Gearbox Software’s new shooter Battleborn is out today, just in case you’ve been living under a rock.  While the game does have a single player campaign, it also has an extensive multiplayer PvP component. As with many shooters, its going to take us some time to see how the servers hold up, how the progression system works in the long term, and just how fun the game is for extended periods of time. So, in case you were wondering where the final score is, don’t worry. We’ll be updating our review in progress over the coming days with more impressions and videos. But for now, here’s a clip from Digmbot’s launch day stream to tide you over. And don’t forget to jump down past the video when you get done for some more impressions of this new IP.

Battleborn is a hard game to define. Like Overwatch, it’s a hero shooter. Characters have unique weapons and abilities, and you level up throughout the match. However, it also shares some MOBA DNA. As you level up, you choose augments to your basic abilities. You might want to increase the AOE damage of the archer Thorn’s blight pool for example. Or, you may choose to have her gain increased movement speed whenever she touches her own blight. The choice is yours, and it allows you to customize your Battleborn to your chosen playstyle or respond to the in game situation by specializing to deal with certain opponents.

The game does have a single player campaign, which can be played solo, with friends or in public groups. Only a handful of missions are available at launch, with the rest coming out later on. With 25 characters to unlock via mission completion, challenges and more, theres no shortage of content. The game also comes with three modes. Incursion sees you escorting your minions down a lane and building gun turrets, accelerator turrets and more as you try to push into the enemy base and destroy their sentry robots. Meltdown on the other hand tasks you with driving minions into giant furnaces to score points. And Capture, perhaps the dullest of the modes, is a standard capture and hold three points affair.

What sets Battleborn apart is the sense of humor and the way that experience is handled in match. The furnaces in Meltdown think they are gods. As minions are engulfed, they will scream out things like “By fire be reborn aaaas…..HUBCAPS!” Characters have tons of witty one liners. And even the sentry bots that guard the enemy base have their own personalities- I’ll never forget the first time one killed me and then flipped me off during the death cam replay.

Then there’s the way the game handles levelling and experience. In most shooters or MOBAs, you get experience from kills or from taking down significant objectives. While this still holds true in Battleborn you also have other options available. If you want to spend shards (the game’s currency earned from kills as well as object on the map) to build and level up defensive and offensive turrets, the game will reward you with XP. This means that a support focused character can play the map and continue to level up. In addition, gear is taken into battle in the form of loadouts. There is no item shop. Instead, you must spend shards to activate your gear. The better the gear, the more shards it costs to activate. And, showing it’s Borderlands DNA, the most epic of loot in Battleborn often comes with some significant disadvantages to offset the insane buffs it can provide. All this means that the game allows players to determine how they level up, when they activate gear (if at all) to obtain power spikes, and keeps the action flowing at a pace that never feels frustrating. Getting slaughtered in straight up fights? Sit back, support the team by building healing turrets and get some levels. Kicking ass and taking names? Spend those sweet shards to up your crit chance as you activate that sweet pair of gloves you unlocked in a loot pack after that last campaign mission.

As you can probably tell, theres a lot of interesting ideas in Battleborn. The characters are memorable, the levels are well laid out and the gameplay loop is satisfying and allows you to be flexible in your playstyle. We’ll be bringing you more over the coming days, so stay tuned!

Want the system specs for Battleborn? Click HERE for PredictedCyborg’s preview of what you need to run it.

Still need more gameplay? Check out Lone and Digm playing the open beta HERE.