LawBreakers was a Hero Shooter developed by Boss Key Productions, led by Cliff Bleszinski, was published by Nexon, and was available on Steam and PlayStation 4. It released on August 8, 2017 and was shut down on September 14, 2018.
Despite building a decent level of hype and receiving positive critical reviews, the game died on arrival as its online global player count plummeted below 1,000 players within a week of the late 2017 launch and was empty before the year ended.
The blame for this failure was caused by multiple reasons: it was laid upon the feet of Bleszinski for his overly aggressive hype generation such as calling it "the start of a billion dollar IP", being pigeonholed by potential fans reacting to said hype as an "overly edgy & bland" Overwatch clone, launching into a completely saturated market for Hero Shooters, picking the PlayStation 4 over the more active multiplayer scene on the Xbox One, and the decision to cancel the intended launch as a free to play game to charge money.
The failure of Lawbreakers saw Boss Key release their 80's Retro styled Fortnite clone Radical Heights in what Boss Key called "X-treme Early Access", in a dire attempt to generate revenue but it also failed to gain an audience... also due to launching in a completely saturated market, this time for Fortnite-style games. The studio closed its doors in mid 2018. Both games remained online for a few months after until the permanent shutdown of Lawbreakers servers in September 2018.
The storyline of the game is that in 2049 a mysterious cataclysmic disaster known as the Shattering completely destroyed Earth's moon. Fifty years later, much of Earth is still uninhabitable. With boiling oceans and huge storms engulfing the planet, what few areas remain are subject to gravitational instability and lawlessness. The gravitational shifts have lead to a boom in technological advancements surrounding the phenomenon. The US Government and other nations form together the Transnational Authority of Supplement Control to help maintain order, but there are many criminals, as well as the Shura Corporation, who are more than capable of putting up a fight.
The game revolved around 3-Dimensional combat through the use of anti-gravity zones on the maps. Players were split into teams of 5, and randomly chosen between fighting for the Law, or being a Breaker.
Tropes:
- All There in the Manual: Backstory for the world and various factions are explained when you unlock player icons for your profile.
- Apocalypse How: Societal Disruption on a Planetary scale as a result of the Moon's destruction. Humanity survived the Shattering, and has advanced both technologically and physiologically thanks to exposure to Hadronium, but all the coastal regions across the entire planet were wiped out by tsunamis, flooding, and super storms.
- Applied Phlebotinum: Hadronium, named after the gravity research center on the moon that is believed to be the source of the Shattering, is a mysterious mineral that rained down from the Moon. It has the ability to alter gravity, and even peoples DNA.
- The Big Guy: The Bomchelle and Chronos are physically imposing over everyone else in the cast, and dish out huge amounts of damage, have high health, and lack conventional forms of mobility.
- Bottomless Magazines: Subverted like with many Hero Shooter games; each character has unlimited ammo, but still needs to reload. This is even lampshaded on the Lawbreakers website, which states that the Alpha gun that the Gunslinger class uses has a built-in 3D printer that prints the bullets right inside the gun.
- Chain Lightning: If a Titan shoots an enemy with their Crisper gun or while Berserk, any other enemies nearby will also take damage.
- Combat Medic: The Battle Medics are designed with combat in mind. Their main healing abilities are two support drones that heal your allies over time, but they're equipped with grenade launchers for anyone who tries to get too close.
- Curse Cut Short: The "Rise or Fall" trailer starts with Faust keeping a lookout at the perimeter of a TASC facility and making sure none of the personnel try to make any moves. When a giant explosion blows up the building behind him, he mouths out "What the F-" before the scene focuses on Chronos and Nash emerging from the explosion.
- Cyborg: Many of the characters, especially the Breakers, have artificial limbs to some extent. Toska-9's legs are both robotic, and Feng's entire lower jaw is replaced.
- Death Row: Chronos' body is infused with electricity, a result of him surviving years of torture, and ultimately, the electric chair.
- Flipping the Bird: During the Alpha and first two Closed Beta Test periods, Toska-9's profile on the Victory screen showed her sticking her middle finger right at the camera. The third CBT removed it.
- Gatling Good: The Vanguard class uses an arm-mounted minigun. It takes a couple seconds to charge up to full speed, but it becomes much more accurate when it does.
- Hired Guns: Kitsune is an assassin who works for whoever is willing to pay her. Currently, it's the Shura Corporation.
- The Juggernaut: Living up to its namesake, the Juggernaut class is difficult to take down. They're heavily armored, can build up great speeds by charging around the battlefield, can set up temporary walls that physically block anyone trying to pass through, and make short work of anyone who gets close to them. Their super ability adds even more armor and an increased firing speed.
- The Leader: Axel is the leader of the TASC.
- Lightning Gun: The appropriately named "Crisper" that Titans can use shoots out lightning. Their Berserk ability allows them to shoot it directly from their hands without needing to reload while the ability it active.
- Living MacGuffin: The "Rise or Fall" trailer shows Axel, Hellion, and Maverick responding to Chronos, Faust, and Nash breaking into a TASC facility and trying to escape with a container. The container opens up in the ensuing skirmish, revealing a small, spherical robot inside. When the robot boots up, he's first happy to be released into the world, but quickly realizes what he's gotten involved in.
- Ludicrous Gibs: Dieing from a sufficiently high powered attack will reduce you or your enemies into a blood smear on the surrounding surfaces.
- MegaCorp: It's no secret that the Shura Corporation desires control of the planet.
- Painfully Slow Projectile: The Titan's rockets take a few seconds to travel, but they do significant damage to the area they hit.
- Precision F-Strike: The Breakers are more than happy to swear.Toska-9: They wanted the best, we'll they fucking got it.
- Ragdoll Physics: Getting killed in an anti-gravity zone will result in your corpse floating around before eventually settling on the ground. If a Vanguard gets killed while using their jets, the jets will rocket the corpse around.
- Rich Bitch: Kintaro is said to be a very wealthy sociopath who has more than enough money to get away with murder. Who lives and dies in his mere presence is entirely up to him at any moment.
- Robot Buddy: AEGIS of the Law, and Nash of the Breakers, are both in the Juggernaut class and are the two robots in a cast otherwise consisting entirely of humans.
- Short-Range Shotgun: The Juggernaut's Instigator is most effective when your enemies are less than 15 feet away.
- Speaks In Shoutouts: Nash was reprogrammed by the Lifers and given a "personality". They intentionally programmed all his verbal responses with lines from songs and movies from the late 20th century.
- War Memorial: The Aftershocks and Effects Memorial lists the countless people who died from the Shattering.
