“You suck!”
“DAMN, so close!”
“Holy shit HOLY SHIT HOOOOLLLLYYYY SHIIIIT!”
“OOOOOOH!”
This was me playing Laser League. I’ve never been less of a professional in my life. So what.
The story of Laser League, the new game from developer Roll7, isn’t uncommon in the gaming industry. While knee deep creating the popular OlliOlli series, members of the then small team worked on prototypes of the new game as a sort of passion project since 2013. They aimed to create a new type of sport, taking queues from Pong and Pac-man and Tron. Over the years they showed it behind closed doors, tweaked it, played with it, but generally left it on the side due to delivery of their main titles.
When the time finally arrived to develop their next full game, Laser League was a natural fit. Now over a year in full development, and with the team scaling up to around 20 people, they’re able to finally pull back the curtain to the rest of the world.
The general premise of the game is simple: players must run around a board activating lasers in their team’s color. Should their opponents hit the lasers, they’re “killed”, remaining down until teammates come by and awaken them. Once both players on a team are out, the game is over. Our hands-on of the pre-Alpha build was a best of five series, so the first team to score three points wins the match.
Laser League is all about the lasers, hence the ultra-neon aesthetic. We need to avoid them if they’re not ours or activate them if they’re neutral, but we always always ALWAYS need to know where they are and what they’re doing. This can get difficult once a screen fills up with walls and projectiles everywhere, but it’s a welcomed chaos. The novelty is that inexperienced players can survive and win on luck alone, while veterans will have an advantage in preparation. The game doesn’t have modes, per se, but does present unique playing maps that alter laser type and location, requiring different strategies on each one. They really do feel fresh and diverse.
There are six classes of selectable athletes, each with their own special moves activated by filling a little meter over time. Classes are divided between offensive and defensive abilities, so something like the Thief can steal lasers from the other team, while the Ghost can run through opponent obstacles. During my play session I chose the Blade class, as it allows for a forward dash attack that instantly kills an opponent if hit.
Our first match was on a map featuring two vertical laser walls and four rotating “plus sign” lasers. The second map has narrower walls at the center, but four angled shooting lasers on either side. As we activate each one, we need to avoid any that our opponents flipped on. Over time the lasers turn off, so it’s kind of like playing a constant “capture the flag” session. I learn to position myself at the beginning of a match to the specific laser spawn points, so that I can instantly turn them on before I chase on to the next one. It’s a strategy like this that players will naturally develop. The as the chaos ensues and we feel like the walls are closing in, we can possibly escape off to the side of the screen to reappear on the other, a la Pac-man. This can be super helpful to get away, but if we’re not careful we’ll appear on the other side smack dab in the middle of disaster.
But yeah, those lasers. It doesn’t matter how good you are, you’ll still lose — I found this out first hand as I managed to best some of the development team during my antics on the virtual field. The game is multiplayer focused, and works absolutely best in the same room together. I can foresee couch multiplayer being de facto in many homes. There’s nothing better than yelling and screaming profanities at the people next to you when you’re winning or losing. I rarely use the term “raucous,” but Laser League is definitely that. It’s designed in a way to get us to trash talk each other, and be completely embarrassed when we make a misstep. Damn, is it worth it, tough.
There’s still a long way to go, but when Laser League is eventually released it could end up breaking up a lot of friendships.
Laser League recently took home a SideQuesting Best of E3 2017 Award
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