Battleborn

When Gearbox tackles a new franchise, it doesn’t do anything by half-measures. Last-generation’s Borderlands series revitalized how we think of shooters, blending solid RPG mechanics with enough loot to satisfy any Diablo nut. Battleborn is equally ambitious, bringing some of Borderlands’ best elements to bear in a recipe that defies simple definition. Gearbox’s writing continues to be a highlight, with punchy one-liners, quirky characters, and masterful voice casting.

While the playable cast is largely overshadowed in the narrative by the non-playable characters who frame the missions, the diverse robots, soldiers, elves, demons, and other heroes all have style. One of the allures of the new trend toward character-based multiplayer games is it gives writers and designers more room to flesh out unique personalities.

We played a new story mission both cooperatively and solo, and it pitted us against a malicious A.I. with a Handsome Jack-style sense of humor. Instead of getting held up at checkpoints to fight off waves of enemies, we had a bit more control this time. Progressing through the linear level meant destroying large shards powering gates and force fields. Along the way, there were copious pick-ups to enhance health regeneration, speed, and shields.

While Battleborn comes from the same studio that gave us Borderlands, it doesn’t have a cohesive feel yet. Hits on target don’t yet offer strong feedback. This is extremely troublesome when playing a melee character. Knowing if you’re connecting with your strikes is crucial when you don’t have the benefit of a broad view of the battlefield and, instead, could find yourself up close and personal with the terrain while chasing an enemy.

The writing in the two stages we’ve played is sharp and voiced well, but it feels disconnected from the action on the battlefield. It’s almost as if an audio track is playing over the action with little to no reference to what your team is doing. For instance, when playing solo, Kleese was yelling to trigger something for the third or fourth time while we were in the process of activating the item. The best part of the mission comes during the multi-stage boss fight. In multiplayer, this was a satisfyingly strategic experience in which support players gave damage dealers breathing room to activate objects in the environment to progress the battle. While solo play is crucial for games, it doesn’t have the same hook in this stage.

Going it alone robs you of a key distraction strategy. You can purchase drones in the environment, but the boss seems wise to the A.I. Borderlands was better with friends, and it appears that will be doubly true for Battleborn. While we knew what to expect of the single-player going in, the multiplayer proved the larger disappointment. We had the chance to sample two modes. The first, Command, is a rote control point type with three capture zones. The second borrows from both tower defense and MOBAs.

Meltdown sends waves of minions from both sides toward sacrifice zones. Your job is to escort your robot troops and destroy opposing drones. Of course, you’re going to meet the enemy team in the middle, which is where the fun is supposed to happen.

Unlike MOBAs, which require players to strategically use minions to chip away at extremely powerful turrets and then retreat, Battleborn’s Meltdown mode is closer to a deathmatch with an added wrinkle. I suspect I would have had more fun playing this as a ranged character, but I wanted to sample a melee fighter for balance.

Gearbox needs to work on its close-combat characters. The sword combat currently feels muddy and aimless. Players need better communication, visually and aurally, when making contact with enemies, especially with special effects like blinding not having a signifier icon. This ultimately left me frustrated, even when successfully defeating A.I. and human opponents alike.

The good news is that there is still time for Gearbox to course correct. Battleborn has enormous potential. It just needs to start living up to it.

Gearbox has been counting down to Battleborn’s release with a steady stream of character reveals from its enormous roster of heroes. With launch date looming just months away, we’ve finally reached the last two fighters of the game’s 25-character crew: Kleese, a cantankerous science officer who comes off like a deranged Professor X, and El Dragon, a beefy luchador with massive mechanical arms. As you might guess, Kleese and El Dragon are on opposite ends of Battleborn’s loony spectrum, both in appearance and play style.

A member of the support class, Kleese’s frail, geriatric figure is bolstered by his “tactical battle chair,” which allows him to aid his teammates by deploying energy rifts. These stationary energy fields replenish the shields of nearby allies while simultaneously damaging opponents, and can be a major boon to your team during standoffs and boss fights.

Like every character, Kleese has several unique attacks at his disposal. Kleese’s wrist cannon can down foes from a distance, while his chair’s shock taser dispatches melee opponents. These attacks feel underpowered compared to other heroes, but his energy mortar compensates by bombarding a target area in a volley of explosive orbs.

Kleese’s ultimate ability unleashes a black hole that draws in enemies and deals massive damage. Despite these attacks, Kleese fares better on the periphery of the battlefield, engaging isolated foes and assisting teammates when necessary; getting caught out in the open often ends in death.

El Dragon, on the other hand, thrives in the thick of battle. The earnest luchador packs an assortment of wrestling-based melee attacks, and can string together endless combos of punches with the primary attack button. However, the hero’s true strength lies in his abilities.

El Dragon’s clothesline ability sends him dashing across the battlefield, smacking any foes that can’t escape his outstretched arms. The attack is great for closing the gap on distant enemies, and can be upgraded to slow them on contact and leech their health.

The Dragon Splash ability is just as effective, launching the wrestler into the air before slamming him down in a powerful area-of-effect attack that stuns opponents. El Dragon’s En Fuego ultimate unleashes an explosive shockwave and augments all of his other abilities.

Going up against miniguns and rocket launchers with punches and body slams may sound risky, but each of El Dragon’s attacks takes meaty chunks off of his enemies’ health bars, making him a fun pick for offensive-minded players. Battleborn’s character roster continues to impress, but our reservations about the campaign remain. Gearbox is hoping Battleborn’s story, character variety, and loot system will motivate players to keep replaying missions, similar to World of Warcraft’s raids.

But while the missions we played had their fun moments, formulaic objectives like protracted escort missions and horde-mode-style standoffs against waves of enemies left us eager to move onto other modes. We’ll have to wait until launch to see if saving the last star in the universe is worth the fight.

Battleborn has big ambitions. It includes over two dozen characters with unique powers and gameplay. A lengthy campaign explores a universe of planets and cultures. Three objective-based multiplayer modes attempt a strategic competitive experience that combines first-person shooting and hand-to-hand combat in a MOBA-inspired playground. Unfortunately, the implementation of most of these features fails to meet the high aspirations of the concept, and is further hamstrung by moment-to-moment gameplay that is chaotic, imprecise, and unresponsive.

Gearbox has a strong instinct for distinct and varied characters, and Battleborn continues that trend with an entertaining roster of playable heroes. That variety is the biggest selling point. From a ninja mushroom with healing fungal powers to an insane robotic butler sniper, the heroes are unusual and mostly entertaining to discover, and homing in on the playstyles that work for you is satisfying. Like in MOBAs, any given mission or match sees your character fully level up, and the choices you make help further specialize your approach to combat. Consistent play unlocks new cosmetic and mutation options, as well as game-changing gear loadouts, ensuring further investment in your hero, and I appreciate the steady pace of progression.

While I enjoy the varied play, I can't say the same for the repetitive and banal dialogue that both the heroes and their adversaries spout ad nauseum throughout the plodding storyline. The characters have the smug, self-satisfied attitude of bad '90s cartoon stars, with endless sarcastic quips and lame jokes to back it up. A slick animated intro reminiscent of Peter Chung's Æon Flux lends hope of some stylish action, but as soon as we enter the meat of the campaign, coherent and entertaining storytelling begins to dissolve. The plot never goes anywhere, despite the ostensibly epic setup about fighting to survive the end of all things and save the last star in the universe.

Your progress through the narrative is hampered by the litany of missteps that characterize the eight-mission campaign. While level art and design are colorful and interesting, the action and objectives within those levels are tedious. Enemy A.I. is virtually non-existent; I saw one boss blindly walk around a pillar for three minutes as we whittled away his health bar. Endless wave-based defend and escort objectives crop up in virtually every mission, which is boring at first and excruciating by the end. Combat balance is all over the place, with long stretches of overly simplistic fights, followed by sudden escalations into crushing difficulty. I'd enjoy the challenge, except a single failed objective (or losing all your lives) ends the mission and, if you're playing in a public team, dissolves the group. Whether playing solo, with friends, or with strangers online, numerous adventures ended after I ventured 45 minutes (or more) into an episode, only to wipe and face a full restart.

Cooperative online play for up to five works well, but I'm disappointed by the lack of drop-in play options, especially since missions often take a long time, and you can't take a break part way through and return later. I appreciate the inclusion of two-player splitscreen options, but the mode is plagued by miniscule onscreen text and no adjustments to the aspect ratio, resulting in a full third of the screen dominated by mini maps. Public cooperative matchmaking also sees some bad ideas, like the inability to directly select which mission you want to play for all but the final episode, allowing you only to vote on three random options.

Competitive play fares better, despite a painfully slow process for getting into a match. Incursion directly cribs from the established framework of MOBAs, in which two opposing teams of five work to assault enemy territory and overtake defenses, even while escorting minion groups to aid in the attack. These lengthy matches demand teamwork and smart deployment of assets. Meltdown is a variation on the theme, in which the focus shifts specifically to getting the minions to a particular spot on the field, which leads to focused skirmishes around the happily toddling robots. Capture is the nod to more traditional first-person shooters, in which the holding of three zones around the map is the key to victory. Each game type has two dedicated maps that are thoughtfully catered to the style of action. These three PvP modes each have a high learning curve, and it was not hours, but days into the fight before I was able to appreciate some of the strategic elements at play. Understanding your hero and working as a team lends depth.

Even when I finally tapped into a character or two that I enjoyed, or found a competitive match with some engaging give and take, my dislike of the core gameplay remained. No matter the ranged character, shooting feels stiff and unsatisfying. Little beyond a ticking health bar communicates that you're damaging a foe, and when you're getting hit, it's hard to tell where the damage is coming from. Melee fares far worse. First-person, close-range battling is a notorious challenge for developers, but Battleborn hasn't solved the problem. Run up to foes and wildly swing in their general direction, and the onscreen action becomes an indecipherable mess of explosions, slashes, and effects. This is exacerbated by a choppy animation style, a clash of onscreen color, and strangely flat sound design. On a fundamental level, combat feels disconnected and awkward.

I enjoy Gearbox's work on games like Borderlands, and I was cheerfully enthused by the studio's willingness to try something different with Battleborn. The chaos of battle and goofy tone of the team's latest creation may work for some players, and even as of this writing Gearbox is actively patching balance and matchmaking issues that may improve the experience. But after many hours, many characters, and many matches, I can't recommend something that so completely failed to click. I applaud the ambition, but not every grand venture ends with triumph.