Review: Loadout (2014)

A fast-paced, free online multiplayer third person shooter, Loadout is an overly top shooter that allows you to customise your own gun into an outrageous weapon of mass destruction. The more you play the more parts you can earn to upgrade your gun and even the equipment. You can even pimp out your character. There is quite an endless amount of possibilities to setting yourself apart from your enemy. Your outfit design may be different but it is the customization of your gun that will define you. Who knows, the gun you designed could very well be the only one. That is until some realises how bad you’re owning them and they copy your design.

A more bizarre version of Team Fortress 2 lookalike, this Sci-Fi third-person shooter is even more violent and gory. With your cartoony character you can blast your enemy with customizable bolt guns using a very simple crafting table. Your gun chassis can range from rifle, launcher, pulse and beam.  With your chassis chosen you can then define and tune your weapon with a large selection of other customizable options from the type of barrel, trigger system, scope, the cooling or magazine cartage and even the payload of your gun. From Slugs bullets, Tesla electric damage and Pyro flames, it is totally up to you how you want to kill your enemy.

With the game’s cartoony graphics, violence, gore and humour in the midst, there is no doubt that the developer and publisher Edge of Reality took some inspiration from the Valve’s Team Fortress 2. However, Loadout does not shy away from being way over the top with the combat damage system. From chunks of flesh being shot off, burnt off or just simply blown off, your character can lose limbs, get cut in half or, if you’re lucky, blown into tiny pieces. The shocking graphic nature with cartoonish visuals makes Loadout shockingly beautiful and funny.

Like most shoot ‘em ups, Loadout provides four different game types and for a game that is still in beta that is pretty impressive. “Blitz” is a four on four game type that’s based on both teams trying to capture and control a randomly selected area. In other words it’s a “King of the Hill” game. “Death Snatch” is similar to the classic Team Deathmatch game mode, like many other shooter games. However, the aim of Snatch is to not only to kill the enemy but you have to collect their red Blutonium Vials to get the point. So being a sniper maybe a tricky one for this game type because if you don’t collect their vial and the enemy teammate does, then you don’t get the point and the kill is worthless.

“Extraction” is a more glorified and violent “Capture the Flag” where one person in each team has to collect junks of “Blutonium” and deliver them to designated grinders spread across the map. It is pretty intense and chaotic and if your delivery man gets zapped then someone is randomly selected as the collector. “Jackhammer” is an even more violent and gorier version of “Extraction”. Instead of a harmless flag your team is given objective to steal the enemy hammer. The hammer can be used to attack and crush the enemy. With each kill you get increases the value you get when you place the enemy hammer back at your base.

Loadout is the best example of not only a free-to-play game but also a perfect marketing idea to releasing a game. Why spend cash on a game you might not like when you can play it for free and if you love it, spend the cash on extra bonus content. There is so much to play around with Loadout which makes you want to keep playing and seeing how awesomely powerful you can make your gun. You can use your twisted imagination to fashion such a strange weapon from a collection of exotic combinations and best of all, you can even name your gun.