What do Rocket League, SMITE, Over Watch and League of Legends have in common? They are all examples of team based multiplayer games. Yes they may all come different genres, but they all force the players to work together as a team to win. And much like say basketball, football or some other team based sport, its exciting to watch. This also leads to more games getting released to cash in on the trend. Some manage to be come a hit while others fall flat. Laser League by Roll7 happens to be a hit in the making.
I’m firing my lasers
Simple controls- Controls for Laser League are pretty simple. Movement is done by using either the left or right analog stick and skill activation is either L2 or R2. Having simple controls makes it easier for players to concentrate on what’s going on during a match instead of trying to remember what button does what.
High paced action- At first a round of Laser League seems to be simple enough; run around the arena, activate the laser nodes before the other team does and avoid laser nodes that the other team does activate. But don’t be deceived, as the action can ramp up in just a few seconds with out warning. Imagine two four player teams chasing each other, dodging opposing lasers going at it back and forth. As each team is going back and forth with each other, trying to each their teammates active, the lasers start moving faster and randomly. Again this is why the controls are simple, players will have have fast reflexes to be able to pay attention to everything that’s going on.
Return of couch multiplayer- Laser League is one of the few team based multiplayer games that has an offline multiplayer mode. While having online multiplayer is nice, it doesn’t beat the excitement of having you and your friends shouting, cheering and booing at each other. Even people who are not evening playing will get drawn into the excitement.
Various stadiums and map layouts- Throughout this review I made it seem that there is one arena in Laser League that players can play in, that is not the case. Laser League has five different stadiums and twenty six maps total. Each stadium has between three to five maps that are different depending on the stadium. For example, one stadium has maps that force players to take control of nodes that are located in the center of the map, while another stadium has power ups and a laser node patters that players can use as traps. This variation of maps will see that each match play differently and not loser players excitement as rounds go into sudden death.
Each class is unique- Even though the controls for Laser League are pretty simple, each of the classes are unique and play very different from each other. These classes are smash, ghost, thief, snipe, shock and blade. Each class has a different role in a match. The smash class is the assault member of the team and can tackle/bash other players with a pulse shield. Their job is to knock the opposing player into a laser node that their team controls and take them out. Ghosts are the healers of the team and are able to phase through enemy laser nodes temporally. This makes it easy for them to revive their fallen teammate. The snipe class are the sharpshooters of the team. They are able to travel across the map in an instant, either to avoid enemy laser or to take out enemy players. The thief class are the team’s pathfinders. In other words, they are able to steal enemy laser nodes and make it easier for the rest of the team to move around. Shocks are the supports of the team. They have the ability to temporarily stun enemy players. When they use their stun ability on an enemy player near their own laser node, the enemy player can not avoid it and is taken down. Lastly there’s the blade class, the assassins of the team. Out of all of the other classes they are the most offensive based, as they can take down enemy players in an instant with their pulse blade.
Death lasers
Matchmaking takes long- As much fun as it is to play a match of Laser League with your friends on the couch, sometimes you have to play online, which isn’t that bad. Unless matchmaking decides to take forever. For some reason matchmaking in the PS4 version of Laser League seems to take a bit longer than the PC version. For me personally this is just a small problem since I mostly play offline with my friends but it seems that there’s emojis and cosmetic content that can only be unlocked by playing online.
Laser League ticks off all the points that makes for a good team based multiplayer game. It has simple controls so that anyone can jump in and play, in which they and spectators can enjoy the high paced action. This is made possible thanks to the unique maps and classes. Everything is tied together with the addition of local multiplayer. However if getting friends together in one spot isn’t possible, there’s online multiplayer. But it might take a while to find a match online, as on the PS4 version it took a while to jump into a match. In any case, Laser League is fun and with the proper support, I can see it becoming the next Rocket League.
