Ever wanted to take the strategy and character diversity of MOBA's like League of Legends and Smite, with the art style, witty dialogue and crazy action from games like Borderlands? Well now you can. Gearbox and 2K, the studios behind the Borderlands franchise (*squeals with excitement*), have decided it's time to take their games to the market of online multiplayer battle arenas. The game in question: Battleborn. Battleborn has a ton of great elements that make it a unique game to hit shelves next month. I got to play in the open beta of Battleborn for about 4 days, and took away a myriad of similarities and differences that this game has when looking at other MOBA's. Here below are all the major things you need to know to decide if you would like to partake in this insane futuristic MOBA.

Image Courtesy of mentalmars.com

Characters (Referred to as Battleborn):

(Editor Note: Using Battleborn in the sense of the characters and the game is really confusing to read, so I will be referring to the Battleborn characters as just 'characters', while using the term Battleborn to allude to the game as a whole).

Battleborn, like any MOBA has tons of unique characters from different factions of the game. Taking place in a pre-apocalyptic universe, the game has a diverse cast of characters who all want to save the universe in their own unique way. There are 5 main factions, each faction having a range of offensive, defensive and support characters. I'll list off the factions, but for the most part of it, besides the story, their faction has no effect on their actual gameplay.

Last Light Consortium (LLC): The Cybernetic-enhanced fighters who just want to make a buck off of whatever they can. Fighting for peace so they can protect their hard earned cash, stolen cash, and just their cash in general.

Eldrid: These guys are all about nature. From ice walls to poisonous AOE spells, these guys are all about bringing the natural way of life back into the universe.

Jennerit Imperium: The Bad guys who fight for good, these are the dark magicians, vampires and overall ne’er-do-wells that take no prisoners on the battlefield.

United Peacekeeping Republics: While the name might hint at some sense of organized fighting style and composure, the UPR has no shortage of crazy personalities and hot shots who just want to end conflict the old fashioned way.

Rouges: Essentially, the last survivors of the home planet the game takes place on, this group of fighters, mages and who-knows-whats just want to defend their home planet, and don't mind blowing up some robots to do it.

Image Courtesy of idigitaltimes.com

Gameplay:

Helixes:

Leveling up during your missions allows you to take a skill in your helix tree. Upon starting out on a new character you have 2 choices per level of what you want to buff. These normally are skills that are attributed to a character's abilities, or their stats and movement. Once you reach certain levels of mastery with a character, then you unlock 3rd options in various levels. You do not have to stick in the same tree, as each level gives a choice, regardless of the last one. These can shape the way you play your game, going more offensive, defensive, support or utility, depending on the selected character.

Gear/Loadouts:

Once you hit command rank 3 (overall player level = command rank), then you get to unlock loadouts and gear slots. Each loadout has room for 3 pieces of gear, normally increasing stats to buff offense or defense. You can equip 3 pieces of gear per loadout, and get gear through leveling up and purchasing the within game money earned through story and multiplayer missions. Gear has to be activated in game by collecting enough shards (see info on shards below). For example, I (playing as Thorn, an Eldrid Archer) kept one page with critical damage and movement speed, to be a long range assassin, and another page with more defensive gear, so last though longer skirmishes and story missions with large waves of enemies. There is a ton of gear, so picking the pages that work for you shouldn't be a problem. If you want it, there's gear for it.

Shards:

Shards are the equivalent of gold in most MOBA's. You primarily get shards by destroying large shards on the map, or walking over smaller shards spread out near the base. Shards are used to activate your gear in game, meaning your loadouts are of little use if you can't use them. Shards also allow you to activate certain objectives in game modes such as minion accelerators, turrets, and large battle minions. A good strategy is for one member of the team to try and get shards for objectives, and make sure everyone else can get enough shards for gear, but focus on the main objective.

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The Story Mode:

It's common knowledge that most video games have story lines that are key components of the game. Story modes however are not really a mainstay of the everyday MOBA. There certainly is no career mode option when you log in to play League or Dota. So Battleborn provides something extra to its online experience. The Story (as of the open beta) has 8 chapters, each with unique settings and objectives that must be completed.

Plot:

The Universe has been all but destroyed by a race known as the Valresi, led by the evil overlord Rendain. You are holding off the last star, Solus from their relentless onslaught, banding together with life forms from other races to try and hold on to the last spec of light in the universe.

Story Gameplay:

The first chapter entitled 'The Algorithm', is a basic "beat waves of enemies and destroy several checkpoints to get to a final boss" fight. This is definitely the way the game is meant to be learned, with the public multiplayer allowing for 5 member teams to complete the levels. The Algorithm begins with killing a large wave of enemies in a bridge like structure, and working your way to the other end. You cannot get much simpler than that, and most of the enemies (barring some bruiser and sniper like foes) are one or two shot kill grunts.

The largest issue that the story has is that since it is made to be played online with others, despite the checkpoints, there are no save points. Meaning if you leave or lose your lives, you have to start the mission over again. This is not the inherent issue. Although annoying, this structure of levels is common in most FPS campaigns (see any Halo game). What IS the issue is that the levels take around 45-60 minutes to complete, and that is with a full team of 5. This, again, is not a horrible problem and just provides more enemies to kill, but you do get a bit fatigued after a while. I won't spoil any of the Algorithm, but I thought I had gotten to the final boss of the level about 25 minutes before I got to the actual final boss. They can be completed solo or with a few friends, but you will need some great communication and skill with the game along with the right combination of characters.

If you like long story missions that take great teamwork, teach game basics, and provide high body counts at the end, then this is right up your alley. If you are still skeptical, do not fret! The story is only one part of the massive Gearbox creation. We haven't even gotten to the MOBA part yet.

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Online Multiplayer Modes:

There are 3 differing game types that exist in Battleborn as of the open Beta. All of these offer different ways to play the game, and are all immense amounts of action packed fun.

Incursion:

If I had to pick the one game mode that became Battleborn's MOBA claim to fame, Incursion would be it. Incursion, in comparison to the other game types, requires the most objective control and knowledge of how the game is played. The reason it seems to be the one that could be the staple MOBA format is because it is the most similar to other MOBAs in terms of how to win. Go down a series of lanes and destroy objectives at the end. What differs this mode from other MOBA's is pretty much everything else about it.

The end objective of Incursion is to destroy the enemy team's large spider drones, one that spawns in the midpoint of the map, and one that spawns near the team bases. Teams must fight at the mid-point to push onward and destroy the enemy team's outer drone. Once the enemy's outer drone is destroyed, then your team can move onwards to take down the enemy team's second drone. It sounds all too simple. In the mix are waves of enemy minions, neutral mercenary camps you can hire to help, shards to collect and buy extra turrets or minions, and of course, the enemy team. The time allowed is 30 minutes, and if you can manage to take down the second drone in this time, it's normally within the last 5 minutes. There is so much strategy that can be developed for this mode, and allocating the right balance of offense, support and defense, between having a frontline, a backline and a utility person to collect shards for team structures, all make up the complex game that might just be the next source of esports tournaments everywhere.

Meltdown:

If you don't want to have to sit around strategizing with your team when you could be killing the enemy, slaughtering your own minions, or hearing sarcastic comments from an omnipotent AI overlord, then Meltdown is for you. The goal of this mode is to simply sacrifice as many of your minions as you can, by getting them to a checkpoint where they are immediately eradicated. Each minion has a point value, and first team to 500 wins. It's hectic, though, as the smaller map means that all 10 of you are fighting for your teams minions at once, in a battle of minion farming, champion despawning, witty AI goodness! It's a fun game mode that has a lot of quick paced fighting, so your Melee fighters and burst mages get to really shine here.

Capture:

Not a lot of information on capture has been released, and it was not open to play during the open beta. It is going to be sort of a point capture game, with several checkpoints that your team has to hold for a certain amount of time to achieve victory.

Image Courtesy of battleborn.com

Battleborn hits shelves for PC, PS4 and XBOX One on May 3rd, and will cost you about $60 USD (50 €, and 31 £ respectively). I am more than willing to make that investment, and if this article swayed you check it out on steam or pre-order it, I am glad to have helped. If you guys have any Battleborn questions, or just want to talk about the game more, feel free to tweet me @Buns_and_Roses. Hope to see everyone online next month!

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