Battleborn Reviews
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.
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.
Battleborn has its moments, but its lack of maps and other niggling flaws makes it tough to recommend. There may well be a perfect FPS MOBA out there somewhere; but with Battleborn, the two genres feel fundamentally at odds with one another. It's not helped by its generic art direction and painfully unfunny sense of humor, which mostly consists of pointing toward some well-worn trope and asking, "Isn't that silly?" Right now, it feels geared toward the hardcore community in a way that makes it not very fun to play for more casual fans; and as Battleborn hasn't shown itself to be worth that kind of investment, I'm ready to take my leave of it.
In that respect Battleborn sometimes feels a bit unfocused and unfinished. Undercooked, maybe, to use tired terminology. I think Gearbox would have benefited from really focusing on their cast and progression system instead of superfluous co-op story content.
There's certainly a fair bit here for some to like, particularly for those of you who want a MOBA that's less of a long-term commitment, and a heck of a lot of content to get your teeth into, but Battleborn's development-by-focus-group leaves it feeling a little bland, despite its brash stylings and Borderlands-esque attitude.
A promising work in progress
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.
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.
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 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.
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 has a strong cast of characters and exciting action, but suffers from a lack of content, frustrating server issues, and some questionable design choices.
Balancing issues, niggling design problems, and a dearth of content keep Gearbox's new sci-fi shooter from being all it can be
All of that makes Battleborn feel light, airy, and inconsequential. It's enjoyable in its best moments and especially in one of its multiplayer modes, but the problem comes with its lack of longevity. It's clearly a game built to be enjoyed in the long-term, like the MOBAs that inspired it, but it doesn't have the legs to run that far. This is a game built to be played repeatedly over the course of months, but I felt tired of it after a week.
It's tough to actually decide where I stand on Battleborn. One the one hand I can see that it's a competently made game with plenty of charm in its varied roster and one fresh gameplay mode that I would happily play again. Yet the single player was a bore in its core gameplay loop, the two multiplayer modes have issues with their map design, and the gating of characters and abilities just feels unnecessary for a MOBA. However, it is still possible to get a kick or two out of Battleborn.
I'm not sold on Battleborn's commitment to the MOBA genre but there's something fun there underneath all of it. I'll probably hop on occasionally to play Capture throughout its lifetime while the bulk of my efforts are spent on more polished shooters.
A varied playable roster isn't enough to salvage a lackluster campaign and clumsy combat
In six months' time it may well make its mark, but for now Battleborn's mix of genres suffers from too little content and too much repetition.