Been a while since i did a Paws-on. And it's not even about a released game!
Battleborn by Gearbox Multiplayer, Co-op, Competitive PC, PS4, Xbox One. 50€ / 60$
Battleborn is the next game by Gearbox. It will feature a main campaign (Which can be played Solo or with friends) and a competitive multiplayer. Why am i talking about this game right now? Because even if it's not released yet, Gearbox is quite active this last weeks, and we know a Beta is coming... soon. There is no date yet, but the game will be released on the 3rd of May, so a Beta for Late March or Early April is quite possible. And some of you might be interested in this game. I have been able to play the CTT (Closed Technical Test) a few months ago. I'm still bound to an NDA, so i can't say anything about the CTT itself, but i can talk about the informations released.
I can also say that i played a lot during the CTT and had a bloody lot of fun.
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1. Side note.
First of all, i'd like to get something out of the way, something i heard or read too often: This is not Overwatch. At all. Peoples who haven't played the game probably compare it because of the cartoonish style and the First-person view. But that's actually the only thing the games have in common. Overwatch is a Competitive Multiplayer only, and is a Team based game with a filler story (It's basically "TF2: Blizzard edition"). Battleborn is both a competitive multiplayer and a coop/solo game, it got a story (A real one, not just a filler) some moba elements (Leveling system, one game mode), some RPG elements (Character levels, Loots), some Arena-like stuff (Game modes)... It's really a crazy amount of things together.
It would be like comparing Sugar and Salt because they somewhat look the same. Yeah, sure, taste it and tell me how the same they are now. You might like both, or just one, or none.
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2. How i got hooked by the game:
https://youtu.be/J3pgQc17JB0 Originally Battleborn caught my eye with this trailer because of the art style, and the fact that the characters looked cool and interesting by themselves. But i kept it on the side for the time being as there were not much info about it. A new trailer came out, nearly a year later, and i was "Oh yeah, that game!", i nearly forgot about it. Watched it, was fine, more polished, more characters and... Is that a bird with a Rocket launcher? https://youtu.be/UaQK7HX2CXE
Even if Benedict, the Hawk with a rocket-launcher, is my favourite (I even drew him), the other characters are all really interesting, and got enough personality to be in a game of their own. They all have different playstyle (For real) and you'll probably find one to your liking. One of my friend said one thing that made me realise how good the character design is: He remember their names. And the guys at Gearbox are trying to cover every style of players.
The game got the characters covered. And they are all funny or interesting. But what about the game itself?
The game got two part: Campaign and Competitive.
The Campaign can be played Solo or Coop. It got a full story, with bad guys, and good guys. Each missions are played on their own (Unlike Borderlands, which got a big map where you fetch quests, etc) You start from the beginning of the level, fight your way through, beat bosses, and get loots and money at the end. Along the way you'll get characters guiding you, and giving you some lore. Said like that it's a bit basic, but it works really well. And the writing in Battleborn is close to what they did in Borderlands 2, so if you liked the story of Borderlands, you should be fine with this one (Also, most of the voice actors of Borderlands 2 are here, if you care about that) https://youtu.be/h0KMARbTWps
The Competitive multiplayer is not left aside, it's as complete as you could get from a Competitive-only game (Which Battleborn is not) The game got three game modes, different from each others, and are 5v5 (Which is perfect, in this case). Different maps in different locations (Unknown hard numbers yet) It's really fun, and addictive. The peoples who played the CTT (Me included) already made builds, found new Meta, and discussed about it. https://youtu.be/OAtCU80llME
The game feature a weird Leveling system... Actually it got two. The in-game levels reset every game (Be it Competitive, or Campaign) which go from 1 to 10. A bit like a Moba. So you can try different things, or adapt to the game. But you also got Ranks for each characters, which allow you to unlock new skins, taunt, and even skills modifications.
You can also drop loots, which you can activate during a game to change your character a bit (Like additional attack speed, but reduced movement speed. That sort of thing) which add a layer of complexity to the game.
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4. Starving for more.
So, Battleborn is a game i'm waiting for. And not only because of what i saw, or heard, but also because of what i played. You'll have to make your own decision, as the game is quite a complex and multi-genre game, but as i said earlier in this Journal a Beta is coming soon, so you'll be able to try it. Even if you think it might not be for you (I already heard peoples put it aside because they heard there is one moba element... the hell is wrong with those peoples?) at least try it, or watch a stream of it, or whatever. Give it a chance. You can also watch the other videos on the Battleborn channels (Which the videos i used come from) You'll get overview of some characters, community questions, and stuff. Of course you also got the main website https://battleborn.com/
Battleborn is probably the game i'm looking for the most this year. Came for the bird, stayed for the game. https://youtu.be/-GNPoqvPCdQ
