Free to play games belong to the category where you get to install the game for free, but in game it turns out to be entirely different (To speed gaining experience, weapons and skill you can pay for them). This sounds tempting but due to this the gameplay is mediocre, and the story most of the times is missing (or just lacking in quality). Sometimes you have to buy progress to continue in the game’s levels. However Loadout provides a fun experience for those who do not wish to shell out money, but want to take part in an obscene shooter.

The game has a rather interesting, and humorous comedic style, which I was able to admire and laugh at it when I first saw it. I could barely stop playing it, but of course that should be a Free to Play game’s objective. Creating and customizing your character is also hilarious. If we want we can select bizarre t-shirts, skirts, hats, and other accessories. Regardless of the large selection of the previous items, we can only select from three types of characters. However due to the high amount of variables that can be added to the characters, sameyness is not noticeable. Oh and I dropped most free-to-play games because everyone looked identical most of the times, which was annoying for me.

 Enter the Slaughterhouse

The other most notable thing to mention is that the game features topnotch animation. After someone kills us, our character raises his/her hand and shows : “Fuck you” towards the enemy player. In another instance our body as ripped apart in two, and the lower half of the body just ran everywhere while blood was gushing all over the place. You still get to control your lower half for a while once this happens, until we finally “die”. It sounds a bit morbid, but from the beginning with the character generation until the very start of the combat features this type of humor, which I very much enjoyed.

Loadout? What does this mean?

This part is designed excellently. Even if we do not wish to pay a penny in-game, then we will still feel that we get out of something out of this game. The title perfectly reflects the main design philosophy, as it is really fun to equip, add items to our character. We can build entirely original weapons that have the following main properties: laser, rockets, pule or rifle weapon. These can be upgraded with multiple extras (such as healing, burst fire, fully automatic etc), but these are only a fraction of the upgrades that allow us to fully customize our beloved weapons. Of course we can pick up other player’s weapons, this does not only allows us to get better weapons (for a few moments), but to examine our enemies designs (Which we might use in the future).

There is a campaign, actually

Loadout has a rather beefy campaign mode, in case you get bored of the PVP mode. All of the levels in the campaign contain some sort of bonus target, or kill three enemies with our sentry, or to put down three medic items on a specific location. These challenges have different tiers of difficulty, and some of these will feel like that we’re playing drunk on a level (Which add more to the scale). The tip of the iceberg is that every level is generated randomly, with rather fun map names: like Death Snatch or Hold Your Pole. The campaign has 55 levels, which all can be replayed for different for different rewards.

PVP above all

If you are itching to try your custom weapons, time to go to the arena. Luckily there are multiple game modes in this F2P title. Unfortunately in this mode the weapons are quite overpowered, and from this point the gamemode become to annoying. I noticed that on the forums, a large number of players also discussed this top, and in fact while I was writing this review, the developers released another update. It seems that the developers do track and listen to what the fans say, and try to balance/fix the issues, which is great for the players.

 So do we have to pay? It’s not mandatory.

We totally forgot about the micro transactions in this game while toplaying it. The main ingame currency is blutes, but there’s a quicker way to earn gear which is with Space Bucks. However this costs money, although we do get from both currencies in varying amounts from matches. We cannot buy weapon upgrades with blutes, but we can spend them on random crates in the shops. It was interesting and funny to try out this mechanic for me, because I enjoyed trying my luck with this system. Sadly these crates did not always contain useful items.

Summa Loadaurum

Loadout does not reinvent the wheel, but it’s well made and provides loads of fun. On low levels it’s not boring, and we get good amount of spendable currencies from both tier. Some real money can be spent to close some small gaps. All in all it’s a solid third person shooter that’s worth our time, and even to spend some money on it. Anyone who is patient and loves challenges can complete them even for free (it’s only a little slower than the premium section)

-Malachit-

Editor: Edge of Reality

Developer: Edge of Reality

Genres: TPS, action, Multi,

Publication: January 2015