At first we would like to thank 2K and Gearbox Software for sending out Battleborn in order to test and review.

 

 

About 2K:

 

“Founded in 2005, 2K develops and publishes interactive entertainment globally for console systems, handheld gaming systems and personal computers, including smartphones and tablets, which are delivered through physical retail, digital download, online platforms and cloud streaming services. 2K publishes titles in today’s most popular gaming genres, including shooters, action, role-playing, strategy, sports, casual, and family entertainment.

 

The 2K label has some of the most talented development studios in the world today, including Firaxis Games, Visual Concepts, Irrational Games, 2K Marin, 2K Australia, 2K Czech, Cat Daddy Games and 2K China. 2K’s stable of high quality titles includes the critically acclaimed BioShock®, Borderlands™ and XCOM® franchises, the beloved Sid Meier’s Civilization series, the popular WWE 2K franchise and NBA 2K, the #1 rated and #1 selling basketball franchise*. 2K is headquartered in Novato, California and is a wholly owned label of Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc. (NASDAQ: TTWO).”

 

About Gearbox Software:

 

"We are an award-winning, independent developer of interactive entertainment based near Dallas, Texas. Founded in February 1999 by game industry veterans and led to this day by its founding developers, gearbox software has distinguished itself as one of the most respected and recognized independent video game makers in the world."

 

Battleborn is one of the latest Gearbox titles and brings to the table a mix of elements found in different game genres. This hero-shooter is set in a distant future, where nearly every star in the universe has gone dark at the hands of a mysterious enemy. Solus is the last star and beacon of hope for the universe’s surviving population, so a great war is being started between those desperate for the last remaining resources.

 

You, as a player are the commander of the Battleborn, which is an uneasy alliance of intergalactic heroes from five different factions (Peacekeepers, Eldrid, Rogues, LLC and Jennerit Empire) who have banded together to stop this dark and mysterious enemy from progressing. In order to achieve your goal, nihilistic robots, dwarves, space luchadores, interstellar soldiers, penguin-piloted murder machines and many others are placed at your disposal.

 

At the moment of the review, the game did weight about 21945MB and took some time to download via the Steam interface but if you have a decent connection it should be ready in no time! The load times are quite small and after the intro screen gets displayed we will be logged right away to the server. People familiar with Borderlands series will get to see some similar elements right from the menu area like the player list on the top right side or the animated background with funny stuff happening randomly. The game menu is located on the left side and in order to unlock the other sections we do have to play the Prologue:

 

 

 

If we do navigate to the Options area, we will be able to check out the Gameplay options, adjust the Audio settings, Video settings, Lobby options, Keyboard & Mouse bindings, Controller bindings, check out Support Info or go back to the previous area:

 

 

Here are the video settings we can work with:

 

 

In the Extras menu we can check out current Achievements or work with the SHiFT service for acquiring different unlocks:

 

 

Prologue can be played right away by clicking on the respective menus:

 

 

A very well done animation cinematic will start in order to introduce us to the main story and characters; the intro audio track by Deltron 3030 fits right in:

 

 

Our main heroine for the intro mission is Mellka from the Eldrid faction, born as a refugee and raised but also trained among an aggressive commando group known as the Vigilant. She is agile, proficient at several combat styles but also prefers exotic weaponry such as her biologically-active Eldrid gauntlet:

 

 

The first-person shooter interface of the current character does display the current level, armor, number of shards collected, life bar, the map, current upgradable powers and more:

 

 

As we have seen in various MOBA titles, the character progresses as it goes through the map and Battleborn characters will be upgraded up to level 10. As we jump to the next level, a message will pop-up on the screen telling us that an “Augment is Available”. Depending on our preferences, we can always decide our current character build:

 

 

Different modes of attacks are available with Mellka, by pressing left and right click buttons too:

 

 

If we do kill certain enemies, disable power sources or simply collect we will get shards which are useful for activating gear and also for building things at the on-map build nodes:

 

 

Here is how a generator does look like (shard pad), which usually removes obstacles when destroyed:

 

 

We will see pads on the ground from time to time with the hint “Checkpoint Activated”; here we will be revived if we die during a mission:

 

 

There are also jump pads on the map, which do allow us to go to hard-to-reach locations:

 

 

After going through some extra doors, hell breaks loose and minions start appearing; depending on how well we do aim and how much we charge our weapons we can also perform one-shot kills:

 

 

If it happens that we die, our character hologram will be displayed along with the total damage we took; this game also introduces a limited number of limited lives which if we run out, the game is over!

 

 

Here is how a pad for building certain things looks like:

 

 

Depending on what we do choose to build, these elements will help us during the mission:

 

 

This game is also about teamwork, so it introduces another character (Deande, former spymaster to the evil Rendain) which helps us during the mission. As we have mentioned with the intro, the character is introduced graciously, with a small cinematic:

 

 

In order to exemplify the need of partners inside the game, we need next to activate some stairs by standing on two pads:

 

 

Shard banks are also available on the map, where we can deposit collected shards:

 

 

A turret is very handy to be built when a lot of minions are incoming:

 

 

Shortly we will meet with our first boss, Huntsman which we must defeat together with our companion:

 

 

The boss will throw at us additional minions, activate shields at random times and its remaining life will be shown on the top area of the screen:

 

 

The final kill shot will be also delivered with a nice cinematic:

 

 

The boss will also drop quite a bit of credits and other collectibles:

 

 

After we do finish the mission, we will be presented with the items we have just unlocked:

 

 

The results screen is next:

 

 

If we navigate to the main menu, we will get to see that we have unlocked the Story Public mode where we can complete the missions with the help of four other players (PvE mode), the Story Private mode where we can complete the missions one-by-one in a single-player mode, Versus Public for playing PvP but also Versus Private for playing with bots:

 

 

Here is how the PvE mode does look like during mission selection:

 

 

The game will also show the lobby and chosen characters of each player:

 

 

If a player drops out, we would surely like for the server to search another one instead but for now it does not:

 

 

When the character selection is completed, a nice cinematic will roll for each toon like at the beginning of a movie:

 

 

As we have seen with the tutorial, we will progress through the level, battle minions, bosses, open doors, force fields and many more with the help of the 5-player team:

 

 

When we die, we can call for help so another player could revive us, without losing a life:

 

 

Several racks with powerups and credits can be opened throughout the level:

 

 

When a player is upgrading his traits, we will be able to see this process thanks to the animation:

 

 

Occasionally, we will need to escort robots till they reach their final goal:

 

 

As an element of novelty, these big robots can be also be upgraded on-the-fly with shards so they would assist in the mission:

 

 

After progressing throughout the levels, we will be also able to access Command area; here we will see the unlocked characters:

 

 

See the traits of each character:

 

 

Equip different taunts and skins:

 

 

But also access lore if we complete the mini-objectives:

 

 

Gear area is the place to go for equipping certain items which will boost our stats:

 

 

Career stats can be checked out next, per each mission:

 

 

We do also have the marketplace area from which we can purchase several loot packs:

 

 

If we choose to go the PvP route (which we will let you guys explore in detail by yourselves), we do have a selection of Capture Maps (where we do have to capture enemy collectors while simultaneously protecting our own), Incursion Maps (where we do march our minions into the enemy territory, make our way to the enemy sentry bots and destroy them), but also Meltdown Maps (the heroes protect their minions as their march to their death at the center of the map; points are scored for minions which throw themselves into the incinerator and the team with the most points wins). Each PvP mode comes with two maps:

 

 

Battleborn is another impressive release developed by Gearbox which made itself available for the PC platform via Steam (but also for PS4 and Xbox One via the respective online services). Besides single player campaign, we are able to game in PvE, PvP, play against bots, in order to unlock a ton of characters along with their taunts and skins. The MOBA + FPS genres seems to mix very well in Battleborn while the in-game cinematics are a real joy to look at. The developers also have a good sense of humor, incorporating funny dialogues between the characters in many circumstances.

 

Gearbox seems to listen carefully to user feedback and does bug-fixes on the fly: an example is that at launch the Prologue could not have been re-run but now this is perfectly possible from the single player campaign area.

 

Something which adds a bit of difficulty and is not often found in FPS and MOBA genres is the limited number of lives; we can find inside the levels extra lives to pick up but there is also a solution to let our teammates revive us. Speaking of teammates, the game interface allows us to invite our friends to the game quite easily, similar to what was available on Borderlands games.

 

We did game with the details on maximum, 2560x1440 resolution and the test machine did feature a Radeon R9 390X and an i7 6700K CPU @ stock; in this type of fast-paced games a high FPS is important and we can say that no slowdowns were detected on this matter.

 

Currently the game can be purchased from Steam for about 49,99€. This is the base game and for 19,99€ we can also pre-purchase the Season Pass which does contain 5 DLC packs, each pack allowing us to command our Battleborn on all new Story Operations. Five new heroes will be also available with this Season Pass upon release, together with new skins and taunts.

Battleborn Game is Recommended For:

 

 

We would like to thank again to 2K and Gearbox Software for sending out Battleborn for making this review possible!