Grappling hooks, jetpacks, and zero gravity. These are all features you can find in Boss Key Productions' upcoming class-based arena FPS, LawBreakers. I was recently given the chance to visit Boss Key Productions HQ and play the game myself as part of a press event that the company held. Here's what I learned.

Lawbreakers takes place after a cataclysmic event permanently changes the world, even affecting gravitational fields. The game features two sides, Law and Breakers, each featuring the same classes represented by characters that are unique to the side. There is a focus on including non-standard game modes, with Bleszinski stating something to the effect of “Every game has capture the flag, right? That doesn’t mean we have to have capture the flag.”

The early Alpha that we played contained a single scenario called Overcharge on the map Grandview, which is characterized by its central zero gravity zone. Overcharge tasks players with taking an uncharged battery from the center of the map to their base, where it will slowly charge. While it is charging, the opposing team can steal it, the battery retaining its charge in the process, and take it their own base to charge it. Once the battery hits 100%, the opposing team is given 20 seconds to capture it before the team that is charging the battery scores. The first team to score two points wins.

Overcharge is an astoundingly intense mode. On a small map like Grandview, the tides could turn any second. The fact that your partially charged battery can be stolen, with the opposition potentially benefiting, led to some intense moments of near desperation. In the matches I played it wasn’t uncommon for the battery to be stolen with ten seconds or less left on the timer, after which the team that previously had possession would scramble to get it back.

An interesting note about the mode is that the battery has a shield around it that has to be disabled by standing on top of it for a short period of time. Battery pickups were apparently instantaneous previously, but testing led to the shield being added. Personally, I found it to be a fairly nice addition, as it forces you to be careful about when you go for the battery. You don’t just dash through and run off with it as you would in capture the flag. You are forced to time captures in a manner that won’t get you killed while the shield is being disabled.

Four classes were available in the build: Assassin, Enforcer, Titan, and Vanguard. The Assassin is a fast melee class that can grapple around, knock opponents and projectiles away, and enter a fury mode in which kills regenerate health. It has twin blades and a chargeable shotgun at its disposal. The Enforcer is a fairly typical shooter class that makes use of an assault rifle and a short range electric weapon. Its skills can affect time, keep opponents from using abilities, and make use of a shoulder-mounted rocket launcher. The Titan is a brutish class that makes use of a rocket launcher and a lightning rifle that can attack multiple players at once. Its skills include a leap and smash attack, a berserk mode, and a mine that slows faster opponents. The Vanguard is a damage-heavy class that has only a chaingun for a primary weapon. Its skills include a short range blast that damages enemies and knocks the Vanguard back, the ability to fly through the use of a jetpack, a cluster grenade-like attack, and the ability to jump into the air and slam down, instantly killing anyone caught in the blast.

I ended up spending most of my time playing the Assassin class, as I played the best with it. The choice is slightly ironic in that, before I had played the game, I was extremely skeptical of the choice to include a melee class, positive that it would be either difficult to learn or feel as though it didn’t fit. Fortunately, this was not the case. Using the Assassin’s grapple and dash in zero gravity is some of the most fun I’ve had in a shooter in quite some time. The ability to grapple onto opponents and pull yourself towards them for a slightly quicker kill is also quite a bit of fun. I never quite got the hang of the Assassin’s push ability, though, and the Titan’s rocket launcher was one of my greatest nemeses because of it.

One of the Assassin’s more interesting mechanics is the shared pool of three charges for both dashing and grappling. If you dash too much, you can’t grapple and vice-versa. This added a unique level of tactical depth as I was forced to conserve resources until exactly the right moment.

I also spent a decent amount of time playing the Vanguard. I was pretty bad at playing it, but I was impressed with how fluid it felt. The process of flying around using the jetpack felt natural. The camera tilts to match your flight pattern and it is an overall enjoyable experience.

Once we had played a few rounds, we were taken on a tour of the studio. Our first stop was the desk of Senior Character Artist Chris Wells. Wells walked us through a unique lighting effect that the team is using on characters. Characters can be hard to see in shadows or in the distance, so a subtle lighting effect is applied to each character in order to make them more visible. The effect scales up as the character in question moves farther away. It’s the kind of effect I would have never given a second thought, but clearly provides a visual benefit in a side-by-side comparison.

We were then taken to speak to Senior Concept Artist Jay Hawkins. He gave us a look at his day-to-day work by showing us a new character he had been working on for two weeks at the time. At Boss Key, all concept art is created in 3D using modeling programs like ZBrush. The concept art phase can take upwards of a month and usually begins after a character’s gameplay features have been fully implemented into the game.

The character he was working on at the time was a new, dual pistol-wielding character that is intended to have an angel-inspired look on the Law side and a devil-inspired look on the Breakers side. One pistol is larger and more powerful, while the other is smaller and less powerful. The character is intended to somehow fill a sniper-like role.

One aspect of the character design that Hawkins discussed at length was the set of wings that the Law’s angelic version of the character was given. The wings look mechanical and are designed in a way that they look like they are made entirely of metal bones that extend from a central point on each shoulder blade. We were shown an animation of how they may fold up when not in use, reaffirming the thought that they might be mechanical.

After he went through his talk about the wings, I posed the question of what the Breakers version’s wings might look like. In response he stated that the character “doesn’t actually fly. It’s more of a blink.” I then stated that this design choice might send the wrong message, to which he replied “Yeah, it does. There have been entire meetings about the wings. [...] But at the end of the day, it’s Cliff’s game and, if he wants the wings, the wings will be there.”

Intrigued, I posed the question of what other design choices Cliff was adamant about keeping. Supposedly, the “tentacles” on Chronos’ mask were a design choice that Cliff insisted on keeping. The animation team was said to be quite flustered by that choice, as they were concerned about how much utility they might have.

The fact that Kitsune “looks like she just came out of an office” is also a design choice that Cliff insisted on keeping. He followed up on the statement by saying that “Hopefully, this is what makes [the game] stand out.”

We then stopped off to talk with Senior Gameplay Programmer Nathan Wulf. Wulf showed off the game’s various death animations, as well as a test environment that has facilities in place to test both the DPS and running speed of each character. We were given a look at how corpses move in and out of zero gravity smoothly, reacting naturally to each gravitational change. The animation that stuck with me, however, is the animation that plays when a character is killed by the Titan’s lightning rifle. Their body will spasm on the ground for a few seconds, stop for a second, and then spasm again one last time. The last spasm is another detail you would never give a second thought, but it adds an extra bit of flair to the death animation.

The last stop on our tour was the desk of Senior Animator Zach Lowery. Lowery gave us a look at the game’s zero gravity animations. The animations have several layers, each one representing a different facet of movement while in zero gravity. The end result of the combined layers helps to clearly denote the direction a player is moving while in zero gravity.

Once the tour was finished, we were given a chance to play the game a bit more and talk with the team. Some of the more notable points include the fact that the game will be a buy-to-play title that costs less than $60 and will likely allow players to buy cosmetics—Bleszinski referenced Counter-Strike: Global Offensive when describing the model. At present, any references to the term “release” mean the game’s Closed Alpha release. The team wants said Closed Alpha release to happen “soon.” Alpha sign-ups actually opened today on the official website.

I came away from the event hopeful about the future of LawBreakers and eager to see more. The press build we played was incredibly polished, which was a nice surprise, but the simple fact of the matter is that, even at this early stage, LawBreakers is a fun, fast-paced game. It takes some of the ability-based gameplay MOBAs and character shooters and combines it with the traditional arena shooter gameplay we know and love. It’s still a bit early to be sure of how the game will turn out, but the core gameplay is solid and I already wish that I could play more of it.