I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve said this, but “Lawbreakers” is not an “Overwatch” clone. Why do I say this? It seems that every time I try to get friends and acquaintances to try this game, “Overwatch” is brought up as a comparison.Why is that the case though? Oh, because it’s a first-person shooter with a wide variety of heroes to choose from. I guess any character with a standard issue assault rifle and sprinting abilities is going to be compared to “Soldier: 76,” and anyone with a jetpack is going to be compared to “Pharah.” It pains me to see that any game in this genre will be heavily compared to “Overwatch.” If anything, “Lawbreakers” is more of a hybrid between “Titanfall” and “Quake” or “Unreal Tournament,” with potty-mouthed, trash-talking characters.“Lawbreakers” has its own take on core mechanics as seen in its hectic verticality, zero-gravity zones and focus on high-speed mobility, while “Overwatch” doesn’t have any of these. This game also uses a more competitive approach from the get-go, even if there is no competitive mode just yet. Given that, gamers should utilize the twitch mechanics and a strategic approach for each firefight.
Team composition does not matter too much either, but it may give teams with more diversity the upper hand. Hell, I’ve won multiple games without having a tank or battle medic on my team, but then again, it does feel nice to consistently be in battle rather than to scamper around for health packs or regen stations.
At launch, this game came out with eight parallel maps, four game modes, nine classes and 18 characters. There are two characters per class — one for the Law and the other for Breakers. It seems pretty solid, given that the price tag for this game was a whopping $30 compared to “Overwatch” which started at a forced $60 for consoles and $40 for PCs.
The concurrent player count is dwindling on a daily basis. It’s tragic. “Lawbreakers” is receiving the same treatment that “Titanfall 2” and “Doom” did. They’re all great games that no one is playing. Why? Well, aside from weak marketing and being released between more popular games, they were hit with bad reception before release because of some inconsequential flaw in a beta or a previous installment from the series.
Nowadays, all it takes is a few narrow-minded streamers saying one thing about a game they barely had their hands on to cripple the success of deserving games such as “Lawbreakers.” Like I said earlier, this is not an “Overwatch” clone. Sure, the gunslinger classes handle just like “Tracer” with dual wielding pistols and the use of blink for mobility and the four random loot rewards with each level up are just like “Overwatch,” but other than that, the similarities between the two are minimal at best.
