It took me some time to make my decision. I have a nearly pathological obsession with lasers, so naturally my first shot was a massive beam of energy at my enemies. After a few test runs, I found that the recharge time for the laser rifle would leave me vulnerable– no good for the capture and defend round. I went back to the weapon crafting screen. I extended the stock, removed the scope, added rockets, and set the fire rate to full auto. I ended up with a full auto rocket launcher that shot electric missiles. I called it, “Shock and Awesome.”
I recently got my hands on the upcoming PC shooter, Loadout. This hyper-customizable and hyper-violent game comes to us from Edge of Reality. It’s full of potential, I can’t wait to get my hands on the full game and you should too. With over-the-top graphics and a massive array of weapon components, this is one game you should keep an eye on. Plus, it’ll be free to play.
The devs gave us five minutes to customize our gun. Though I had a lot of choices, they weren’t overwhelming. I can choose my stock, which affects accuracy, recoil and power, sights, ammo type, magazine type, firing type, payload and more. I had explosive electric missiles because they were cool.
After five minutes, we started the fray. We had to capture certain points on the map. Killing didn’t earn us any points, only capturing, but that didn’t stop me from preaching electric explosiveness from the book of Shock and Awesome. The first thing I noticed was the game’s cartoon-like art style. It’s like a cross between Borderlands and a Tex Avery cartoon. Even the death animation is grotesquely cartoony. One time, I got my face shot off, literally. What was left was a skull and a pair of dead eyes. Next, an errant rocket blew off my arm, which spouted gallons of blood before I passed out.
Now I’m not going to keep talking about all my deaths, I’m not that awful with the game. Shock and Awesome freed a few folks from their bottom half, leaving them with their spines hanging out.
The gameplay was frantic, but tight. Apparently, I’m not the only one who thought of rapid fire rockets, so there were explosions everywhere. The other team had fire rockets, immolating all their targets. Lightning is where it’s at though, they can’t deny the power of Thor packaged in a rocket-propelled grenade.
The controls were simple– your standard third person shooter layout. Double tapping each direction would make you do a dive-roll, good for dodging incoming fire or putting yourself out when set ablaze.
Though no released date has been announced, the closed beta starts soon and if you want in on it, go to the Loadout website at http://www.loadout.com/. It’s definitely a game to check out since it brings innovation to a genre that recycles the same ideas again and again.
Loadout will be released on Steam this summer.
For the record, the match ended up in a tie. Fire rockets and electric rockets apparently cancel each other out for being too awesome.
