a90skid.com
  • Home
  • News
    • Nintendo
    • PlayStation
    • Xbox
  • Reviews
  • Opinion
A 90s Kid
  • Home
  • News
    • Nintendo
    • PlayStation
    • Xbox
  • Reviews
  • Opinion
SIGN UP FOR OUR NEWSLETTER

For the latest video game news, reviews and more subscribe to our weekly newsletter.

  • PC
  • Review

LawBreakers Alpha Impressions

  • August 7, 2016
  • Matthew Hayes

LawBreakers offers a few cheap thrills, but lacks longevity.

LawBreakers

LawBreakers is not Overwatch. Got it? Good. With that out of the way, we have to understand that because of the incredible, ongoing success of Overwatch, pretty much ever class-based first-person shooter that comes out within the next year or two is going to be compared to Blizzard’s masterpiece in some ways (or in every way). Experienced gamers will have no trouble at all recognizing that the games look, feel, and play very differently, but comparisons are still inevitable because all we really want to know is, “Is this good enough to draw me away from Overwatch?”

That’s what I was wondering as I booted up LawBreakers earlier today. The game is still in development, and Boss Key kicked off alpha testing this weekend with a larger pool of participants. Keys were fairly easy to obtain if you wanted one, so I figured I’d give it a go and see what the big deal is. After all, Boss Key was founded by Cliff Bleszinski who obviously has a solid history of working on solid shooters. So is LawBreakers shaping up to be an Overwatch killer? So far, the answer is no.

 

I can’t really put my finger on what’s missing in LawBreakers. Certainly a lot of its issues are due to the fact that it’s still in early development: weapons and classes don’t seem very well balanced, performance was really spotty, standard game-types were layered arbitrarily with extra mechanics that detracted from the fun, and my game froze a few times. I can deal with all of that because I’m sure when the game actually releases that it will all be resolved. What really bothered me was the fact that the game felt completely soulless.

Lawbreakers 2

Games like Overwatch and even Battleborn draw you in with their larger-than-life characters who all have these big personalities. Every character in LawBreakers was totally forgettable. Boss Key is trying to pull off a “more mature,” “grittier” shooter, but that just translates to blood spurting out of your toons with they die and characters dropping F bombs every now and then as the banter. It felt very high school, you know? Like that guy who feels like he can impress his older sister’s friends by using a lot of cuss words and acting really edgy. It’s annoying in real life, and it was annoying in LawBreakers.

Aside from weapons and skills being somewhat unbalanced, none of them felt very exciting. They’re all very standard weapons: an assault rifle, a Gatling gun, short swords, a rocket launcher, grenades and mines… (*yawn*) If Boss Key wants their shooter to stand out and for people to take notice, they’re going to have to deliver characters that we care about, and weapons that we can’t find anywhere else. Otherwise we’re just left with something that kind of looks like Overwatch and kind of plays like Quake, but without the charm or polish of either.

If you’d like to check out some footage, I’ll embed a stream of my alpha gameplay below. I have no idea why the game sound didn’t make it into the stream, unfortunately. My capture card has been working against me lately.

[fvplayer src=”https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BSTKScKg-rM” width=”560″ height=”315″]

Total
0
Shares
Share 0
Tweet 0
Pin it 0
Related Topics
  • LawBreakers
  • PC
Matthew Hayes
Matthew Hayes

Matthew loves colorful, grindy, Japanese RPGs and esoteric philosophy - if you want to buy him something for his birthday and need inspiration, that's all you need to know. He is a full-time writer, lover of dogs, and book hoarder. While typically quiet and kind, Matthew does get aggressively competitive in online multiplayer games (sometimes he cusses). Favorite games include: Persona 4 Golden, Final Fantasy VII / Tactics Advance, Dark Souls, Rainbow Six Siege, Soul Calibur 4, Jet Grind Radio, and SaGa Frontier. For corrections, tips, or leads, you can reach out to Matthew at hayesface7@gmail.com.

You May Also Like
Overlooking Night City
View Post
  • 9 min
  • PC
  • PlayStation 5
  • Review
  • Xbox Series X

Cyberpunk 2077 Review – Neon Nights and Buggy Fights

  • Matthew Owen
  • January 3, 2021
Cyberpunk 2077 Action Shot
View Post
  • 4 min
  • Opinion
  • PC
  • PlayStation
  • Xbox

5 Essential Cyberpunk 2077 Tips For Starting Out in Night City

  • Matthew Owen
  • December 22, 2020
Black Ops Cold War Vietnam
View Post
  • 7 min
  • PC
  • PlayStation 4
  • PlayStation 5
  • Review
  • Xbox One
  • Xbox Series X

Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War Review – A Satisfying Duty Done

  • Matthew Owen
  • December 13, 2020
Assassin's Creed Valhalla Hillside
View Post
  • 10 min
  • PC
  • PlayStation 4
  • PlayStation 5
  • Review
  • Xbox One
  • Xbox Series X

Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla Review – A Wonderful Journey West

  • Matthew Owen
  • December 6, 2020
Watch Dogs Cargo Drone Flying
View Post
  • 10 min
  • PC
  • PlayStation 4
  • PlayStation 5
  • Review
  • Xbox One
  • Xbox Series X

Watch Dogs: Legion Review – An Underwhelming Future

  • Matthew Owen
  • November 14, 2020
Little Hope Abandoned Building
View Post
  • 6 min
  • PC
  • PlayStation 4
  • Review
  • Xbox One

The Dark Pictures Anthology: Little Hope Review

  • Matthew Owen
  • November 11, 2020
Watch Dogs Legion Liberation
View Post
  • 3 min
  • Opinion
  • PC
  • PlayStation 4
  • Xbox One

Despite the Patches, Watch Dogs: Legion Keeps Crashing

  • Matthew Owen
  • November 4, 2020
Kingdoms of Amalur Cave
View Post
  • 6 min
  • Opinion
  • PC
  • PlayStation 4
  • Xbox One

Kingdoms of Amalur: Re-Reckoning Will Eat Up Your Time

  • Matthew Owen
  • November 4, 2020

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

TRENDING
  • Spyro 3 Skateboarding
    The Best Speedruns of AGDQ 2021 Day Four
  • Zelda Ocarina of Time Glitch at AGDQ 2021
    The Best Speedruns of AGDQ 2021 Day Seven
  • Donkey Kong Country AGDQ 2021
    The Best Speedruns of AGDQ 2021 Day One
  • Cyberpunk 2077 Action Shot
    5 Essential Cyberpunk 2077 Tips For Starting Out in Night City
  • Black Ops Cold War Vietnam
    Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War Review – A Satisfying Duty Done
Instagram
#gaming #gamingdaily #gamingmemes #morrowind #skyrim 6 0
#skyrim #morrowind #gaming #gamingmemes 8 0
#morrowind #skyrim #elderscrolls 8 2
#finalfantasy #nobuouematsu 7 0
#hyperlightdrifter streaming now. :) 7 0
When you typo links awakening and stumble into a very specific YouTube niche 6 0
Please check out our review of #MarvelsAvengers if you're interested! Many thanks to @msigaming_anz for letting us review the game on their powerful and sleek GE66 Raider. @intelanz is throwing you the game with any MSI laptop with a 9th or 10th Gen INTEL Core i5, i7, or i9 Processor H-Series (Australia and New Zealand) Link is in the bio! 10 0
Our review of #SeriousSam4 by @officialcroteam is live! Shout out to @msigaming_anz for letting us review the game on their super impressive GS75 Stealth gaming laptop (link in bio) 9 0
#itdobelikedat #belikedat 7 0
Streaming #ico in 10 minutes.  First time playing.  Also trying to just play with the obs monitor on my tv.  Anyone else do that ? 4 0
@ghostoftsushimathegame #gaming #memes #gamingmemesdaily 11 2
Editing the #ghostoftsushima 5 0
Follow
Author
Matthew Hayes
Matthew Hayes
Matthew loves colorful, grindy, Japanese RPGs and esoteric philosophy - if you want to buy…
View Posts

a90skid.com

22 User(s) Online Join Server

Subscribe

Subscribe now to our newsletter

#gaming #gamingdaily #gamingmemes #morrowind #skyrim 6 0
#skyrim #morrowind #gaming #gamingmemes 8 0
#morrowind #skyrim #elderscrolls 8 2
#finalfantasy #nobuouematsu 7 0
#hyperlightdrifter streaming now. :) 7 0
When you typo links awakening and stumble into a very specific YouTube niche 6 0
A90KID.COM

VIDEO GAMES COMMUNITY & ENTERTAINMENT

A 90s Kid is an active website and media channel, dedicated to providing you information and entertainment related to the video games industry

Navigation
  • Home
  • News
    • Nintendo
    • PlayStation
    • Xbox
  • Reviews
  • Opinion
Recent Articles
  • The Best Speedruns of AGDQ 2021 Day Seven January 12, 2021
  • The Best Speedruns of AGDQ 2021 Day Six January 9, 2021
  • The Best Speedruns of AGDQ 2021 Day Five January 8, 2021
  • The Best Speedruns of AGDQ 2021 Day Four January 7, 2021
  • The Best Speedruns of AGDQ 2021 Day Three January 6, 2021
A 90s Kid
© 2021

Input your search keywords and press Enter.