GameSpot's The Lobby: What's the difference between Overwatch and Battleborn?

[MUSIC] All right, so let's talk about some more first-person games. We have no shortage of first-person video games. First-person military games have been around for donkey's years. This year, we got two very colorful first person games. Mm-hm. In fact, one of them's out already, got seven out of ten on GameSpot. Another one's out in a couple of weeks. March tw- sorry March? May 24th, two weeks from now I believe. And I think you're reviewing that one, right? Correct, yeah. All right, so you're reviewing Overwatch. Battle Born's [UNKNOWN]. Yes. The beta for Overwatch closed earlier today. Battle Born is still alive and kicking, bunches of people playing it online at the moment. But one of the sort of the weird questions we keep getting even though people have Access to both games now in some sort of form. It's like what's the fundamental difference between these two games and I think that was a big problem years ago when we had Battleborn, BattleCry and Bloodborne all coming out at the same time [LAUGH]. [LAUGH] They got name it got confusing. Yeah. And then Overwatch obviously came in and people like it's another first person mobile what's going on, what's going, what's going. So we said we'll do a short video sort of just explain what the two games are Because they are actually very, very different. Aaron, first of all, you've played a lot of Battleborn over the past couple of weeks. If you would explain in a nutshell, elevator pitch style, what is Battleborn? Battleborn is a The best way I can describe it is it's a not Borderlands sequel. Okay. It's not Borderlands, but it has the same feel of Borderlands. The same sort of status effects and shooting and weightlessness. You take the shooting formula from Borderlands You, instead of unlocking guns, you're unlocking people who have abilities, and it has an extensive single player campaign, as well as this sort of MOBA-esque multiplayer. And you're playing both just to get your characters unlocked. Are you primarily playing with other people then like sort of Borderlands you could go either way. I played solo most of the time. But most people seem to enjoy pairing off. What's been your experience with in terms of [UNKNOWN]. You have to play with other people. Yeah. You can do the campaign by yourself But it's not recommended. A lot of the challenges you'll find very difficult, particularly if you pick a support class character. Mm-hm. And it's just more fun with friends. It's one of those games where I think your friends are the best part of it. Right. And the characters themselves, I gotta say, they put a lot of love into the characters of Battleborn. They're hilarious, they say really funny stuff while you're fighting with them. They feel like they all have backstories and personality, and they react to the environment differently. And even in multiplayer, they will call things out that surprise me, like, hey there's that sniper guy again, or, so you're supposed to run away from the bullets? One of the guys that died real quickly and he's like so this is our first match. You know their personality shines through and that's my favorite part of the game. Cool. On the other side of us, Mike. A bunch of us have been playing and watching [UNKNOWN] at the moment. Sort of taking that as your starting point. This is sort of a Team based, team co-op sort of experience in the vein of a floaty, weightless [BLANK_AUDIO] Give a word, give me the word. Borderlands. Borderlands game, thank you. What would you explain [UNKNOWN] to somebody who sort of Already knows what Battleborn is. Sure, so Overwatch is more of a class-based multiplayer shooter, competitive. I know a lot of people thought it might be more of a MOBA when it first came out. Incursion Mode in Battleborn is very much a MOBA. There are minions, and you're destroying these towers, or you're destroying these robots that are essentially like the towers and whatnot, before you get to the fortress. Overwatch is more of a, I don't know, like if you took Team Fortress which had nine classes I think, and just made 21 different classes, and made them all crazy and really in-depth characters. It's more, it borrows from, like shooters styles from different shooting games, right. So you have Diva, who's got this tank she can get into, it's like Titanfall. Then you have. Yes, Sarah the airborne rocket here was kind of like a coy character. It's very much taking the best of different shooter genres and pitting them against each other in this very fast paced. The objectives are there but they're almost more to facilitate just the fighting between these really crazy characters. [UNKNOWN] sorta has more all encompassing scenarios in terms of like objectives right? You've got your single player Single-player modes presumably have relatively mediumly complex objectives. And then the multiplayer sort of has a lot of wheels sorta spinning at the same time. Yeah, the single player also has a story, which is a pretty big difference from Overwatch, which is just purely a multiplayer competitive shooter. So I mean, probably the biggest difference between the two is just that Battleborn Does have a story mode. I can't remember exactly how long it is but it's pretty meaty. Each mission can be up to 30 to 40 minutes, depending on how you play them. So like a standard online game as well in Battleborn? Would that be around that time as well, you're talking MOBA length almost? They're a little bit longer than I expected, actually, the multiplayer matches. I don't know, it depends on what you like. People who like that genre would probably enjoy it. I found that they ran a little bit longer than I wanted, but also there's a lot to do other than just kill other people. There's the whole upgrade tree that you go through every match. A lot of that has to do with you farming minions, and preventing minions in certain modes, like I think Incursion, from. They are the things that actually win the match. So it's got some really fun aspects that don't involve you just fighting other people. You can bait other people away from the minions, so that you get the points. Or you can suicide into a pack of enemy minions. It doesn't matter if you die, your K/D doesn't matter. What matters is you stop the minions. And I like the fact that it's not just purely focused on K/D and killing other players. There's actual strategy to it. And in that regard, it's a lot of fun actually. So, though, you were saying like lengths of the maps there around sort of 40 minute mark. And then you also have this in level or in mission leveling system where you sort of digging your there there, level four and then you open up the skill tree. Again, it's sort of like a mobile in terms of either leveling or in terms of acquiring new abilities via shop or You know, upgrading yourself because of the levels, and on the other side of the mic that stuff doesn't exist in our world, and the matches are much shorter. Yeah, the matches, I think the quickest I've done is, I mean, if you're playing on a good team against a bad team, in can be like, 4 minutes, 5 minutes, but the longest I've seen is probably Just above 15 if that, even that- [CROSSTALK] 10 minimum? Right. Because 15 is pretty long. And it's all, you get to attack and defend the objective, where you taking point A and to then is gonna fight back, defend point B and then the attackers win if you do that. Then your scoring is pay low is what kind of There are classes, kinda, there are the tank characters that function better to absorb damage and kinda push an objective. Offensive characters, defensive characters, support like healers and shielders. But yeah, within each match they're static aside from gaining an ult and kinda using that which is their most powerful attack. Battleborn you're actually using that helix system to Gain new abilities as you go and you have the loadout system with the items which is a very mobile thing, too. It's streamlined to Battleborn but in Overwatch it's just your character and their ability- 3 abilities. Go. Yeah. Or maybe some of them have got more obviously. Which sounds, it's deceivingly simple. It seems simple but it becomes complex in how different characters interact with each other and how different characters can buff each other or counter each other if you're on the other team. How different characters can play both offense and defense. It becomes very nuanced the more you play. And I don't even know how many hours I've played now with the beta and the early access, but at this point I'm still playing new characters I've barely touched before. And it's kinda forcing you to realize how all these layers interact and it's It's a fun game. Cool. And that's a sort of a top level overlook at those two games, Overwatch and Battle Born. Obviously so much of what you enjoy from a first person shooter comes from just how it feels and how accustomed you are to that in terms of the sort of first person games you usually play. Aaron yourself, which one sort of feels better for you? Which one are you enjoying the most out of the two? It's funny but I'm actually starting to trend towards Overwatch just as a cleaner experience. Battleborn as much as I love the characters, I've had a couple of rounds where especially where I was a melee character. It devolved into wading into large groups of people mashing the attack button with the screen being so full of status effects and just people's bodies and random butts flying by That like the only thing you can tell is if you are in the scrum or out of the scrum. [LAUGH] Right. And other than that you're just staring at your meters and mashing the attack button. Whereas Overwatch in many ways seems to be just a more cleanly focussed title. Mm. But again, if you're a single player person, and you like the characters, and you like the personality of the characters. Then I think Battleborn is more your style. Mm, what about yourself, Mike? I prefer Overwatch at this point, for sure. I'll be playing Battleborn in the weeks leading up to Overwatch's official launch on the 24th. But yeah, Overwatch is just kinda Scratching that itch for. These characters are easy to learn, really easy to learn, each of one of them. Even if you don't, once you grasp the controls, you'll be able to figure it out. The UI's pretty good, but I'm still mastering some of my main characters, or trying to. I don't know if mastering's the right word. That's selling myself too high, but Yeah Overwatch is the one that I'm thinking might be one of my go to games throughout the year. Right. Yeah. Yeah, I kinda feel the same way. I actually sort of feel a little bit sorry for when Battleborn has come out. I feel like this is a game I wish came out back in January or something when there wasn't that much to play because I did, I enjoyed it more than I thought I would because I'm probably not the best person to try and say So about going to because I wasnt a massive fan of Borderlands. And for whatever reason the way that game the shooting works with the numbers popping up and stuff some similar reason. I've never hardly read that much into the vision either, or destiny to that effect. So I don't think I'm exactly the person you should be marketing that game towards anyway. But I do actually really enjoy the incursion mode. That's What it's called, right? In Battleborn- Yeah. That was an enjoyable way of doing that. There was enough happening on screen where it wasn't like the single player's stuff, where it was super crazy and it almost felt like objectiveless, because there's so much going on. Whereas it felt more easy to control than something like Paragon, which I played a little bit the week previous. Which something about the camera Didn't feel right in terms of trying to do these ranged and AOE attacks I thought [UNKNOWN] did a way better version of that. But yeah it's kind of a weird little crisis to have where they're coming out alongside something which Although very, very different, and obviously doesn't have some of the stuff you're talking about, the single player. And some of the core functionality of that game, or at least, just in terms of being a first-person game you play on the internet. It seems like Overwatch and Blizzard are sort of doing their own thing. Is that Rodney Pitchford on the phone calling you? Yeah. [INAUDIBLE] Shut him up, [INAUDIBLE] [INAUDIBLE] Well, we also have LawBreakers on the horizon, too. Yeah, we do, you're right. That was surprisingly, I was surprised with it. I had a good time at Pax East with it. Is LawBreakers basically another Overwatch? No, it's more like, well, yes, it's- [LAUGH] Okay, so it's closer to Overwatch than it is Battleborn. But it's like Unreal mix with Quake. Okay. Which. So a translocator with a railgun. Exactly. Got it. Yeah. Can't wait for that video. LawBreakers. What is LawBreakers? Yeah. We'll do that on next I guess. Thank you so much both of you for coming in. [CROSSTALK] You actually obey the law the entire time. [LAUGH] You play that game. It's like the Battlefield hardline. It's just like show the shield. You drive at the speed limit. [LAUGH] And you. Professionally greet other players in the middle of the map. Hello, sir. [LAUGH] Give him the cap, yeah, looking forward to that one. Yeah, thank you so much, both, for coming in and talking about Overwatch and Battleborn. Let us know in the comments if you've played either or both, if you got involved in the Overwatch open beta. What did you think of that, and have you been enjoying Battleborn? I mean, [UNKNOWN] for a couple of weeks now, so it's a perfect time to go and pick that one up and maybe give it a go. Let us know in the comments below. [BLANK_AUDIO]