Battleborn shows that MOBA and FPS can be combined together as a genre. The plot in Battleborn is pretty straight forward: The Varelsi, a thoroughly evil race of creatures, has been creeping around snuffing out all of the stars in the universe. This in turn has forced the remaining civilizations to congregate around the last star – Solus – in a last ditch attempt to stop the lights going out forever. With a collection of disparate characters coming together to try and stop the Varelsi, it’s the perfect opportunity to offer a varied band of 25 heroes for use in the games different modes, MOBA style.
Whether it’s a robotic sniper with a near pathological dislike of the lower classes, a penguin in a mech-suit, or a mushroom man with a skill for healing, the trademark Gearbox humor and stylized, cartoon art-style are both in full effect.
Even with Battleborn’s multiplayer focus, there’s a story campaign included that can be played either solo or cooperatively. With a prologue and eight missions, it won’t take that long to see all it can offer, with each mission running to around 30 to 40 minutes.
For most players, being forced to defend or escort something with limited health almost always guarantees a certain amount of boredom and frustration, but in Battleborn it’s even more annoying as it’s also coupled with instant mission failure should you be unsuccessful. There are no checkpoints and there’s no chance to try a different approach. You’re unceremoniously bounced straight back to the mission summary screen.
The combat is actually quite fun, and since each character has their own unique gimmick, it’s enjoyable trying them out and learning how to combo their skills with devastating effect. One aspect of Battleborn that also works really well is the character levelling system, as not only do they level-up outside of matches but they also level separately within a match letting you choose between two upgrades each time you level up.
It’s great experimenting with new combinations of these upgrades during a mission as you work your way to the level cap, safe in the knowledge that you’re not locked into your decisions since it resets at the start of every mission. When this is coupled with the item system that lets you equip three pieces of loot you can spec your character in a number of ways.
While the story mode feels a little on the lightweight side, it’s the adversarial multiplayer that offers the most interesting gameplay in Battleborn. With three objective based modes available, you’ll be scoring points by guiding your AI minions into grinders in Meltdown, taking out the other team’s spider bots in Incursion, or battling for control of the map in Capture, and it’s in these modes that you’ll uncover the Battleborn gameplay that most resembles a MOBA.
Outside of the main objective, there are emplacements to be built, shard deposits to be fought over, and powerful AI monsters that can be recruited to your team for a short time.
Too often your screen will be completely filled with animated effects, damage numbers, and characters making it extremely difficult to parse just what the Hell you’re looking at which makes it difficult to actually concentrate on the match.
This is especially problematic for melee characters in the thick of the action who have no choice but to keep swinging in the hope that they connect with someone on the other team. To make this problem even worse, the framerate at times struggles to keep up with the action, occasionally dipping below 30 frames-per-second, making it even tougher to operate effectively in those more hectic encounters.
