Battleborn Reviews
Battleborn is big, colourful and wholly raucous, but its overall design and first-person-shooter/MOBA-inspired mechanics don't gel as well as I was hoping they would. There's a lot of repetition, poor difficulty balancing and a limited amount of content to be found at launch, and while that will surely improve over the coming months, it makes the game's expensive price tag loom high at this point in time.
Battleborn has flaws but it also has potential. With time and the right attitude, it could be brilliant, but it's going to take a little work first.
If Borderlands and the MOBA genre could have a baby, I imagine it would look something like Battleborn. Gearbox Software's signature style shines here, even if the humor falls flat most of the time. With all kinds of loot to tempt gamers into coming back for more, this "hero shooter" looks to be making a name for itself, and should hopefully stick around for a while with content updates now and in the future. There's so much stuff to unlock and master, Battleborn is one for the collectors.
Battleborn is by no means a perfect game. Underneath its flaws however, there is a satisfying and fun character-driven shooter to be found.
The game doesn't shine unless you have real communication among teams, which is tough to find with random players. I can't see myself sticking around to learn all the different Battleborn and embrace what this game is ultimately about without a group of friends to play it with.
If reviews of Battleborn were conducted maybe six months from now, this experience might be more fleshed out, particularly on the competitive multiplayer side of things, and I hope it is. However, as this game stands now, Battleborn is a brief game that largely stumbles at the hands of a thin competitive multiplayer and grindy progression systems.
Battleborn is a lot of fun but how popular it will be remains to be seen. Releasing it during roughly the same window as DOOM and Overwatch was poor timing on their part. I plan to keep playing it, but given the game's retreading of Borderlands with an added MOBA spin, I don't expect my friends to join me.
Showing signs of early promise, Battleborn very quickly becomes a chore, its repetitive story and paltry selection of multiplayer content putting the nail in its coffin after about 10-15 hours or so. That's assuming you even have the perseverance to stick around for that long. Battleborn is a disappointment.
I sense there is an audience for Battleborn and hence I am reluctant to rule it out altogether.
While Battleborn is a fun game with a lot of depth, there are a few things in the game that are currently problematic and will hopefully be resolved soon.
Ultimately, Battleborn left me with a lot of mixed feelings. I really disliked the cheap-ness of the Single Player campaign, whether it was some of the un-soloable missions, the repetition of the same bosses, or the very, very dumb final boss fight. However, with that said, it is more fun when you do have other players with you. So the moral here is, don't buy the game if you're planning on playing it by yourself.
Bold concepts, but the experience never quite comes together. For all its potential, Battleborn feels dead on arrival.
A promising work in progress
Summary : Battleborn is a solid title that deserves to be kept an eye on. It's a fast and action packed shooter with a humourous vibe in it. It has some flaws that prevent it from reaching even higher peaks but nothing that few content patches can't fix.
A surprisingly complicated shooter that could prove worthwhile for those who invest the time.
Battleborn left me feeling like it was not bad or good, it just is, and that's not a good thing.
And even with a number of problems, it's still a lot of fun to play.
Battleborn feels like it's squandered the majority of its potential with its execution. If enough polish is applied and the objectives made less punishing, it could warrant investment for the PvP. But the limited number of PvP maps, lack of unique missions and shabby story are still severe negatives.
Battleborn has done what I would have previously thought was impossible: it has kept me interested in its multiplayer.