Laser League Review: A Neon Colosseum

It's the year 2150. Massive and perfervid crowds gather in stadiums to watch two teams try and vaporize each other with neon lasers. Think Roman colosseums, during a cyberpunk phase. Sounds pretty straight forward, right? Well, it is, kind of. Laser League's multiplayer has been refined to be pure and simple, but potent in its effect. And underneath its surface layer torn straight out of a long forgotten Tron concept art book, is a unique multiplayer experience that mashes together arcade games of yesteryear, the magic of competitive sports, and the allure of easy to pick-up, but difficult to master.

A dosage of Laser League's multiplayer experience is at the least exhilarating, and sometimes even transfixing. But it's adrenaline-fueled shot isn't without multiple shortcomings, none of which are significant, but when all combined don't always leave me craving more.

One of the best things about Laser League is how it can be picked up instantaneously. From the start of my first competitive match, I felt competent. There's no up-front time investment like there is in many multiplayer games. It's fun from the get-go.

Instant gratification can largely be chalked up to the game's simple premise. Where many multiplayer games feel like a mile long, but an inch deep, Laser League feels the opposite (an inch long, but miles deep).

Teams of two or three face off in a best of three rounds, with each round being a best of five. How do you win? By eliminating every player on the other team. In a match, players must chase down nodes that when activated, emit a laser of your team's colors. Some nodes are stationary, but many rotate around the map, and constantly reset. Touch another team's laser, and you're vaporized.

As you could guess, success in Laser League predominately comes down to a team's ability to control the map -- especially certain choke points -- by lighting it up with their neon color. To keep things moving, the layout of nodes change throughout a match, meaning opportunity for multiple shifts in momentum. However, as a match progresses, more and more nodes begin to litter the arena, which ensures matches don't go on too long by gradually ramping up the colored chaos.

Like any good team sport, Laser League ultimately rewards the team synchronized more than the team with independent strategies. However, that doesn't mean individual skill can't be a deciding factor. Because so much of Laser League plays like a bullet-hell shooter, there's more skill than just being able see and read the field like Tom Brady in the fourth quarter. Weaving through a sea of lasers that can be activated and change color on a dime requires cat-like reflexes, and an abundance of focus.

There's rarely a moment of respite during a match of Laser League, and lapse in concentration is death by vaporization. And while you can be revived by a teammate at anytime, once you fall out of rhythm it can be difficult to get in sync, and if you die too often, you will put your team in increasingly precarious situations. Laser League is straightforward in concept, but that doesn't mean it's a casual experience. Matches are often intense, fueled by the adrenaline of dancing by near death experiences, and the release of utter glee when you win by the smallest of margins.

Laser League is mostly a game of strategy and execution, but there are also power-ups that offer a nice dose of unpredictability into the experience. Some power-ups favor the team on the front foot, speeding up the nodes. Others, like pause, allow a team getting clobbered to catch their breathe and regroup as all nodes stop moving. Others, like steal, allow you to completely turn the tide of the game. There's a total of 16 different power-ups, and none feel like throw away filler, though some do feel a bit overpowered (like steal, for example).

Similar to games like Overwatch, a lot of the strategy in Laser League is in decisions made before and during moments of respite in a match. There are six distinct classes with their own abilities (which run on a cooldown). Things like what class your teammates choose and what map you're playing on will (or at least should) influence which of these six classes -- Blade, Smash, Snipe, Thief, Shock, and Ghost -- you decide to roll.

Further, after each round the losing team has the option to switch their characters, offering up the opportunity for you and your team to course correct, and choose a squad that will better counter the selection the opposing team is finding success with. With this design, winning the first game provides a significant strategic upper-hand, allowing you and your team the last chance to switch things up before the final and deciding round.

If you've played any class-based competitive multiplayer games, Laser League's six classes may feel a bit light, lacking in variation, but in my 30 hours with the game, I never felt like the options were limited or restricting in the slightest. In fact, they struck the perfect balance between strategic depth, but not strategy overload.

Not everything about Laser League's multiplayer is heaps of refinement though. It is shallow in multiple places modern multiplayer games simply can't afford to be. One is player progression. I'm only going to volatilize someone's innards so many times before I desire for other types of rewards. A good multiplayer experience keeps you yearning even after you've hit peak-satisfaction. Laser League is very easy to stop playing, and even easier to forget about for a few days, because it's progression lacks any hooks whatsoever.

As you play, you will unlock profile pictures for your profile, which are simply different real-human avatars that show up alongside your name. These are so nugatory that after unlocking a few, I never bothered changing mine again.

You will also unlock over 150 different characters from five unique brands, which is the game's futuristic cyberpunk take on teams that appropriately feel like corporate branding. Nonetheless, while brands are varied and held-up with a well-realized art design, there isn't nearly enough variation within the brands. It doesn't feel like there's over 150 characters. It feels like there is five. Unlocking new "characters" offers slight variations on design that are hardly noticeable, and are especially not apparent while playing.

And that's about it in terms of progression, which is a shame because it severely undermines the actual gameplay experience. If you're making a game that you want players to return to habitually, then you simply need better investment incentives than Laser League offers.

Laser League isn't just shallow at this one point though. While quality is far from an issue, quantity is a slightly different story. The game features four venues with 16 maps. While the venues are distinct from each other, the four maps within each are only distinguishable by the nodes pattern. So again, it doesn't always feel like there is 16 maps as advertised. It feels more like four.

As for modes, there is 2v2, 3v3 and an offline single-player experience that allows for local play and play against bots, who aren't perfect, but do feel close enough to real players for a passable experience.

The biggest mark against the game is its shoddy matchmaking though. The first thing you will notice playing Laser League online is matchmaking exasperatingly long. Like, go to the bathroom, pour a drink, get distracted by the NBA Playoffs, answer your friends back on Facebook, match still hasn't even started-long. Making it even worse is sometimes it doesn't even work. In addition to multiple matchmaking errors, I -- multiple times every session -- found myself put into a match with all AI players, or sometimes if I'm lucky, with one human player and all AI players.

Both of these issues may be be a result of low player count on PS4, to which is undoubtedly an issue (I've played against the same players a lot). But that doesn't excuse the latter. If I'm online matchmaking, it's not to play with bots. I can do that offline while not waiting minutes in build-up.

The various matchmaking issues in Laser League actively discouraged me from both playing long sessions, and from trying to get a quick session in-between other things. Not only is this a problem in an online multiplayer game, it's a problem that is only accentuated in a sea of multiplayer games not plagued with these type of basic issues.

What made periods of inaction and troubleshooting less vexing is the fact that Laser League both looks and sounds pretty great. And in many ways, the game's clean, futuristic, and minimalist design allows it to work in the first place. Despite demanding precision in chaos, Laser League visually never manages to overwhelm while sensory overloading you. That sounds like a contradiction, but it's the best way I can describe the marriage between the game's visuals and gameplay.

Withcraft aside, Roll7 also implements a lot of small, but clever designs that greatly aid in moment to moment gameplay. Your controller vibrates when your ability is charged, and an announcer lets you know when a power-up is available on the pitch. Little things like this help keep the match flowing, but don't distract the player, which is important because the rule of this is game is don't lose focus.

My only complaint visually is that it is sometimes easy to lose track of which character is yours because the player-controlled indication is a bit small, and can be lost in chaotic-peaks of a match. This specific issue wouldn't be such a big deal, if it didn't usually mean that you're about to run into a laser.

Visually, the game isn't going to astound anyone, but it blends with the gameplay well. And same goes for the music. There's nothing that stands out about Laser League in terms of soundtrack or audio design. But the way it complements the intensity and rhythm of matches, is a great example of how gameplay and music ought to blend. The way the music and crowd combine for a heart-throbbing, almost trance-inducing experience is part of what makes a single match of Laser League often feel more epic than it actually is.

In a sea of terrific multiplayer games, Laser League does enough to stand out, but it doesn't stand out as bright as its neon lasers. The core of the game is capable of providing electrifying moments as good as any, but much of what is around the core erodes away at what developer Roll7 has accomplished.

WWG's Score: 3.5 / 5