Gears of War Creators New Game Announced

Earlier this week Gears of War creator, Cliff Belszinski, announced, via Twitter, that details on his new game would be coming out this week. Up until now all we knew was the game’s place-holder name was Project BlueStreak and it was to be a free-to-play arena shooter for the PC. We also knew, thanks to Belszinski, that the game would not feature a post-apocolyptic setting because he stated “you guys really think I want to make another shooter with bombed out de-saturated ruins? Love Gears, but nope.” Project BlueStreak, as it was called, is being developed by Bleszinski’s new studio Boss Key and is being published by Nexon. A few days ago Nexon set up a website called “The Shattering” with a countdown clock on it to when the game would officially be revealed. They have gone to great lengths to ensure people that The Shattering would not be Project BlueStreak’s real name but instead it would be a name for the event depicted in this articles featured picture (above). Below is the games official teaser should you wish to watch it.

The countdown clock on The Shattering website has come to an end and Project BlueStreak has been officially revealed as LawBreakers. The game is set years after government testing on a lunar surface caused the moon to split which resulted in an earth shattering earthquake that nearly cracked the world in two. Year’s later the world has been rebuilt but humanity is in trouble as it is split between two factions: The Law and The Breakers. The Shattering effected the worlds gravity meaning gameplay will be very vertical resulting in unique ways to use weapons and take on the competition. The use of gravity and supplements have resulted in near superhuman abilities, some people took advantage of this setting up law-breaking cartels. As a result of the cartels law upholding gangs were also set up to fight back. At the moment matches are capped at 5V5. A lot of effort has been put into making the weapons feel unique so for example some will allow you to aim-down-sight while others will not. Boss Key is play testing the game on a daily basis to get it as polished as possible for a smoother release in 2016.  The game will feature both male and female playable characters. There will be multiple classes in the game and each faction will have access to all the classes. Each class will have their own unique abilities such as the Assassin’s double-jump. Boss Key is working on making match-making as flawless as possible so new players wont end up playing against far more experienced players.

The artwork is somewhere between a dark gritty style and  something brighter. The artists were able to take real world areas and interpret them to look like they would after an event like The Shattering. One area will be the Grand Canyon, which after The Shattering was purchased by a Japanese company. Japanese architecture will be visible in this area as well as chunks of floating earth, thanks to the gravity, that even have buildings on them. Gravity can also effect the map during gameplay so expect parts of the map to move. Each of the maps will have their own narratives that can help explain where the different factions came from and other events that led up to the game. The narratives will be told via player exploration not cut-scenes. The game features a grappling hook which should aid in navigating maps that are very vertical and have floating parts. The grappling hook can also be used in combat, for example to grapple onto an enemy, swoop in and finish them off with a melee weapon. Jetpacks will also help with navigating the game’s maps. A gameplay trailer will be revealed in just two days and the game will be playable at Pax East. I’ll leave you now with LawBreaker’s official trailer.

*Editors note: sorry about the slightly incoherent information dump in the last two paragraphs! I was trying to type along side a live Twitch stream in an effort to get as much information to DarkZero readers as possible.  -Conor