Lasers (PC) Review

 

Lasers is a Platformer based Battle Royale Game. The special twist of the game is, as the name already suggests, to dodge all kinds of Lasers in the process. Every stage in the game is filled to the brim with extremely deadly red lasers, which will penetrate flesh and bones, like a knife through butter. This reminded me a lot of the Lasers in Resident Evil 4 or the first Resident Evil movie.

Every match consists of a couple of stages, which all have a strict time limit to complete. The amount of players reaching the next stage is therefore theoretically not limited, but the demanding time limits will ensure natural selection. The only exception is the final stage of a match, which will end with the first player passing the finishing line.

Lasers consists of 30 different levels, which offer a good challenge. A lot of people might even say too much off a challenge, since some of the levels are just crazy difficult to beat. It took me multiple hours to beat all stages in the game at least once. Some of the levels are probably too hard, if you experience them the first time in an online match, with the very tight time limits. The frustration also gets extended by slippery controls and occasionally inaccurate character hitboxes. Sometimes the hitboxes will help you, to dodge an otherwise lethal contact and sometimes they will kill you for no reason. For a game that requires this much precision in movement, it can definitely be rage inducing from time to time. Nonetheless, the gameplay remains mostly fun, in my opinion.

A nice aspect is, that all stages can outside of online matches (which are limited to 10 players) also be played in singleplayer mode. This helps keeping the game relevant despite a dwindling playerbase. A potential map editor would have been greatly appreciated, but it doesn't look like we will ever get one.

The 30 stages can certainly not be accused of feeling completely identical. There are some different elements in all of them. They however all share a similar style. A lot of other games would have probably tried to at least offer different environmental elements. Lasers however only offers one grey greenish level style. The visuals in general are just acceptable, but nothing more than that. The music is also okay, but not really memorable.

Lasers is a game from Straight Back Games, who have previously published the popular game 'Devour'. Lasers only released in January 2024 and has got its last content update in early March 2024. Till this point the game received regular updates, which increased the amount of stages and fixed smaller issues. Since march however there has only been radio silence.

A big point of controversy was the removal of F2P and switching to a buy-to-play model in late February. The price may be relatively low with 3 Euro/Dollars, but truth be told, I can't remember a single game ever successfully switching from a free-to-play to a buy-to-play model. The playerbase of Lasers was never massive, but it at least had a couple of hundred players in its first two months. After the pricing change however the playerbase collapsed and the daily player peak now varies between 10 and 20. It looks like the developers gave up on the game and put Lasers into a maintenance mode. 

 

Result:

Lasers is a fun, but frustrating experience. The different levels offer a good challenge and it can be quite satisfying to finally master a difficult stage after dozens of tries. The not always precise enough controls and the lack of updates however hold it back significantly. The buy-to-play switch on the other hand is really what ultimately killed the potential of the game. If they had released with an asking price, it would have still been a tough sale, but it at least might have been possible. It is a shame, since I think there would definitely be a market gap for a Platformer Battle Royale Game, especially with the fun Laser twist. Lasers can still be some good fun, even in single player mode, you should just prepare for plenty of frustrations along the way and not expect a large online community.

 

7/10