Loadout Review “Insanely Fun Multiplayer Madness!”

Developer: Edge of Reality
Publisher: Edge of Reality
Platforms: PC (Steam)
Price: Free to Play

In a market flooded with clones in the style of CoD and Battlefield it is refreshing to see Edge of Reality team creating a game to bring back the golden days and gameplay from games such as Unreal Tournament or Quake, that game is Loadout and it’s insanely gory fun!

Gameplay
It is undeniable that the game was inspired by Team Fortress 2, the influence is very clear and of course this is not bad, nor does it mean that it’s a copy, not at all. Loadout has its own merits and although similar, has several differences compared to TF2, starting with the classes, there are none.

Loadout works around the weaponry crafting (or weaponcraft as they call it) rather than a class system, there are weapons that can heal and boost the players, so for example, instead of having The Medic Class there’s a gun that can give a player a similar boost, healing your allies, etc. Plus, the way you can customize your weapons allows the player to create truly unique and varied loadouts.

Based on the experience points you obtain is how the tech tree will unlock upgrades for the different weapons, once an upgrade is available you can buy it with Blutes. You have a different tech tree for all the four type of weapons at your disposal, rifle, launcher, pulse and beam.
The weapon customization is of course one of the strong points of the game and they take it to a really new level which is hard to find in other games, making the game unique, fire shells, rocket with laser guidance and what not, heck you can even name your weapons. The amount of choices are huge, or if you feel like living on the edge you can try the randomizer.

There are three different characters to pick from, Axl, T-Bone and Helga. There are a lot of items to customize your characters including hats, jackets, pants and different styles of hair and beards to pick from, among other items.
There’s two types of currency, the first is Blutes, this one is used to buy and upgrade weapons, the second is called Spacebux and this is aquired via microtransactions with real money.

Character customization is where money and your spacebux for your fashion needs comes into play, as these items are part of the pay to play scheme. Here’s a positive note, all these items are just to change your appearance and do not give any bonus or stats. So if you thought or wondered if this was a pay to play the answer is no, it’s all cosmetic. You can go out in outfit such as Mad Max, provocative lingerie or even naked, there’s a lot of stuff to pick from.

You can play against other players or against AI in co-operative mode. Game modes in two different categories, Casual and Ranked which include:

• Blitz; this is a king of the hill mode which is truly entertaining and one of my favorites.

  Dead Snatch; as the name suggests, this is a team deathmatch mode, simple as that.

  Extraction; sort of a powerball mode in which you have to pick crystals and take them to the designated area, enemies can shoot the crystals and make you blow into oblivion, extremely insane fun mode to play.

  Jack Hammer; capture the flag but with a hammer, an example? Imagine going back to your base with a gravity hammer from Halo, sounds cool? It is… Oh god, it’s fun and you get to smash your opponets!

Controls are easy and responsive, i tested both keyboard and mouse and a 360 pad, must say i like how easy you master the cotrols w/o any learning curve, making the gameplay experience much more enjoyable.

Audio
Can’t complain about the audio of the game, including sound effects and weapons it’s pretty good. Ranging from the explosions or the yellings when someone dies (which can be at time hilarious) they did a good job. Music tracks in the other hand are almost non existant, still those few music tracks are nice.

Graphics
For a game that is a free to play the details on the graphics are quite good and pleasant to the eye. The style of the characters is somewhat reminiscent of TF2, specially the Heavy. When you get shot you can see bones of the arm, leg or even the chest cage exposed as you get shot. This includes lots of blood pouring out of the character, which is displayed in a more comical style and not something that is supposed to be bloody or repulsive to the player.

Downsides
As much as the game is fun with a wicked sense of humor, the gore and dismemberment or body parts exploding may not be appealing for everyone, so if blood, legs or a torso going KABLAAAM is not your cup of tea you may look for a different game.
For my taste, the game lacks on character options, sure thing, you can buy cosmetic items and get a more personalized character, but with only 3 characters available, you get bored to see everyone have the same model over and over.

Overall
Loadout is extremely fun and addictive. It was hard to stop playing to write this down, if you enjoy matchmaking games, love over the top cartoon violence with a sense of humor, very solid gameplay plus good graphics, then Loadout is the game you have been looking for.
Matches can be intense yes, but overall they are fun and Loadout delivers that in a very exquisite way, this is one of those titles with a gameplay that leaves you wanting more!

Giving the game an 8 out of 10

Pros
– Great gameplay
– It’s hilarious
– Tons of customization options
Cons
– Lack of characters
– you need spacebux for customizations