Battleborn Preview

Introduction

Battleborn is an upcoming first-person shooter game developed by Gearbox Software, making it their first intellectual property since 2009 when they released Borderlands. The new shooter is going to be published by 2K Games for the Xbox One, PlayStation 4 and Windows PC. Battleborn is getting a May 3, 2016 release date, where the game will launch worldwide.

Gameplay

Although the creators don’t want it to be labeled as a multiplayer online battle arena game, Battleborn will feature many MOBA elements. In a way, the game is structured to play as a MOBA, but players will battle through a first-person view. It’s different from other first-person shooter because the game has the same format as a multiplayer online battle arena game, and the leveling system even resets at the beginning of a match as they do in MOBA games.

If you’re not familiar with MOBA games like League of Legends and Dota 2, then here’s what that means. At the beginning of each match, players will all start at the same level, and throughout the game they will be able to unlock new abilities and skills to become more powerful during battle.

Each time you level up during a match you will have the choice to upgrade one of three skills, and each character will a unique group of abilities to choose from. It has also been announced that the game will launch with 25 playable characters, and there will be a nice variety of different character types. For instance, supporting characters, long-ranged characters and ones who specialize in melee combat. It has also been mentioned that each character will have their own “ultimate ability”, which makes it even more like a multiplayer online battle arena game.

During combat you can even switch to a third-person view to use special abilities, but playing in third-person altogether is not an option. It is primarily a first-person game.

Battleborn will in fact have bots, and you can play against artificial intelligence in multiplayer, not just the campaign mode.

The campaign mode in Battleborn features co-op, so you don’t have to play solo, but you definitely can. If you don’t want to play it alone, you can play co-operatively with up to four other players. Meltdown, Incursion and Devastation are the three competitive multiplayer game modes you will be able to play upon the game’s launch.

Incursion is an arena mode that will put each team in a fight to destroy the others’ base. In Devastation your goal is to capture the bases. When playing competitive multiplayer online, you will battle with ten players in 5v5 matches.

The world in Battleborn

Set in the distant future, Battleborn will put you in a world where everyone is struggling to survive and all the civilizations gather to Solas as their last hope to stay alive. In a not-so original way the people form five factions; The Lastlight Consortium, The Rogues, The Eldrid, The Jennerit Emperium and the United Peacekeeping Republics.

Naturally, these factions all had their own hidden agendas and they didn’t get along until a race known as the Varelsi reveal themselves and become a common enemy. The Varelsi is the race behind the darkening of the stars, and they’re what bring the five factions together, making them realize they’re not each others’ worst enemy.

Battleborn is a group of heroes from each faction who have established themselves as being the toughest and most resilient. Together, they will do whatever they can to fight for their survival and prevent extinction of their kind.

It is set in a space fantasy setting, and Solas is the first star that the civilizations flocked to before they divided themselves into five factions. It isn’t clear what happened, but a catastrophic event happened in space that basically destroyed all the planets and stars in the universe. The Varelsi, their common foe, was behind the destruction of their home planets.

The above situation is what you will experience as you play through the campaign, which can be enjoyed in both single player, online co-op or even split screen with a close friend. Yes, this game did not leave out split screen gameplay like all the others!

Conclusion

Like the visuals in Pixar movies? Well Battleborn’s graphics are actually inspired by computer-generated imagery, the technology behind those animated movies. For the 2D graphics, Gearbox hired a Canadian cartoonist named Michel Gagne to create the maps and other 2D effects. Gearbox has also revealed their their sources of inspiration, which come from MOBA games, role-playing games and various fighting games. If done right, both the melee and long-ranged combat will be perfectly executed, making this one of the best games to launch this year.

Battleborn is different. For this reason, you should check out the gameplay videos below to get an idea of what the gameplay is like. The visuals are great, and it certainly has the look of a MOBA game, with bright colors and out-of-this-world characters. It is supposed to be one of Gearbox Software’s most ambitious projects, bridging the gap between various genres. Knowing the game has the addictive structure of a MOBA game should be enough to capture the attention of many gamers, especially since it’s the intellectual property of the company responsible for Borderlands.