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Loadout
PC (Steam)
Good Idea, Bad Execution
2/5 stars
“Loadout” is the type of game I would normally never take a second look at. It’s an arena-style Third-Person Shooter deathmatch with no offline mode and no single-player mode. Yet the developer, Edge of Reality, heavily advertised one aspect of the game that I feverishly desire in a shooter: Weapon customization. Thus I found myself pulled into the Free to Play world of “Loadout,” but my stay wasn’t a long one.
Presentation
Unlike most modern shooters, “Loadout” doesn’t feature a super-realistic, dark ‘n gritty aesthetic. Instead, the game revels in its cartoony nature with plenty of bright colors and an gratuitously grotesque character design mentality. There are only three playable characters in the game, a relatively normal Latino man, a not-quite-racist Black man, and the world’s ugliest (but not quite fattest) White woman. There are plenty of gag-inducing costumes for these characters available for purchase via the game’s microtransaction system, ranging from ill-fitting swimsuits to pixilated nudity. While there is nothing bad about this style of costuming, and it would be downright titillating in a game with a different design aesthetic, in “Loadout” it just makes characters who are already disturbing downright revolting. To top it off, “Loadout” features dynamic character damage in addition to a normal life meter, which can lead to scantily-clad grotesques running around with large sections of exposed bone or heads that have been reduced to a pulp of brain matter. I can imagine fans of zombie media loving it.
I can’t say the audio in “Loadout” is particularly memorable in any way. The soundtrack is either non-existent or completely irrelevant, the characters don’t say much besides their in-combat grunting and groaning, and the only real narration is a severe British woman’s voice that announces the current status of each match as a play-by-play.
Story
I am willing to give plenty of games a pass on story if they don’t really need a strong narrative to compel the player to keep going. “Loadout” does not get a pass in this category because it doesn’t provide ANY context, character backgrounds, or even an excuse narrative in any way, shape, or form.
The player is simply dumped into a menu and instructed in how the game mechanics work. The characters are simply caricatures with names but no motivations (even games like “Twisted Metal” and “Mortal Kombat” provide backstories for why their cast of freaks was duking it out).
Of course, the biggest story-related fault in “Loadout” is that there is absolutely zero single-player campaign content. Usually shooters like this provide at least a token campaign with a crappy story (see: ‘Call of Duty’ franchise) in order to introduce the player to the gameplay mechanics and maybe teach them a few tricks. “Loadout” is just straight-up arena battling. Period.
Gameplay
“Loadout” is one of the newish breed of TPSes that plays like a FPS, but with the player’s character visible to the far left side of the screen. In every other way, the gameplay and controls are completely par for the course when it comes to non-cover-based shooters, with characters forced to run around like maniacs, bunny hop all over the place, and shoot without aiming in order to survive.
As an arena shooter, “Loadout” only has one mode: Deathmatch. Of course, it does have three slightly different flavors of deathmatch, ranging from straight-up killing of opponents to a base capturing operation that requires a bit of teamwork. Battles aren’t typically free-for-alls, but instead pit small teams of (usually randomly-selected) players against each other.
“Loadout’s” definitive feature, weapon customization, isn’t particularly well-implemented or compelling. Each player starts off with a couple of really crappy weapon parts unlocked, with further parts available for unlock as part of a technology tree viewable from the main menu. There is no randomization or loot in “Loadout,” simply grinding for ‘Blutes’ – the in-game currency – in order to progress down the tech tree’s branches. The variety of weapons is fairly small as well. There are rifles, pulsers (which shoot spiky balls… ???), beams, rockets, and support items available to choose from, and the player is allowed to take two guns and one support item into battle with them as part of their titular loadout. Each weapon type has a variety of stocks, triggers, sights, barrels, ammo, and other gadgetry to unlock… but each of these items must be unlocked for each weapon type separately (I guess it’s impossible to strap a pulser sight to a regular rifle?). Since “Loadout” is an arena shooter, and thus PvP balance is a top concern, all of the unlockable weapon parts seem kind of boring and tame so as not to create an exploit to which all players will naturally gravitate.
Unfortunately, the main thing that prevented me from sticking with “Loadout” for a significant length of time is the… significant length of time required to make any progress. As a Free to Play game, Edge of Reality WANTS “Loadout” players to buy ‘Spacebux’ (required to purchase cosmetic character costume pieces) and ‘Blutes’ (required to progress down the tech tree) from the microtransaction shop. Spacebux are ONLY available via microtransactions, while Blutes are earned for participating in matches (win or lose) and awarded to each player as a daily bonus for completing their first match of the day. The daily prizes are annoying as they sometime fail to appear and always require the player to pick one of three boxes which might contain 250 to 450 Blutes or (so I hear) a random costume piece. I never managed to pick better than the lowest Blute box. Of course, even 450 Blutes is a drop in the bucket when the higher end parts in the tech tree require thousands of Blutes to unlock.
Overall
Ultimately, “Loadout” is a pretty boring and typical arena shooter that goes for shock value with its grotesque character designs and microtransaction money with its interminable grinding to unlock new weapon parts. When the primary novelty of a game is drip-fed over the course of weeks or months of saminess, it loses its novelty really fast. If “Loadout” had some kind of single-player campaign that built up to an endgame of endless grinding and PvP, it might be slightly better. As it is, I can’t recommend it.
Presentation: 2.5/5
Story: 0/5
Gameplay: 2/5
Overall (not an average): 2/5
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