We may earn a commission when you buy through links in our articles. Learn more.

Battleborn’s debut is flashy but familiar

Battleborn

When Gearbox announced Battleborn in July, the studio had a real problem communicating what exactly it was. “Battleborn is: FPS; hobby-grade coop campaign; genre-blended, multi-mode competitive e-sports; meta-growth, choice + epic Battleborn Heroes,” said Randy Pitchford – which is just a string of nonsense. What it actually sounded like was a MOBA. 

Now the developer is ready to show it off, or at least the co-op campaign portion. The dev walkthrough released today might clear some things up. 

So what it really looks like it Borderlands – complete with diverse classes and colourful characters – with wave-based combat. Doesn’t seem so hard to describe, really.

Teams of Battleborn – in this case a mix of melee, magic and gun-toting soldiers – take on waves of enemies as they attempt to complete objectives and defeat bosses.

The demo is pre-alpha, which might explain why the attacks all seem to lack punch. The art style is striking and the 14 minute video is full of flash and style, but the actual shooting and fighting looks really quite dull. Bullets don’t seem to make an impact, and sword swipes look like they are just cutting air. The little robot enemies don’t make much of an impression either.

A somewhat disappointing first look, then – but it’s certainly very pretty.