Could Battleborn be the most flexible and accessible team shooter out there?
Video Games
If multiplayer teams worked like high school sports team, I would be picked last pretty much every time.
Not because I don't play a lot of games or because I'm particularly bad at them, but because I've never really had a knack for multiplayer shooters.
Due to my dislike of competitive gaming and my general inability to aim it's a big part of why I usually just avoid them.
Since for me that's synonymous with avoiding embarrassment as 70 times you can die and spot your name at the bottom of the leader board before it's just not fun anymore.
But then I got a chance to play Battleborn GearBlocks' take on the hero shooter genre, a place that Blizzard's Overwatch has been.
More specifically, I got to play the MOBA-esque Incursion multiplayer mode, where two teams of five fight alongside waves of AI to push their way into the opposition's base.
After flipping through literally all 25 characters, I opted for a guardian looking chick called Galilea who fights with a sword and A shield.
Yep, this shooter also includes a number of characters who, in fact, don't shoot.
Half an hour or so later, the match ended, we'd won and I was at the top of the leaderboard.
Most kills, most assists, highest score, and wondering what the hell just happened.
Well here's what happened.
I knew from the start that I wanted to go for one of the melee characters because of my whole **** at aiming thing in addition to being way more confident rushing to the front of the pack and doing close-range flashy damage.
Galilea was a perfect pick.
With a shield and suit of armor, she wasn't so squishy that she was being smacked immediately by the gun toting characters.
And as soon as I could get her in close, nine out of ten times, it spelled the end for my opponents and not me.
For the first time in my gaming life, I played a multiplayer game that catered to the strengths I had to offer to a PvP team.
A play style based on aggression Speed and fast brutal melee combat.
I think that's what feels so promising about Battleborn to me.
It really feels as if there are so many uniquely different combat styles among 25 different characters, which will hopefully play to the strengths of different kinds of players.
I'm pretty sure anyone could and Probably will find the character or characters that work best on the way they like to play.
Much like [UNKNOWN] 2 and Street Fighter players do.
With that said, unlike those games, battle born doesn't have terribly complicated systems.
And it's pretty easy to pick up and play even if you don't know the mechanics.
You point, you shoot, you get up to three special abilities to use.
And the only resource that you really need to worry about Is your health.
A common point of comparison to Battle Born is Hero Shooter Overwatch, but with only one true [UNKNOWN] focused character Ryan Heart, it doesn't appear to have the same flexibility and play style that I find so exciting in Battle Born.
It's still very attached to the idea of being a shooter, and while that's great for those who excel at range, the buck pretty much stops there for the rest of us.
Like Overwatch, many multiplayer shooters cater to different kinds of gun play.
But Battleborn throws in all manner of sword fighters and brawlers on top of their different types of ranged attackers, healers and support.
It feels like Battleborn balances them all out in a way that leads me to think it has the potential to be much Much more accessible than team shooters like Overwatch.
Another factor that allowed me to feel this way is that the size of the incursion map I played on was pretty small.
So it was easier to stick close to your team, and get back to the front lines, and contribute to extra tasks along the way, like liberating AI mercenary camps to get your team some extra Or collect shards which can be used to build towers and other defenses.
Those kinds of tasks are especially attractive to players who may not feel confident enough to help out on the front lines.
Without a doubt, this is the kind of game that will undergo a whole lot of rebalancing before it releases.
That said, this could be the kind of multiplayer game that your friends can not only easily get on board with, but also find that they're on a relatively level playing field for.
I'm excited about the idea of a multiplayer shooter which appears to be flattening the barrier to entry.
Web players of all levels and expertise can find their own niche playing style.
Especially those gamers who may have thought they wouldn't, or couldn't, enjoy themselves Games like this one.
Because I'll tell you what.
Seeing your name at the top of the leader board is bloody fantastic.
[MUSIC]
