Gearbox Software and 2K Games have partnered together to make a singleplayer and multiplayer shooter game known as Battleborn. I had a chance to try out the game at PAX Prime 2015, and here is the latest news, a review, as well as the release date for Battleborn.
I'll start by addressing the elephant in the room. There are a lot of comparisons of Battleborn to another popular Gearbox Software game of Borderlands. Indeed, Battleborn does take place in a very space fantasy setting, and the graphics are very colorful, and perhaps 2K Games, who partnered with Gearbox Software on this game, is hoping to piggyback on the success of Borderlands.
There is an almost post-apocalyptic setting to Battleborn as the story involves "protecting the universe's very last star from a mysterious evil", according to the official Battleborn website. The player can dip into a "deep roster" of 25 playable heroes, each with their own unique weapons and powers. There are a lot to pick from and they are humanoid, robotic, and seem to be plucked from both medieval fantasy and space fantasy casts.
Only ten are presently known, and they include Boldur, Caldarius, Marquis, Miko, Montana, Orendi, Oscar Mike, Phoebe, Rath, and Thorn. You can find out more about them here at the Battleborn Factions website, and a good example of their uniqueness is Miko, "the last surviving bud of a planet-spanning fungal colony", and this "combat botanist" has a mushroom for a head.
The rest of the fifteen characters are still being flushed out, and the reason why ten were made available was probably due to the game's team-based competitive multiplayer action for 5v5 matches. It seems that 5 players vs. another 5 players are a decent team mechanic that is available in a lot of popular games, such as League of Legends. The ten players are on deck for displays like at PAX Prime 2015, a video game convention that takes place at the end of August/beginning of September every year in the Seattle Convention Center.
I had a chance to try out Battleborn at PAX Prime 2015. I found that the gameplay was similar to a lot of MMO (Massively Multiplayer Online) games that I used to play in the last decade, and it looked like my goal was similar: killing enemies. It was something that I didn't get used to, but anyone who plays 5v5 games should be able to pick it up without any problem.
In addition to the multiplayer mode, Battleborn also has the option of giving the player a Story Mode, a narrative experience that can be player as a singleplayer.
Battleborn certainly looks like a lot of fun for gamers for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4, as well as the Xbox One, but it will not be available for the holiday season. Unfortunately, players that want to get their hands on this game will have to wait until February 9th, 2016. A recent article on PC Gamer states that there is a closed technical test, but you can sign up here if you have a SHiFT account.
