![]()
Hello Gamers,
Today we will be looking at
Livelock, a game published by
Perfect World. Livelock will be the first Buy-to-play (B2P for short) to be released from a company which is known for many of its F2P titles, such as Neverwinter Online, Star Trek Online and Forsaken World.
According to their E3 presentation, the developers stated that
there will be no
in-game microtransactions which would affect the gameplay, thus making the game pay-to-win. There might be cosmetic microtransactions in the future, but that is something that hasn’t been confirmed yet.
So, before we move on to
my first impressions of the game, let me give you a quick overview about it.
OVERVIEW
![]()
Livelock is a co-op shooter game played from an isometric perspective.
You can think of it as a futuristic Diablo or Path of Exile.
You can either complete the missions solo or with up to two teammates.
There are three mechanical chassis from which you can choose to play with:
Hex, Vanguard and Catalyst which can be roughly be split into these three basic categories: DPS, Tank and Support respectively; the roles aren’t absolute though, a support chassis can easily be used for offense and vice versa.
They are all available from the start and you can alternate between them whenever you feel like it, so don’t worry too much about picking one, just go with the one that you think is the most badass or cool-looking.
Currently, there are two game modes which you can play: the
Story mode on solo (there are so few players to play with that it takes an eternity to find an online match). And there is also an endless
Survival mode where you must survive for as long as possible, against endless waves of enemies who become progressively stronger. From what we know the game is said to be officially released somewhere in Autumn or towards the end of 2016.
You can see here a
20 minutes gameplay video:
Now, let’s talk about the game’s
Goods &
Bads, the things I liked and those I did not.
GOODS Beautiful animations
![]()
Overall, I consider
Livelock a very good looking and
aesthetically pleasing game. Considering it is 2016 and it is a game that comes from a big company, anything less would be disappointing. That said, I particularly liked the visual effects of the guns and the abilities. They were colorful, flashy and eye catching and they were flowing quite well with my character’s movements.
Another thing that I should mention is that
a large part of the environment around you is destructible. For example, if you shoot a wall multiple times, it will crumble into smaller pieces which will fall down and roll down the floor or you can blow up cars and then stomp flat their burn husk. Nevertheless, while this is entertaining and fun for a while, I didn’t find any benefit to the actual gameplay from doing so.
Superb Voice Acting
![]()
If I had to give this game credit for something that would be its voice acting. All
the dialogue and the narration in the cutscenes were perfectly executed and really put me into the game. At first, I thought that my character would be a silent force of nature that kills everything in its wake, but I was wrong. Depending on the chassis you have chosen there are different lines of dialogue which your character say to his advisor the
SatCom A.I.
Also about the voice of SatCom A.I. To my book, it is one of the best robotic voices I’ve ever heard in a video game. While it is supposed to be an emotionless, cold voice as you would expect from a robot, this guy’s voice is calming, relaxing and soothing, the total opposite. Perhaps, it has something to do with the fact that it is the A.I. designed to protect humanity and it acts as humanly possible. Regardless, my ears found tis voice very pleasing to hear and I even got ASMR tingles from it.
Fast-paced gameplay and Challenging Difficulties
![]()
Livelock is meant to be a fast paced game where quick decision making and reflexes make the difference in battle. That is the idea and from my personal experience with the game, it was pretty well executed.
While I was playing the game, I had to constantly be on my toes and on alert for new enemies. From time to time I had to kite (hit and run) more powerful enemies, dodge when I was being bombarded from all sides and in general, my playthrough with the game was quite challenging and difficult which brings me to my next topic.
If you think that you can just
pew-pew your way to victory in this game, then you are going to have a bad time!
The game is not a walk in the park!
It is fairly difficult and challenging to complete it on your own even in easy difficulty.
Even the developers warn you if you pick the
Hard mode'
"his mode is completely unfair and the enemies are Overpowered."
Personally, I played the game in normal difficulty with the
Hex chassis and while it was fun, it was also quite challenging. After I had played some playtime in normal difficulty I switched to hard mode in order to see the difference. I only have to say that the developers were right to warn me beforehand. I switched back to normal mode after dying for the fifth time to the same boss.
BADSKinda generic story
![]()
The plot of the game didn’t really pique my interest. It is basically a typical
Machinapocalypse scenario where humanity is extinct and there is war going on between the robotic factions. From what I’ve gathered, you are a human who has loaded his consciousness into one of those chassis (Hex, Catalyst and Vanguard) and your job is to
find Eden, a place where you humanity can be reborn. And of course there is your pal, the
SatCom A.I. whom I mentioned earlier who helps you in your missions.
Linear progression system.![]()
As you level up, you will unlock new abilities , weapons and upgrades. Unfortunately, all those are predetermined by level, meaning that:
E.g. You are going to get your second weapon in level 3 and your third in level 6
You are going to receive your first ability in level 4 and your second in level7
You can upgrade your basic abilities in level 16 and 21 respectively.
There is not much skill customization in the game which was kinda disappointing. So, if you like games where you can experiment on many various build and where you have a plethora of spells, abilities and weapons to choose from then, you might not like this game.
Conclusion![]()
Even though I am not a big fan of the genre of games like
Livelock, I had quite a fun time playing it.
Overall, I think that it is a nice, solid game, ideal for playing with friends. Nevertheless, I believe that due to the linear nature of the progression system and the fact that aside from the Story mode there is only the Survival mode, the game may become boring easily. If it was up to me, I would rework the levelling system and making it more diverse and offering the players more options and also add a PVP mode.
I would definitely recommend Livelock to fans of this genre since I believe that it is a challenging and fun game worth their time.
Finally, my rating for this game is:
RATING: 8.1/10
The discovery encouraged some analysis. The most convincing theory was there will be 6 base classes in the future (currently there are 3 for closed beta), each of which will have 3 subclasses (currently there 2 subclasses for each base class). Details are listed below.
