LawBreakers

LawBreakers
Developer(s)	Boss Key Productions
Publisher(s)	Nexon
Director(s)	Cliff Bleszinski[1]
Designer(s)	Dan Nanni[2]
Artist(s)	Trammell Isaac[3]
Composer(s)	Jason Graves Jack Wall
Engine	Unreal Engine 4[4]
Platform(s)	Microsoft Windows PlayStation 4
Release	August 8, 2017
Genre(s)	First-person shooter, Hero shooter
Mode(s)	Multiplayer

LawBreakers is a defunct first-person shooter video game developed by Boss Key Productions and published by Nexon.^[5] It was released worldwide on August 8, 2017 for Microsoft Windows and PlayStation 4.^[6] Physical copies were distributed by Limited Run Games.^[7] LawBreakers attempted to expand on the traditional FPS approach by introducing low gravity gameplay and followed the character selection mechanics that are popular in other objective based FPS games.

Despite positive critical reception, LawBreakers sold poorly, leading to the game's servers being shut off on September 14, 2018.

Gameplay[]

Two teams of five players must work together to complete the objective of the match, with one side playing as "Law" and the other side playing as the "Breakers." Though teams may not play as characters from the opposite side, the chosen Roles have the same equipment and play-style regardless of team. The gameplay modes include the following:^[8]

Overcharge[]

A modified capture-the-flag mode with one flag planted in the middle of the map in the form of a battery. Teams must race to grab the battery and then take it back to their base, where it must be defended until it reaches 100%, and then a further 20 seconds, to earn a point. However, the battery keeps its charge even if it is stolen, so one team could charge the battery to 99% complete, then the enemy could steal it and take the point after successfully defending the battery at 100% charge. The first team to score three points is the winner.

Uplink[]

Similar to Overcharge, except the battery is replaced with a satellite dish. The upload percentage is not linked to the dish itself, but to the team's progress in defending the uplink.

Turf War[]

There are three capture points spread out between each team's side and the center of the map. Each team must clear and hold as many points as possible until the maximum score is reached. Once all three points on a map have been locked down, the number of points captured by each team is added to their total, and the capture points reset to neutral control after 10 seconds. The first team to reach 16 points wins the match. If both teams are tied going into the last round, then an "Overtime" round will occur where the first team to capture two of the three points wins the match.

Blitzball[]

Both teams must race to acquire the "EURO ball"^[8] in the center of the map. Once a character controls the ball, they must run with it to a goal located in the enemy base to score a point while a 30-second "shot clock" ticks down. If the ball-carrier is holding the ball when the shot clock expires, then the ball explodes and takes the carrier with it, before resetting in the center of the stage. If the ball-carrier is killed before scoring, the ball is dropped and can be picked up by anyone. If the enemy team kills the original ball-carrier and picks it up, the shot clock resets. If the ball falls off the stage or is not picked up by anyone when the shot clock expires, the ball will reset to the center of the stage. The first team to reach 5 points, or the most points after 15 minutes, wins the match.

Occupy[]

One circular capture point is placed at the center of the map. Upon activation, one team must race to hold the point and completely clear the enemy team off of the point in order to earn points for their team. Every 45 seconds, the capture point will rotate to a different spot on the map and re-activate after a 10-second break. Whichever team has accumulated 200 points, or the most total points in 15 minutes, wins the match.

Team Deathmatch[]

Each team is tasked with killing as many opponents as they can. The team that reaches the maximum amount of combined kills or the most after the allotted time has passed is declared the winner.

Roles[]

Though two factions have separate characters for each Role in the game, the equipment and abilities of each Role remain the same regardless of factional character. As of "Patch 2.0",^[9] teams are only able to choose a maximum of two of the same Role per team (and are not allowed to double any Role in the "Boss Leagues" competitive mode). In addition, all Roles are capable of slowly regenerating health after spending 5 seconds outside of combat.

The following table lists the characters by Faction and Role:

Development[]

Previously named BlueStreak,^[5] the game was set to be free to play, but in March 2016 Boss Key announced that they had abandoned the format in favor of a pay-to-play release.^[10] After being demoed at the 2016 PAX East gamer festival in Boston,^[11] LawBreakers began closed alpha and beta testing.^[6] On June 30, 2017, Boss Key released an open beta on Steam, which lasted until July 5.^[12] A second open beta was available from July 28 to 31 for PC and PS4.^[13]

Despite developing games on Xbox consoles for many years, Cliff Bleszinski made a concrete decision to not release LawBreakers for the Xbox One at launch, which caused an uproar amongst his fans. He made it abundantly clear that the choice was strictly business.^[14][15] However, in March 2020, he expressed his regret over that decision.^[16][17]

Reception[]

LawBreakers received "generally positive" reviews, according to review aggregator Metacritic.^[18][19] Eurogamer ranked the game 39th on their list of the "Top 50 Games of 2017".^[28]

Decline[]

Despite favourable reviews, the game failed to gain a sufficient player base. According to Githyp, the closed-beta peaked at 7500 players on Steam, followed a month later by an open-beta with 40% fewer players. The game launched with a 60% lower player base since the beta peak and launched outside of the Steam top 100 Most Played Games.^[29] In an interview with GameSpot, game director Cliff Bleszinski stated that the PlayStation 4 version was doing much better, although he did not confirm any statistics.^[30] Bleszinski making the game a Playstation exclusive on consoles was also criticised as playing a part in the lack of player numbers, with the Xbox being considered to have a wider fanbase for multiplayer first person shooters.^[31]

In April 2018, Boss Key released a statement that the game failed to find enough of an audience to generate the funds necessary to keep the game sustained.^[32] On June 11, the game was made free-to-play on Steam with a notice that the servers would be shut down on September 14, 2018.^[33] As of September 14, 2018, LawBreakers was removed from Steam and is no longer available for purchase.^[34]

References[]