LawBreakers, the highly anticipated character arena shooter from Cliff Blezinski and the rest of the team at Boss Key Productions, launched today for PS4 and PC, but the console release isn’t going as smoothly as they would have liked. As I’ve been putting the game through it’s paces in a live environment for review, I found myself running into problems with frame drops and stutters bad enough to change the outcomes of certain scenarios, whether it’s failing to come out victorious in a shootout, or losing track of an enemy completing an objective.
It’s been frustrating to try to play the game in this state, but it seems Boss Key is aware and working on a fix, as nearly every menu in the game displays the following message:
“We are currently aware and investigating a hitching issue on PS4 when joining/leaving a match or changing roles. Thanks for your understanding while we work to resolve the issue.”
It looks like we’re not the only ones running into this issue either, as the folks over at Eurogamer and Digital Foundry have run an analysis of these frame drops and stutters.
“The issue is profound enough that you don’t need frame-rate analysis tools to notice the problem, but for the record we’ve measured in-game stutter on PlayStation 4 Pro maxing out at 316ms – pretty much one third of a second.”
As Eurogamer notes, I too found that the issues are not limited to the mundanity of switching characters or joining/leaving matches. I’ve been experiencing these stutters during crucial moments of action and they significantly impact the gameplay, turning it from a high octane, accurate shooter, into more of a frustrating guessing game.
Our review for LawBreakers is currently in the works and will take note of Boss Key’s quick communication regarding a major issue, and whether or not they are able to quickly implement a fix to what has admittedly been a rough launch. If and when there are any updates or changes to these issues, we’ll keep you updated on the status of Boss Key’s arena shooter.
Have you experienced any LawBreakers PS4 stuttering? If you’re tired of trying to defy gravity, perhaps you’ll want to check out Hellblade with both our review and guide to getting started publishing today. You could also enjoy this gallery of gaming’s best cats, as it is International Cat Day, which seems a bit redundant, having a whole day devoted to that when we’ve already got the entire internet dedicated to them.
[Source: Eurogamer]
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Why You Should Be Excited for LawBreakers
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It Brought Cliffy B Out of Retirement
Cliff Bleszinski was understandably pretty jaded with the games industry after spending his whole adult life in it, and once he retired many thought it would be for good. He still had a desire to create, though, and LawBreakers is the result of that. It's his first multiplayer-focused first-person shooter since his Unreal Tournament days, and if that doesn't get you excited then I don't know what will.
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Innovative Gravity Mechanics
It's almost cliché at this point to have maneuverability as a selling point, but while most shooters are adding jetpacks, LawBreakers is allowing players to defy gravity. Other games might allow players to move around, but LawBreakers really takes it to the next level. There's a level of depth to just the movement alone that other shooters rarely have.
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Four Unique Modes
There'll be four modes in the multiplayer shooter when it releases, and each of them put a different spin on combat. Uplink, Blitzball (not that one), Turf War, and Overcharge all have different rules to learn, and were a blast in the beta.
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Joy of Learning
As I previously wrote about, one of the things I enjoyed most about Boss Key's shooter is that it feels genuinely refreshing in a genre filled with retreads. No matter what shooters you may have played in the past, everyone is starting from level one here. There's a ton of concepts to grasp, and figuring them out is part of the fun.
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5v5 Combat
All of the multiplayer modes in LawBreakers are five-on-five. It's the perfect balance between having a enough players that action is always happening, but small enough that true teamwork can really be implemented. While games started to go in the direction of "bigger is better" for multiplayer, we're seeing developers figure out that smaller matches can be just as satisfying.
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Fast-Paced Action
If you're like me, and grew up playing PC shooters like Quake and Unreal Tournament, then a lot of today's shooters feel pretty slow in comparison. That definitely isn't the case here, as the action in LawBreakers is fast-paced and frenetic. It's rare for an arena shooter on console to really nail that feel, but Boss Key managed to do just that.
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Overcharge
All four of the shooter's modes are fun to play, but Overcharge is a really interesting spin on capture-the-flag. Players have to take a battery and charge it at their base, but that same battery (and the charge it has obtained) can be stolen back by the opposing team. It paves the way for some incredible comebacks.
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Nine Roles to Master
There are nine roles to learn in LawBreakers, with two characters in each type. That means there are a ton of skills that players will have to master. The nine roles are: Assassin, Battle MEdic, Enforcer, Gunslinger, Harrier, Juggernaut, Titan, Vanguard, and Wrath.
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Team Experience
This isn't a deathmatch shooter. Every game type is centered around fulfilling your role, and completing the mode's objective. In an era of multiplayer shooters that largely are based around shooting everything that moves (which is admittedly still fun), LawBreakers provides a different type of experience. It's a more focused game that'll require teams to work as a cohesive unit.
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It's Cheap
Like Hellblade, LawBreakers will only cost $29.99 when it releases August 8. That's a dope price point that will ensure that more players will be able to afford the shooter, and it should lead to servers being filled with active players for the foreseeable future.
