Putting Battleborn's Elf-Warrior Through Her Paces - Preview
by Jake Weston , posted on 20 June 2015 / 3,894 Views
Character ability-focused games such as Gearbox’s upcoming Battleborn are somewhat difficult to write preview coverage for. Gearbox’s self-described “hero” shooter is launching with over 25 characters all with unique weapons, abilities, and gameplay styles, and the nature of E3 only really gives you time to play as one or two characters during your hands-on time with a game.
That said, what I did play of Battleborn during E3 was exceedingly fun, and has made me excited to check out more of the game when it releases later this year.
I played part of Battleborn’s cooperative campaign mode, teaming up with four other players. Of the characters available, I chose the elf-like, bow-wielding Thorn (mostly because I didn’t get a chance to play Destiny’s The Taken King expansion or Horizon: Dawn Zero, and I wanted to write SOMETHING related to bows and arrows this year).
From my admittedly limited perspective of the game, Thorn appears to specialize in long-distance support - her low rate of fire makes her ineffective up close, but taking the time to line up a single well-placed shot from afar can inflict massive damage on enemies. Going down my upgrade path I also unlocked various debuffs, such as poison arrows that inflict damage over time to stricken enemies, which proved to be a useful ability during the demo’s boss fights as I was able to hit the boss with poison arrows before moving on to pick off smaller enemies that were harassing my teammates.
As much as I love the co-op of Gearbox’s other major shooter series, Borderlands, constantly stopping the flow of combat to compare/contrast new weapons and loot wasn’t my cup of tea. This works in other loot-fests such as Diablo or Torchlight, but this mechanic in shooters just leaves something to be desired.
The removal of this in Battleborn, and instead upgrading characters on the fly in a MOBA fashion as you level up, is much more appealing to me, especially as the fast-paced combat forces you to make consider and commit to your choices quickly. I’m not sure how I feel about skill trees constantly resetting after every level, but this is a holdover from Battleborn’s heavy MOBA influence, and will likely appeal to fans of that genre.
Given my lack of experience with MOBAs, as well as not being able to play Battleborn’s competitive multiplayer mode, it’s hard to get a real fix on what Battleborn will be all about when it releases for PS4, Xbox One, and PC this winter. What I can say is that I had a blast with the co-op campaign; I love all the disparate character designs, and I’m intrigued to see what more the game has to offer.
