Sometimes there’s something magical about simplicity. The DualShock 4 has no less than 18 inputs, a necessity as our games grow increasingly complicated in design. Laser League takes a step back and puts the focus on a very simple premise. Don’t touch the laser walls. Positioned as a kind of sport, I’ve seen Laser League get compared to the likes of Rocket League and other seemingly simple, quick competitive games. Laser League has an identity all its own, but the simple competitive aspect of it is both pick up and play, while also having mountains of tactical nuances.
All you’ll need for a round of Laser League is a joystick and R1 button. The stick moves your character around the screen, scrambling to avoid the lasers, and the R1 button activates a class-dependent special ability, selected before the match. Players move around the arena attempting to activate white nodes, which then spawn lasers of their team’s color. If you run into the opposing teams lasers, you die. Lose all players on your team, and that’s match point for your opponents. Likewise, get them blasted by the lasers and you’ll find yourself taking your place on the podium. You can revive downed teammates by running over the icon at the location of their elimination.
The deceptively simple concept is full of complexities based on the arena you are competing in and which special abilities make up each team. Nodes produce moving lasers of different lengths and patte...