Blacklight Retribution Review [PC Game]

Free to play first person shooter/fps games have always been somewhat of a let down in my experience. Either they’re all full of hackers and aimbotters or it’s a pay to win game. Blacklight Retribution, released by Perfect World, however is one free to play FPS game that I don’t have any quips with. Sure you can still “pay to win”, but it doesn’t change the fact that the game is still fun and that skill is still more important than whatever you’re buying. BLR offers a myriad of customization options ranging from the type of helmet you’re wearing to the barrel of your gun. But before we go in depth I’d suggest you watch the trailer down below.

Yes I know what you’re thinking and yes you can pilot those giant mechanical beings of destruction or otherwise known as the “hard suit”. But before we get to that, I’d like to talk about the customization. As I said BLR lets your customize, excuse my language, a butt ton of stuff. No really, here’s a list from just your gun: receiver, muzzle, barrel, magazine, scope, stock, weapon tag, and camo. That’s quite an extensive list ensuring that your gun is the way you like it. Heck I’m going to even say BLR is the Burger King of free to play FPS games, “Have it your way”. The receiver to start off is the basic definition of what your gun will be; assault rifle, smg, bolt action rifle, burst fire rifle, etc. From there on the list speaks for itself. As expected each different part has its own strengths and drawbacks so you’ll have to tailor it to fit your needs.

Now let’s cover the most important things, gameplay and the “feel” of the guns. There are many game modes such as King of the Hill, Kill Confirmed, Capture the Flag, and etc. BLR offers a handful of maps at the moment but to retain its players, they’re going to have to release more maps as time goes on otherwise the maps we have now will become stagnant and boring. The good news is that by playing a different mode, the same map suddenly becomes quite different making you find new ways to get to your objective and plot your enemies’ entrance routes. Thus you can call in a hard suit at a strategic location such as a choke point making sure none of your enemies get through.

There is an addition to the game which may or may not please you but its basically a time limited “wall hack” or otherwise known as HRV . What this means is that you can, for a limited time, see the location of your allies and enemies. Everyone has this ability and if you choose to rely heavily on it then there will be obvious trade offs. First, you can’t shoot while you’re using the HRV for obvious reason, this would make the game quite unbalanced. Second, you need the HRV to find the weak point of a hard suit in order to take it down. (There are other means but if you’re just using a gun at least you’d know where to aim.) Third, its meant to be used strategically. If you’re running around turning the HRV on and off, you’re bound to run into someone while turning the corner as you turn on/off your HRV leading to an inevitable death. With the use of HRV, camping has been discouraged but doesn’t mean people won’t do it. All in all I don’t think the use of HRV is game breaking as you can play the game without even touching the HRV and still finish 1st place.

As far as the guns go, there has been some issues raised from the community that the spread of your bullets are too ridiculous. There have been instances when I’ve been scoped in and emptied half a clip into the face of another player only to “miss” most of them and resulting in my death. The argument the community has given is that when you’re scoped in, you should be able to hit your target if their within a reasonable range. Due to this “inaccuracy” many players prefer burst firing, burst fire rifles, or the bolt action rifle but in the end, whatever gun you choose is still your choice.

You should definitely give Blacklight Retribution a chance and once again it is free to play and available at their site here or via Steam.