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Battleborn

Battleborn: Hands-On Impressions

Ahead of E3 we travelled to the States to play the MOBA shooter hybrid and to speak to creative director Randy Varnell.

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Borderlands was one of the finest new series introduced during the last generation of consoles. The mix of shooter and RPG was perfectly in tune with what gamers wanted, and much like Gearbox boss Randy Pitchford, we were left wondering why it hadn't already been made. Since then blockbusters like Destiny have gone a similar path, pairing shooting with loot. After Borderlands 2 released, work on the Pre-Sequel was outsourced to 2K Australia and Gearbox began working on Battleborn. They refer to it as a hero shooter. What was the reasoning behind the concept? We asked creative director Randy Varnell.

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"We had so much fun making characters in Borderlands. We had so many ideas. Some of them didn't quite fit in the universe, because the gameplay in Borderlands works a little different. It didn't have competitive, it didn't have melee (...) So much of the gameplay in Borderlands comes from the guns you can pick up. So you're kind of limited in the expression of fighting styles. You have an action-skill and you have talents, but we wanted to try an idea where we could continue to make awesome characters and we also knew that we would like to come back to competitive multiplayer; we hadn't done that in a long time."

The twenty-five heroes are the big stars of the game. They are called Battleborn and are recruited from five galactic factions, fighting on Solus, the last star of the universe, against the dark Varelsi for survival. In our hands-on session we played a portion of the co-op mission "To the Edge of the Void". Not necessarily to learn more about the actual story or the narrative structure of Battleborn, but rather to try a few of the really unique heroes without the inevitable stress and pressure of multiplayer duels.

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Battleborn

The heroes offer extremely different fighting styles with a variety of weapons and abilities. There are relatively normal characters such as Oscar Mike, the classic assault rifle guy throwing grenades carrying the usual FPS wares. But there are also options like Rath, who can be described as a mix of Samurai and Jedi, specialised on melee with his katana. But the first hero we tried was Orendi, the Chaos Witch.

She is clearly one of the characters who can be played a bit more aggressively. With her four hands she continuously fires purple energy balls at the enemy and she also has powerful magical attacks. One of them evokes an energy column which sends a slightly delayed strike and can wipe out whole groups of enemies with good timing. Should things get too crowded for the aggressive Orendi, you have the option to push back advancing enemies and thus let the witch jump back a little in order to regain the necessary distance. All of these attacks can be enhanced with additional effects.

Each character enters the mission at Level 1 and you can work your way up in the 30-45 minute long missions to Level 10. With each level there's two options when it comes to upgrades. A short press on the D-Pad and you can make a choice between your options via the triggers. At first, it will take time to read the descriptions, but as you get used to the systems in play, it'll only take a few seconds glance and make your choice and select an upgrade, such as a self-healing bonus or an additional stun effect.

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With Orendi, you'll see your four hands in first-person rather than the typical assault rifle. A visual that emphasises how distinct this game is from your traditional shooter. But there's an even greater difference if you opt for another Battleborn.

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Marquis, the Steampunk Robot Butler with a melon hat (you read that correctly) turns his walking stick into a sniper rifle and plays completely differently from the daredevil that is Orendi. You will quickly learn that you have to keep your distance from opponents if you're playing as the feeble Marquis. It's all about deadly head shots from a safe distance. With the help of his pocket watch the polite Butler may slow time in a small area with attacking enemies. His mechanical owl Houdini can dive at enemies. He is reminiscent of Borderlands sniper Mordecai and his faithful companion Bloodwing.

The fairly short session gives us just enough time to try a third character, so we went for Rath and his katana. The horizontal strikes, triggered with the right trigger, make for deadly combos. The left trigger meanwhile fires off a strong vertical slash. You can also pull off lengthy vortex attacks and a ground strike that results in a huge shock wave. Rath is fast and can cover distances quickly and is therefore not as exposed or easily caught by the hail of bullets spewed towards him by the opposition.

The heroes differ not just through their weapons and skills, but also in their movement. Some characters are too big to travel through certain areas. Some can perform double jumps to reach areas that others have to take a detour in order to reach. Also, many of the talents and abilities seem to be solely tailored for versus mode.

The difficulty of co-op mission wasn't very high, the playable scenario built mainly to allow us time to experiment. We were thrown in at Level 4 in the middle of the mission - without any context - and our team of four Battleborn beginners didn't have any problems.

Randy Varnell confirmed that the difficulty had been tuned down in order to allow us to experience and experiment with more abilities. Gearbox are working on two, maybe even three levels of difficulty for the final game.

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We only saw a few cutscenes, as they appeared briefly before a mini-boss interrupted the flow of play. The story is mainly told via radio chatter, and Borderlands fans will be familiar with how the heroes talk about each other. The MOBA concept of levelling up your character during each match could prove to be a real boon for the co-op missions. One of the problems when it came to Borderlands' co-op were those situations where the gap in levels between team members was simply too wide. Either you'd be bored to death because the opponents fall immediately, or every little psycho is an insurmountable obstacle. But of course, players still need to be motivated to keep on playing.

Some of that progression was evident in the campaign. Downed enemies leave small crystals behind - Shards - which serve as a form of currency. They can be used inside missions at specified places for building turrets. Or the Spider Mech, that we have to escort through the level, can be equipped with shields, a healing aura or a turret.

Varnell wouldn't commit to an answer when asked if the shards can also be used on the hero, though he did reveal that there will be a progression system both at Commander level as well as for each Battleborn. It should work similarly to the Badass ranking system in Borderlands. He did not reveal whether this levelling is expressed exclusively via cosmetic improvements. And there will be loot of course.

The set up of the hands-on session left us at a bit of a loss. While it was natural to give this mode priority, without context, challenge and with no real beginning or end, what we experienced felt unnecessarily vague about the game's structure or feel. The upside of that is that we're still curious to find out more.

The game's visual style is perhaps not to everyone's taste, but we enjoyed the toned down basics as they're augmented by a plethora of effects. Battleborn comes across like an old-school video game: colourful, loud, garish and fast-paced. There is tremendous potential for a multiplayer phenomenon there, though there's also the potential of the campaign simply being a throwaway training ground ahead of multiplayer battles, but hopefully that won't be the case.

Battleborn

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