Battleborn Reviews
Battleborn is a ton of fun to play, and is unabashedly a Gearbox game, in visuals, moment-to-moment gameplay and humor. Much of the PSVG team has been playing it recently, and we have largely given it our seal of approval.
There is no doubt that at its best Battleborn is a very fun game. It is a colourful delight and the visuals really pop amongst the chaos of flashing lights, explosions, and movement. The characters are all quite memorable and well designed, with humorous charismatic touches to their personalities. Not to mention it is a fine shooter in its own right. The disappointment is that a lot of the experience lacks a certain polish that would have really taken it to the next level.
A promising work in progress
Bold concepts, but the experience never quite comes together. For all its potential, Battleborn feels dead on arrival.
With each mission lasting between 30-45 minutes with no real checkpoint system, Battleborn can became an exercise in tedium.
It's sad that Battleborn came out when it did, that being right around the same time that Overwatch had its beta and subsequent release. The game was overshadowed before it ever saw the light of day. It also didn't help that there was a preconceived bias against the game due to Gearbox's past efforts. However, Battleborn has shockingly filled that action-MOBA void in my heart that I didn't even know was missing.
Battleborn is great, but it just isn't as inviting it could be – and the marketing has made it look more like a direct competitor for Blizzard's Overwatch, despite being considerably different. It's a shame more people aren't getting onto the Battleborn bandwagon because while it isn't a smooth as Overwatch it's far more complete and feels like a full game instead of paying to continue playing a demo.
While Borderlands was always going to be a fairly tough act to follow, Battleborn succeeds by possessing enough depth and charm to stand up on its own two feet. Here, Gearbox have created an interesting universe brimming with their trademark humour and populated by an interesting cast of characters that make it a fun place to kill time and other people in. Yes, there are a few minor issues that mar the experience somewhat, and the overall package could definitely use a bit more content to boost its longevity, but hopefully these are concerns that are currently being addressed.
Even with more than twenty playable characters, Battleborn fails to offer enough variety in its gameplay to keep players engaged for longer periods of time. And with an unfortunate release date, it is a game that will be forgotten in a matter of months.
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.
Battleborn ended up stretching itself too thin by trying to include too many modes. If Gearbox had focused on the competitive aspect of the game only, I'm sure Battleborn would've ended up being much better. The campaign adds nothing of value to the game but the multiplayer modes are worth playing if you can get a team together. It's a shame solo players have been completely ignored by Gearbox, otherwise Battleborn may have been worth recommending to people.
Battleborn is a solid competitive multiplayer title, effectively blending the MOBA genre with the first person shooter. Unfortunately, the devotion to be an e-sports future leaves it wanting in places.
Battleborn is too flashy for its own good
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.
The Battleborn experiment has been largely successful. Fusing humour and shooting together with the mechanics from a MOBA sounds like it should be a recipe for disaster, but the charm of the graphical style and characterisation lifts the whole game. The story (or lack of it compared to Borderlands 2, say) is a bit of a let down, but it does enough to keep you interested and eager to see the next mission. There are issues with online play, which we're hoping get ironed out, but there's fun to be had as you and your fireteam roll up the battlefield, combined with the genuine laugh out loud moments.
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.
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.
"Battleborn" is an okay shooter but it's certainly not a memorable one.