Loadout

Loadout is a Free-to-Play game that borrows heavily in its aesthetics and mechanics from games like Team Fortress 2 and Borderlands, but it still creates a distinguished and quirky personality of its own.

We’re facing a fast multiplayer-only, third-person shooter with a heavy emphasis on weapon creation. The player can choose between four basic weapon types (rifle, launcher, pulse and beam) and customize them to infinity. The system ensures that no two players will carry the same gun, provided they’ve spent some time unlocking the upgrades. Admirably enough, all different weapons seem to be equally balanced; the damage output of a Launcher that fires five electrically charged rockets will be pretty much the same as a continuous Beam fire based weapon. It’s all about creativity and play style.

The game even features a great training mode, in which the player may test the newly created weapons even prior to buying the upgrades. It’s a nice touch that allows crafting the perfect weapon without passing through trial and error.

The weapon upgrades are unlocked with points the player gathers from playing matches and depending on individual performance each match. The game is generous enough so it doesn’t feel like an endless grind, as a few matches grant the possibility to buy a weapon part, but one may consider the possibility to spend real money to boost the points collected each match.

Just as many other F2P games, the aesthetic changes are the ones costing real money. These can be pretty expensive as a single skin or taunt can cost from $5 to $20 USD and can’t be bought with in-game currency. Nevertheless, they are merely visual and have no impact on the gameplay whatsoever. Loadout is entirely enjoyable without the need to spend a single cent.

The actual matches are all team based, with no free for all games at the moment. Teams face each other in 4v4 style every time and the games are all objective centered, with some nice twists to the formulas; like, in Capture the Flag, the flag is actually a hammer and the bearer can overpower opponents by smashing them in melee. Even the deathmatch mode has a little twist which makes it possible to focus on the objective instead of the killing, so team play is an important aspect of the game.

Loadout is fast paced action at its best, the characters all move fast and run without penalty with unlimited dodge moves. Think of Gears of War gameplay with 4x speed and agility. Also, the jumps are high so the player has the option of jumping on top of an enemy to shoot a rocket from above and score the kill; this doesn’t mean dodging will save the player from enemy shots, since all the characters are bulky and make for easy targets even with a sniper rifle. The only downside is that sometimes it’s easy to get lost in all the action and the gory and cartoony animations are easy to miss between the explosions and bullets flying around.

The maps are colorful and complement the visual style of the game, but they are probably a bit generic looking. It feels like a missed opportunity since the games cartoony presentation may have allowed for more creative environments. Nevertheless, they feel appropriate for each game, never too big or too small for the match in question. At the moment, there are only a handful of maps, though there are hints of more being added soon; also, more game modes, a ranked playlist and the ability to create custom matches with friends.

The Matchmaking is running smoothly at the time, though some difficulties still exist when playing with friends and creating parties. The developers claim to be addressing these bugs and it shows since the errors have been less frequent since day one.

Loadout is really fun and easy to play shooter; it has lots of content, especially for being so simple at its core. Admittedly, there’s not much to do once you’ve unlocked enough weapon upgrades, but it shows true potential. As of now, it looks great and plays great, and you really can’t beat the free price tag. If you’re looking for a fast shooter to hold you out until the big guys show up later this year, Loadout is definitely worth a download.