Battleborn Reviews
Balancing issues, niggling design problems, and a dearth of content keep Gearbox's new sci-fi shooter from being all it can be
Battleborn constantly pops with a charmingly garish visual style, a small army of exotic characters, and disorderly combat with just enough strategic edge to keep it from being sloppy. While some may find the clashing colors and overall derangement to be a little too busy, I personally felt right at home with its special blend of stupidity and style.
Battleborn has a strong cast of characters and exciting action, but suffers from a lack of content, frustrating server issues, and some questionable design choices.
Battleborn merges cooperative and competitive, hero and shooter, loot and shoot into an excellent melting pot and symbol of the times. Charismatic characters, clever intricacies, and compelling gameplay make this one of the best multiplayer experiences of the generation yet.
For a first attempt at an ever-saturating genre, Battleborn feels like it has carved its niche in a large crowd that is vying for supremacy. While the genre is dominated by League of Legends and DOTA, Battleborn has successfully broken through with its own take on the genre, added lots of fun characters, and a wonderfully bright colour palette
While it may not be the best, Battleborn does a good enough job of drawing you in, keeping you entertained and ensuring that you have a laugh or two.
Battleborn is a good game, that provides plenty of fun but it's just incredibly frustrating seeing all of these tiny issues that come in and ruin the fun every so often.
If you've ever wondered what the fuss of MOBAs are, or wanted a little more shooter in your battle arena, Battleborn is perfect for you. It is so different from the competitive shooters on the market at the minute. Once you get through the initial trail and error, you won't look back at all.
With issues peppering its campaign as well as its multiplayer, Battleborn's fusion of first-person shooter and MOBA is far from a complete success. A lengthy list of complaints comes perilously close to overshadowing proceedings, so it's fortunate that its engaging upgrade system and varied roster of characters end up being the true stars keeping you invested in the multiplayer.
All in all, I'd say Battleborn is a very well made game. The gameplay is fun and actually well thought out, and the characters all bring something different to the table. The story mode can be hit or miss, but the competitive side of things is really where the game shines in its strategy and game play.
Most of its problems are fixable, but Gearbox really needs to fix them and serve up some more content if it wants to turn Battleborn into an ongoing hit concern.
While engaging and mostly rewarding, the gameplay can also be described as hectic and chaotic.
The PvE and co-op experience that Battleborn provides is futile and scarcely interesting. On the PvP side Gearbox's title proves more whorty, but the game has too many gameplay issues to stand out in the competitive moba-like scene.
Review in Italian | Read full review
"Battleborn" is an okay shooter but it's certainly not a memorable one.
Still, if you've been eying the crop of team-based shooters coming out these days, wondering which to pick, I'd recommend Battleborn. The PVE campaign, it's multi-layered and varied progression systems, and its Borderlands-esque humor make it a cut above the others still on deck. While it can often feel like Battleborn is trying to do too much at once, I'm glad it's more ambitious than its genre brethren, because in the end there ends up being more meat on Battleborn's bones because of its sky-high goals.
Battleborn has plenty of ambition, but it just isn't particularly satisfying to play. It isn't broken, it's just the whole experience feels lightweight and derivative.
Battleborn is like a one-man band—there's a whole lot going on, but the final product suffers due to spread resources. While lack of maps and missions may be resolved with DLC, the launch product comes off a bit shallow.
There may be a good game buried under Gearbox Software's first attempt at a MOBA, but too many of its systems are developmentally in their infancy.
While Battleborn didn't gel as well with my gaming sensibilities as much as I'd hoped it would, even I can't deny that the game has a lot to offer to the right sort of gamer. If you're itching for a new Borderlands-esque experience which is all but guaranteed to keep you occupied over the long term, Battleborn will certainly scratch that itch. If, however, you never cared for the Borderlands style of humor, and you're more of a solo-minded gamer, you might want to look elsewhere for your next shooter fix.