The Return of Arena Shooters 

2017 Arena shooter is back! 2019 Arena shooter is dead again

There is no arsenal large enough to make a Texan think twice.

2019 they're all dead now this breaks my heart

this aged perfectly

the situation with Reflex reminds of Titan Fall 2, while it is for different situations, the outcome is similar, both have very low player counts despite being great games and what people asked for

"The arena shooter is back." and then they're gone..

Less than a year on this video feels far more tragic than triumphant. Lawbreakers is dead, and Quake and Reflex are suffering severely from low player counts. Not to say the arena shooter is dead, but it's certainly taken a hit. I think arena shooters are proving to be a much more niche genre than they were 20 years ago, which is a shame because those are the games I grew up on.

Going through Raycevick's catalogue in 2023 and this video was painful to watch... His passion, his excitement for the return of Arena shooters... Oh man!

Man, this video did not age very well. As of 2019 all of these games are dead.

100k subs, again don't forget us when you're famous.

Ray, About your Lawbreakers v Overwatch argument, I believe the term you were looking for is instead of having Hard Counters, as overwatch has, Lawbreakers has Soft counters, as things like medics can get killed easier by the assasin or gunslinger, while tank can shred assasins and gunslingers.

"The arena shooter is back" he says, as it dies mere months later.

And Battle-Royale Happened. And all of these games are DEAD again.

Half hour of Raycevick? Nut

This video SURE DIDN'T AGE WELL!!!

I almost cried when i saw a 29 min video. Made tea, turned off the lights, casting to the TV, speakers on high volume. 29min of pure entertainment gold ahead of me :D Thanks!

Im getting Reflex Rn because of this video, Im gonna get my mates to aswell so we can built up a community, I really love how the game plays, Love your videos

My first comment was bragging that I was the 456th subscriber the this guy and the I knew he would blow up. Now that it's happened I'm just so happy for him!

Damn, this is great. What you said about Gunslinger is true, but it looks like he's the weakest because he has the highest skill ceilling. Devs nerfed him after beta 1 because he was OP if an experienced player used him, so they nerfed him (a bit too much).

Bought Reflex because of this vid

The best aspect of Arena Shooters is the speed and I'm beyond glad that aspect has returned. Along with infecting other franchises; reminds me of the old days playing UT '04 with friends. Another fantastic video man. Never heard of Reflex but now I'll have to check it out. Just to get better than you.

God this video makes me so sad. I was so excited at this time as well.

Watching this in 2020, so sad that Lawbreakers died so quickly. I had a blast with it during its brief life, and watching this video brought back happy memories.

Thank you so much for mentioning Reflex. It's such a great game, and I'm so sad that there are so few players. Even though I'm in Europe where probably most players are at historically it's still hard to find matches.

Hearing high praise for LawBreakers, knowing now in 2020 that it's been long dead ):

attitude in reflex sounds like attitude in any new game, or in any not so popular game/community, for example i have psvita, and everyone in gaming community makes fun of this thing and says that it's not great, and dead (it's dead, yah), but its community on reddit is the most nice and caring people in the internet i've ever seen. same, for example was for me a moba from EA called dawngate, its' community both in game and in the internet was awesome. when community is tight and small and people understand that there are not that much of people to play with, they care about each other much more.

I'm very happy that Arena Shooters are finally coming back, I was a huge Quake and UT player back in the day and still play UT2004 actively to this day, it's just so good. Definitely will be trying all these new games out, Lawbreakers looks very promising.

God dude. You've inspired me. Every video you do just gets better and better. Good job my man! I'm only five minutes into it and as always, I'm impressed. Much love my dude keep doing you.

Gotta say, Ray. You're videos are an absolute delight. Keep up the great work! It's truly inspiring.

One day, Raycevick will be narrating a Planet Earth-esque show called Planet Mars. You're like the nerdy David Attenborough.

holy shit, I love how reflex looks. I've always been a fan of smooth, simple models with high quality lighting and antialiasing.

Regarding the DUels in QC/Reflex: You might dislike the big maps in QC now, but believe me they are needed. Those of us who play the new Unreal Tournament had to learn this hard way. Small maps actually just encourage a lot of spawnfrags. You can look up some Reflex duel tournaments on RU-vid. Winning a match is 50% spawnfrags, 40% positioning, 10% aim. Totally agree tho, Reflex is THE best afps right now. I'd give the honorary mentions to Titanfall 2. The devs didn't realize at the time, but they accidentally created what is almost an afps instead of what was supposed to be the "cod-killer". Months after release the players still keep breaking new mechanics in it, as a result of which it kinda plays like an afps now. First it was slide-hopping, then grenade-jumping, then air-strafing, then eject-strafing... Right now it's grapple hook strafing. With all these exploits in combination with regular abilities, the game got even faster then most afps.

This aged well.

The reason Overwatch got so popular was the personality of the characters and the world they inhabit. Having solid game-play is of course, important. However, that is the most basic aspect of your game. It is the little things that make a good game into an excellent one. There are a lot of games that offer satisfying game-play but fail to offer anything else and therefore, nobody will remember them in couple of months. Hoping Lawbreakers will be something different since Bleszinski is involved.

I had no idea reflex existed, but it looks epic, thanks for telling me.

These videos are all phenomenal. Ever since I found your first video, I always come out with a fresh idea and perspective from the very analytical style you put forward - keep up the good work.

Oh yeah, Raycevick uploads, time to get some popcorn

absolutely magnificent video

Dude...Your videos are sooo good...Damn right amazing...Well thought out, well structured, perfectly presented.

I enjoy the quality of content you bring and put forth, thanks.

love these videos man, you really sold me on reflex

This video makes me scream out my pains.

Every one of your videos is interesting and extremely well put together and they never fail to broaden my view of video games and teach me something about them.

I absolutely love your videos. you put so much effort in them

Watching this in mid 2018 knowing that both lawbreakers and qc is quite dead is saddening.

Ah yes, the video that aged perfectly and Raycevick didn't take an L for

Great doc! And now I'm one or your Patrons. Loving this channel more and more.

I really appreciate the effort you put into putting out high quality 30 minute videos.

And now Lawbreakers is going to be shut down, with no end-of-life program. Can you please make a video about dead games; about how publishers and even developers will render games unplayable? I still go back and mess around in CS:S or Half Life 2 Deathmatch because there are still private servers. If multiplayer games don't allow private servers, then shutting down the official servers effectively kills the game. Only in the gaming industry are we okay with buying a product, knowing full well that eventually the person who sold us that product will take it away. What do you think is going to happen to Hearthstone eventually? How about any given MOBA? How about your favorite MMO? Eventually, the plug gets pulled, and the consumer is the one who gets screwed. Please Raycevick, help raise awareness for dead games. This needs to be talked about.

Raycevick is the saviour of RU-vid gaming

Your video are awesome, really really awesome. I enjoy every single one of them, and the content you create is of an exceptional quality. Good job :D

Awesome video again Ray, thanks and keep up the great work.

Why is this getting recommended to me years after these games died. LOL

The death of Lawbreakers hurts me to this day.

Watching this video for the second time makes me realize how much I absolutely love your editing, Raycevick. You've got a sense of presentation, pacing, showmanship, and gravitas seldom seen in analysis videos all over RU-vid. I just wanted to tell you I appreciate that very much. Don't stop being a great editor with your thoughtful and enlightening analyses, Ray.

I like how you made an effort to present this like a real documentary. Enjoying the quality.

the return of a genre featuring 3 dead games

The quality is too dam high! I miss the old Raycevick who was reviewing Halo ODST and justified its price back in the day lol I have a few things to say about your latest video. To start, I do not know what kind of editing steroids you are using, but man this video was very enjoyable to watch! The transitions were amazing, the music used fit so well with your narration and visuals. Your transition slides to represent the start of each review were so dam awesome. I know they are some what simple, but I loved how it organized the video so well and how they looked like they belonged and not out of place while having cool music and effect. And one of my most favorite scenes was how you represented the lack of player base on Reflex. It is nice to see a visual to make that impact to show that its empty instead of just saying "its low on players". I have really loved your latest videos due to making me think of trying stuff out of my comfort zone. You have challenged me with your scripts to move on and get out the box that I have been in as far as gaming, because seeing you enjoy all these different kinds of games has made me also "revamp" my gaming experiences, and I have to personally thank you for that. I will probably be trying if not one, but all these arena games even though I have never touched the genre. As always man, I am so happy and proud to be a supporter of yours and will continue to do so. I felt such excitement for your 100k as I waited there with my phone to ensure I got the live count for your, I have never had that kind of invested effort or emotion with any one else probably on any platform. (BTW thanks for using my live count clip that meant a lot to me lol). Before I write a novel on your comment section ill cut it short by keeping it simple, keep doing what you are doing! Because it is just simply amazing! P.S The 100k chicken or duck question was my question!! lol

Love your vids. Thanks for the quality content.

God I love these videos, thanks for making them. Can't wait to watch

So, it's 2018 and Reflex is as dead as ever and Lawbreakers is even more dead. Reflex has a 24 hour peak of 25 people vs Lawbreaker's 17 people. Considering the lack of hype or marketing for Quake Champions I doubt it will do that that much better. Somewhat better yes, thanks to Bethesda's marketing budget, but not much. Arena shooters will stay dead.

This made me reinstall ut2004. Originally bought it used from a game store, at some point got the steam version. Mad fun, especially with mods.

Always AWESOME stuff man - top notch

Every video you put out is a 10/10! Btw. I loved your use of "descent into cerberon"!

QUALITY CONTENT

If Lawbreakers was free to play and on every platform, I’m sure it would’ve been a big hit. It still looks like a ton of fun to this day. It’s sad

Your content is outstanding, yourself and channels like Gvmers are fantastic sources of info.

O M G! You did Snake impression like a big BOSS! :D (your voice is amazing really) And also, fantastic video, as usual :)

PLAY REFLEX!!!! ALL OF YOU!!

What about the new unreal tournament

Your videos are some of the greatest on youtube. I wish more people saw them.

Rip lawbreakers

Yeah ... I couldn't really make myself get Reflex with that playerbase. Really sucks, because it looks great. Great job as always.

Ive never said this on any other channel but. Jesus fucking christ your glorious. Every video is so well written, directed, edited, and just fuckong made in general. I honestly cant believe that your channel just inly hit 100,000 because it definetly deserves waay more. With content this good on a consistent basis you deserve more recognition. I was only introduced to you by your Halo years later series but Im still gonna say that you are definetly one of the best creators out there.

Another outstanding video, thanks once again.

Sad that Reflex is kinda... dead (25 players average).

Lawbreakers isn't an arena shooter. It just has movement comparable to older shooters like Quake and UT. I always thought arena shooters had equal (or relatively equal starts), pick ups weapons and power ups. I would categorize arena shooters as such ( I would like constructive criticism of my classifications) - Old School Arena Shooters: Quake, Unreal Tournament, Reflex and few others. These shooters have high TTK, weapons on map, fast movement, high jump height and power ups on map. Characters do not regenerate health. Characters may have dis-equal stats, which come at a cost, e.g. fast characters have low health, etc. These games are/were highly competitive, with a steep learning curve and high skill gap. These games helped build e-sports. - Quake Champions would still fit into this group, despite the powers. Plus the game will have a classic mode. - Goldeneye-esque: Goldeneye 007, 007 Nightfire, Perfect Dark, Timesplitters and a few others. Movement speed varies from slow to high. Oddly, in some of these games (PD and Timesplitters), characters can't jump . Weapons and power-ups are on map. Maps have no emphasis on verticality, due to a lack of jumping. No health regeneration. Characters may have dis-equal stats, that come at cost. E.g. the monkey in Timesplitters is super fast and small, but has extremely low health. These games are not very competitive, and were the go to casual shooter, before the Call of Duty- Era. - Halo-esque Shooters: Halo (With Reach and 4 being psuedo-arena shooters), Star Wars: Republic Commando, and to some extent Crysis 2 and 3, plus others. Weapons are on map. Map power-ups are also present. Characters have moderate to fast movement speed, more recent games incorporate sprinting. Health regeneration is present, and health pick ups are often absent. Jump height is modest to high. TTK bridges oldschool arena shooters and newer military shooters. These games also may or may not incorporate clambering. Halo 1-3, and 5 have established themselves as e-sports, while accessible, the skill gap is large. - Half-Life-esque arena shooters: Half-Life series and First person Red Faction games, plus others. Characters have high health, with long TTKs. Weapons are on map and power-ups are present. Players rely on pickups for health.These games have similar properties to old school arenas shooters, but are more grounded, with decreased speed and jump height. While not always seen as highly competitive, games like Half-life 1/2, have long lasting deathmatch communities. - Third Person Gears of War: Characters have relatively high health, but standard movement is slow. Health is regained via regeneration, and downs are present. Base movement speed while slow, is supplemented by sprinting, and extremely fast movement can be achieved by sliding and wall bouncing. A cover system is present, but cover is also used to enhance movement of the player, via sliding, mantling and wall bouncing. Weapons are on map, but no power-ups are present. This series is highly competitive, with a large skill gap, and a steep learning curve. Gears is also played competitively at the e-sport level. Any other games that could be considered arena shooters? Do you agree with my general classifications?

this video was just brilliant ... subscribed

Awesome video mate, this is the first video i've seen from you, instant subscribe, well done!

Reflex and QuakeWorld the smoothest FPS games I've played and with the friendliest communities too TBH.

Very good video

Words cannot express how good your videos are

Great, great video once again. Congrats on 100K and yes, Klayton is fucking awesome!

Reflex: the most underrated game of all times. It's a masterpiece!

The return and quick death of arena shooters*

You deserve much more subscribers. PS: I loved that swing bug in GTA 4 at the beginning, me and my friend would try all kinds of vehicles to see who can fly the furthest

Perfect as always. I think I might give the Lawbreakers a try when it cames out.

What about Xonotic? It seems like it would also be about as good as Reflex for a classic-style arena shooter, and it still has a decently-sized community. It’s also free and open-source

Wish they had Quake on Xbox.

After watching this video for the 4th time or so I have to commend the direction you went with at 23:33 . While simple it perfectly conveys the isolation Reflex is experiencing. Bravo

Not gunna lie dude. I love your commentary. The well thought out detail and vocabulary in your writing is great! I seriously love watching, from your stuff on following halo/me, to general game development and your views on the current market

It is funny how different your experiences with quake champions differed so much from mine. I have always found that the squishy characters dominated sacrifice because you could use your speed to take potshots on the defenders and run "souls" faster than the new players could keep up with. Duel I found engaging mostly because you had to learn how to gain momentum sooner and you had to work harder to secure the victory. I do agree that the current duel maps (not the ones just patched in) suck cause they are too big. The new ones appear to be specifically designed for duel and that's good. From my experience, the Nailgun pretty much exists for squishy characters to deal with the tanks at a range so they won't die in LG duels. But it sucks at everything else.

Quake Champions still has plenty of players to get a game in a couple of minutes, at least in the EU servers. The wait is longer in ranked. Still alive in 2020!

Excellent content thank you for the vids

Ray, you've become the person I come to for game suggestions. Now I'm interested in all three of these games.

I think that if there was a giveaway for Reflex, or if it went F2p or something like that, it would rise in popularity

I was one of those noobs who bought Reflex in 2015 without almost any knowledge of arena shooters. I got fucking destroyed every time. The game was unplayable, unless I found another noob, then it was one of the funnest games if I found someone my skill level. So I decided to "git gud" to match the skill level of more players. It was fucking torture. I could only train against quake veterans who were 90% of the players at the time. I went -2 - 35 every duel. But I went though it. About 70 hours later into the game, I was decent enough for it to not be torture and the game got much better, so much better. But I highly doubt anyone would want to get destroyed for 70+ hours just to be able to play the game.

This video intrigued me on Arena Shooters again. I got Unreal 4 for my birthday when I was about 10 and I really enjoyed it. I am now just trying to get into them again. I got into the lawbreakers beta and I am currently waiting for it to start. I downloaded Champions but I am having really long load times and cant find a fix for the lag literally all the servers have for me. Surprised no one is talking about it though. Thanks though for getting me back into arena shooters again though, I always love seeing you upload a video.

Man, this is what's called being old. I don't even see the gameplay anymore behind all those particle effects, blurs, buffs, distortions etc. I want my good old UT2004 low res textures :D

its sucks seeing this video now, a lot of these games died off and even psuedo arena shooters like Halo are struggling