Lawbreakers Is Cliffy B’s Take On Cops And Robbers In An Arena Shooter

After revealing the basics about Lawbreakers earlier this week, the Gears of War designer and his team have lifted the lid on precisely what the game is all about.

We already know that Bleszinski and Boss Key Productions wanted to make another arena shooter that wasn’t going to be another bombed-out-brown, gun-metal-grey Gears of War-esque shooter. We know that “The Shattering”, the name of the website that went up earlier this week, is about the explosion of the moon that results in an irrevocable shift in the way gravity works. (Which isn’t realistic whatsoever but video games, so just go with it.) We also know that it’s a 5 versus 5 shooter, mimicking the team sizes made popular in Counter-Strike and the early Call of Duty games.

But as of tonight we know a little more, with a gameplay trailer showing off some footage from the Grandview map that sees the Yakuza fighting against cops over the Grand Canyon. That’s basically the entire setup, by the way: cops and robbers battling for control of society. Law versus the Breakers. Get it?

Anyway, let’s watch the trailer.

There are four playable characters in the video: Kitsune, Breacher, Cronos and Maverick.

Breacher is your well-rounded, stock standard Military Guy. “His assault rifle and sidearm have powerful and unique abilities, but still manage to feel comfortable and easy to use,” the fact sheet reads. Breacher’s basically the go-to entry for new players, the character that most should feel automatically at home with.

Maverick is a character with a jetpack that has a “Vulcan Gatling cannon” and a Starfall ability that lets her basically drop from the sky to do massive damage. Anything that has a playable jetpack is immediately interesting to me, given the angles and opportunities it opens up, although how much fun you can have really depends on the maps in question. (I doubt we’ll get as much latitude as Enemy Territory: Quake Wars, but you never know.)

Cronos is the prerequisite tank class, equipped with high health, lots of grenades and a beefy rocket launcher. He’s not particularly fast, obviously, but he’s the kind of character you’d want in your squad.

Last is Kitsune, a speedy melee fighter with two swords. “She excels when she can get up close and personal, preferring to catch her opponents by surprise,” the sheet proclaims. You’d imagine melee fighters do pretty well in close-quarters combat, but anyway. The trailer hasn’t gone live at the time of writing, so I can’t say whether or not she’s equipped with short-range teleport or some kind of invisibility cloak, but I wouldn’t be surprised if that was the case.

Cynicism aside, the idea of messing with gravity in the context of an arena shooter is pretty interesting. A lot of competitive FPS comes down to the management of angles and locking down opponents and it’ll be fun to see the various ways in which you can mess with the status quo.