LEAP

LEAP's Big Problem

Normally, I'm pretty optimistic about games. But this one - it's not looking good. While there are some really cool aspects of this game that would be great for all gamers to enjoy, it's currently got one glaring problem. NOBODY IS PLAYING. The game is available on Xbox one, Xbox Series X/S, PS4, PS5, and PC and STILL can't get more than one server running at peak hours.

So what is LEAP?

According to Steam, "LEAP is a fast-paced, multiplayer first-person shooter featuring epic large scale battles, each with players armed to the teeth. Fight for either the United Earth Defense Coalition (UEDC) or the rebel Exo-Terrans - whoever pays the most, wins your trigger finger and excessive arsenal." The game just released out of early access a few days ago and is now OFFICIALLY a 1.0 release. 

In my opinion, the game felt a bit like Destiny (ish) - primarily first person action sprinkled with some third person movements featuring futuristic weapons with some cool gadgets and special abilities that you can use in combat. However, unlike Destiny, there is no specific campaign to follow. It does feature a co-op game mode that you can hop in with either your friends or randoms to fight against waves of enemies, but without a real story line like Destiny, it's not a fulfilling experience. 

As far as PvP modes go, the game has several different game modes with different server sizes, but the emphasis tends to be on those large-scale battles of up to 40 players at once. Like other games that emphasize large scale battles, you've got different classes that you can choose from with each class having their own weapon sets and special abilities to suit your playstyle. 

Because of the larger maps, the game also offers a means of transport, namely a hoverboard, so you can traverse the map quicker and get to the action or attempt to flank your enemies. This was a nice feature that I think allows the players to constantly be engaged in firefights so the experience doesn't get boring. 

When it comes to the gunplay, I would say it's...fair. The weapons themselves have little to no recoil, but this is a good design choice, in my opinion, because the engagements can have a lot of verticality to them. Between flying on your Green Goblin hoverboard and using your Spiderman grappling hook, you've got to learn to shoot up, down, left, right, and up again. Luckily, the movements themselves feel pretty fluid and once you get the hang of them. There are a lot of buttons to figure out along the way, however, and it's going to take a few rounds to learn the special abilities, what they're used for, and what gadgets you should be bringing in.

Despite the poor player count, though, the game is not without some redeeming factors. One of the games main selling points is that it's able to host UGC or User Generated Content (mods). In order to allow this, players can host their own servers with custom rules. However, these are both rendered useless if nobody is playing the game. The game also offers several different customization options, including (but not limited to), weapon skins, customizable vehicles, weapon charms, exosuit skins, and others. Unfortunately, unless I missed it, the game doesn't have any real weapon customization. There are no attachments or alternative optics that you can place on weapons, which is an unfortunate design choice. Everyone loves weapon customization.

But unfortunately, again, none of this matters because nobody is playing it. Everything above is fairly irrelevant if nobody is playing it and the game gets shut down in a year.

So what should be done?

At the current price point of around 30 USD, this game is set for destruction in the very near future. If the developers want to salvage their game at all, they're going to have to act quickly and make this game free to play. They've got plenty of customization in the game to allow for something like a battlepass with special skins and microtransactions, but without a very quick turnaround, this game is doomed. And then whatever money they have left, they should dump into marketing so people actually know about this game. 

It's a shame, really. I hate seeing indie titles fail, but this one is on a swift path to that. Hopefully, they can turn it around. You can watch the gameplay for the server I was able to find here: