Battleborn
The story of Battleborn is one full of misunderstandings. Gearbox’s colorful hero shooter had the misfortune of being released close to Blizzard’s Overwatch and although both games turned out differently, player numbers quickly plummeted after the release of Overwatch. Therefore, today, as a Battleborn player, you’d be lucky if there are more than 200 players online on Steam. Well-meaning actions so far, such as the community-organized and developer-supported Battleborn Day, have not changed this.
A diamond in the rough
However, Battleborn is a really good game! Unlike Overwatch, it is not so much a hero shooter, but rather a kind of shooter-MOBA. In one of the game modes, there are even lanes, towers, and minion waves. Your heroes start as weak level-1 characters and must slowly level up through kills and mission objectives.
The higher you level up, the more skills and upgrades you unlock, and besides the shooting, you should not forget to collect money to activate items or build towers. This gives Battleborn a significant tactical and strategic component. Even if your side has good fighters, it can cost you the victory if the opposing side uses their resources more cleverly. For example, if they spawn more super minions for money, which in turn can cripple your base.
Colorful, quirky, and naughty!
The graphic style of Battleborn is colorful and sharply exaggerated. For example, the hefty tank Montana appears as a bodybuilder caricature that consists only of muscles, with his tiny head hardly visible. Other heroes are four-armed anarcho-witches who like to eat their opponents’ guts, or little fat sparrows that sound like rough sergeants of the U.S. Marines and throw around bombs and grenades!
This colorful bunch of chaos is complemented by the humor known from developer Gearbox (Borderlands!). It is typically crude, dark, and politically incorrect! And that’s exactly what I love about the game! For example, the delightfully crazy quotes from the chaos witch Orendi or the contemptuous remarks from the snobby robot Marquis, who explains with a nasty German accent, “Your poverty disgusts me!”
Solo co-op action!
The cool humor of the game really shines in the PvE mode. Just like in Borderlands, you can also play Battleborn in co-op with friends and experience the story of the game. This revolves around the heroic struggle of the last defenders of the universe against a deadly threat from another dimension.
This all sounds terribly serious, but as previously mentioned, the delightful humor of the game lightens everything up nicely. For example, in the battle with a spider robot final boss, who is actually named Geoff, but sees himself as a spider and has taken the name “Arachnis”. In battle, he delivers spider fun facts to us, and you can only fight him by using insect extermination spray to flush him out of his hiding place.
Why you should play more Battleborn
Battleborn is not a game for casual play and is challenging. However, if you engage with the game, you’ll get complex and fun gameplay, incredibly quirky heroes, and a cool story PvE mode. Although Battleborn is a buy-to-play game, the purchase price has steadily decreased and is now quite affordable. So, why not take a look?
On page four, there’s a game that is doing relatively well, but still deserves more attention.
