I fought the Law and the Law won. But frankly, they were all using Gunslinger and camping the healing station, so what do you expect?

When the LawBreakers cinematic trailer first popped into my life as an unwanted but welcomed YouTube ad, my first thought was “Whoever did those remixes of ‘Spirit in the Sky’ is a genius.” My second thought was, “That looks awesome. Thank you, YouTube data-mining-algorithms for bringing it into my life.”

Now that the free open beta has gone off to join that spirit in the sky, those of us who have yet to preorder have a decision to make. For me, it seems like a no-brainer. I’ve already played about six hours and haven’t gotten bored, and at $29.99, I know I wouldn’t be wasting my money. But for any of you still on the fence about LawBreakers, here are some pros and cons:

What’s Great About It

As an arena hero shooter novice (read: noob), I didn’t come to LawBreakers with any concrete expectations on gameplay or matchmaking or anything. I thought the low-gravity zones would make for some interesting possibilities movement-wise and that the characters and weapons looked cool and cyberpunky.

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Overwatch is the only other hero shooter I’ve played (and I haven’t played much), but I remember constantly dying, and then it taking forever to get from the spawn area back to the fight. I know the remedy to this is simply “Git Gud” and stop dying, but, as I said, I’m a noob, and it’s difficult to get better if you’re spending 75% of a match running across the map. LawBreakers is different.

From the moment the game started, the pacing was fast. Within about a minute of selecting Quick Play, I had joined nine other people zooming around a low-gravity arena shooting, stabbing and booting each other – oh, and there was also a Blitzball or battery or something. The point is matchmaking is quick and balanced, and all four game modes are fast, furious and any other adjectives that could also be used to name a Vin Diesel franchise.

One downside to the fast pacing is that if one team starts to run away with the match there isn’t much the other team can do to stop them. The emphasis on team play and on-the-fly adjustments is not as strong in LawBreakers as it is in something like Team Fortress 2 or Overwatch. It’s mostly kill or be killed and maybe try to play the objective if it’s close. I had one Overcharge match that was over in around seven minutes. I also had one match that never started, and left myself and eight other players endlessly killing each other in the warm up period while we waited for a 10th player to join. I stayed there for around two hours trying different classes and just having a good time, and then I left before the match ever started.

Now, that brings me to what improvements LawBreakers could use.

What’s Not So Great About It

First and foremost, there should be a Team Death Match. I’m not the only one who thinks so, either. A discussion of the beta pros and cons on the LawBreakers subreddit was abuzz with players calling for a “TDM” mode. It’s a little surprising that a Team Death Match game mode hasn’t been included because often the current modes border on free-for-alls with teamwork and objective-based play as afterthoughts. Plus, it’s super fun just to zip around the low-gravity zones trying to do as much damage as possible.

Next on my list of complaints: the blind firing mechanic. Don’t get me wrong; I think it is a great idea, and it could be an important aspect of the low-gravity gameplay. But currently, it isn’t very useful. I only used it when I played as the Titan, and that was simply because it was the only way to effectively traverse the low-gravity zones with a character that cannot jump, warp, or fly. It’s such a unique idea that I wish I could have used it more, but it just didn’t seem practical with any other character. The fighting is so fast-paced that blind firing becomes both a waste of time and ammo, and it allows an opponent who has their gun facing forward to get the jump on you.

With that said, I think for the most part the character classes are all interesting and well-balanced. I think the characters all fit well together, aesthetically, though one could argue that’s because there isn’t much variation. I wish the weapon designs varied a little more between the good guys (Law) and the bad guys (Breakers). It seems weird to me that the cyber criminals have the same equipment as the space cops, but maybe I’m just too nitpicky.

Parting Thoughts

The game is a blast and fairly easy to break into if you have any experience with first-person shooters. Game modes and maps are designed with speed, maneuverability, and gunplay in mind, which makes for quick matches that can either leave you screaming at your team for not playing the objective or laughing your way to a 10-player kill streak. But speed also means you’ll be in another match in a couple of minutes and will likely have forgotten all about the last round.

The character designs leave a little to be desired but aren’t entirely forgettable. The various weapons are interesting and make for unique combinations within each class. There seems to be an option for every playstyle, though speed is definitely a key factor to play successfully.

Altogether, it makes for a very satisfying package at a very reasonable price. If you’re looking to break into multiplayer first-person or hero-based shooters (it’s a little of both), then you may want to preorder now. If you’re still satisfied with Overwatch and have no interest in zooming around in low-gravity while shooting dreadlocked bombardiers, then you can probably skip LawBreakers.