, and detonate rockets mid-air with the press of a button, to take out pesky air-born foes. In close combat, Titans dominated other players in our demo, especially when they activated their special Berserk attack, temporarily boosting their damage output. With a “forward velocity” Pulverize attack consisting of a simple leap forward, he’s the least mobile, but dishes out a ton of damage. During our demo, these slow guys were often our “battery carriers” as they were the only ones left standing when we raided the other team’s base.
VANGUARD (Maverick/Toska-9)
After experimenting with all the roles, I found my play style worked best with this one. They have a Pulsar attack (which pushes foes back) and wield an arm-mounted Hyrda Gatling gun that looked and sounded very satisfying when fired. Her special Starfall attack, which takes a couple seconds to charge up, is a sort of diving maneuver that provides both an instant kill when directly hitting opponents, and creates a temporary zero G field in the area. I felt her jet pack also was the easiest form of mobility to master.
ENFORCER (Axel/Kintaro)
The Enforcer resembles a typical support class. He rocks an Aerator assault rifle that can be both fired from the hip (like most weapons in the game) and aimed down the sites, for long range supporting fire. His special attack consists of a Predator-style, shoulder mounted Bloodhound Launcher that fires heating-seeking misses. The most notable feature of this role however is its “forward velocity” ability, which creates a space-time distortion field around the player, dramatically increasing the speed of all their actions. The coolest thing about this “time bubble” is that it affects all teammates within approximately 10 meters, allowing strategic players to swiftly move teammates (who could be carrying the battery) around the map.
ASSASSIN (Hellion/Kitsune)
Easily the most visually interesting and unique role in LawBreakers, this role paradoxically wields close combat weaponry (Arc Blades and a Romerus shotgun) while remaining the most fragile of all the roles. This is because instead of soaking up damage like tanks, this role is designed to get in, inflict massive damage, and get out super fast. This stick-and-move tactic is made possible by the assassin’s grappling hook, which can be used to swing around like Spider-Man, and pull foes in close for some carving up, like Scorpion. Really skilled players can also grab teammates with the grappling hook, strategically pulling them out of heavy firefights when they’re in trouble. Personally, I found this role was the most difficult to use, but also the most rewarding when done right.
? (Angel/Demon)
Little is known about this role as it was not yet finished and obviously not playable in our demo. We were only able to grab a sneak peak at the character designs during our tour of the studio, but from what I was able to ascertain, both the angelic “Law” version and the demonic “Breaker” version dual-wield some enormous, bad-ass looking hand cannons.
Lawfully Fun
The small slice of the game we played was surprisingly polished for something in such a pre-alpha state. Despite the intention of LawBreakers’ new, “grittier” art direction, what sets it apart most from other arena shooters are its emphasis on “buzzer-beater” drama, momentum, frenzied aerial combat and the dynamic situations that result when these things come together. All of these factors make it exceptionally fun to watch and a potential hit in the Twitch and YouTube community.
Currently, the game is still in a very early, pre-alpha state and many details are, of course, subject to change. The game is being developed “from the ground up” solely for PC and will initially launch exclusively on Steam. There are “no plans” to include controller support, which is apparent from the current UIs (which may obviously change before release). Future controller support, which I think would be an excellent inclusion, was said to be “not out of the question.” There are also no current plans to port LawBreakers to other platforms, but the idea has not been totally ruled out. While a Mac or Linux port would be very similar to its PC equivalent, it may be handled in-house. A console port however would more than likely be contracted out to another studio.
As mentioned previously, and to the relief of many, LawBreakers will no longer be free-to-play, but the actual price point has yet to be finalized. According to Cliffy B, it will be less than $60 and “indicative of a multiplayer-only game.”
While no one at Boss Key was able to commit to a launch window, or even a Beta, I was assured that a “friends and family” Alpha would begin “soon,” and eventually open up to a wider audience. If you’d like to register for the chance to be included, head to LawBreakers.com or add LawBreakers to your Steam Wishlist.
If you’d like to know more about LawBreakers, check out our exclusive gameplay footage and our interview with Cliff Blezinski and Arjan Brussee. If you were lucky enough to get your hands on some PAX East passes this year, the build we saw will be playable on the show floor!
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