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The roster of playable heroes within Blizzard’s Heroes of the Storm is due to grow by another two in the coming weeks according to the developer of the game.
Entering the Nexus now are Diablo III’s archangel of hope, Auriel, and World of Warcraft’s Gul’dan. We don’t have a specific date, but you can see the models now in Blizzard’s latest developer diary if you just can’t wait to see what they’ll look like. Each will come with palette swapped skins, as well as the Master skin you can gain once you’ve gotten well good with them in-game and proven it.
Also coming along with the two new characters are some new skins for existing heroes. King Arthas (from WoW), Johanna (from Diablo) and Li Ming (also Diablo) are going to get new skins as well.
Recently a lot of companies have been getting stricter with players found cheating in their online multiplayer games. For example, after some well-publicized exploits within the new game The Division Ubisoft not only implemented some new detection methods but upped their ‘first offense’ penalty while keeping the ‘second offense’ the same as it had always been – perma-ban.
Now Blizzard have come out saying that anyone found cheating in their new game Overwatch will get a permanent ban as well. Difference is, Blizzard aren’t messing around and have said they will do this upon a player’s first offense.
To be totally clear the quote from the post about cheating on the Overwatch forums says that Blizzard will slap this ban upon any player “found to be cheating—or using hacks, bots, or third-party software that provides any sort of unfair advantage”. It then goes on to inform players about how they can report cheating as well as the guidelines for doing so.
Blizzard have a small history of this, having tackled cheaters in Diablo the same way back in 2012 and also banned botters in Hearthstone during 2014; although that occasion saw the bans only being temporary ones.
Check out the topic here for the full details. And make sure you behave in game when Overwatch releases on May 24th. Wouldn’t want to see any of you banned for not playing fair. 😉
Battleborn is an interesting collection of ideas. Taking Gearbox’s trademark humor, first person shooting, hero abilities and throwing them into a blender with a cooperative campaign and three multiplayer modes, it gets most things right but leaves some room for improvement. This is arguably an entry into the emerging Hero Shooter genre, similar to Paladins and Overwatch. Gearbox has put it’s own spin on things however, and the combat in the game is unique and feels surprisingly good. But more on that in a minute. First off, let’s break down the modes.
Single Player
Battleborn comes with an 8 mission campaign, with more missions to be added later in the year. This campaign can be experienced either solo, cooperatively, or with strangers via the public queue in game. Up to 5 players jump into scripted missions with minimal story. The story is told through radio chatter and dialogue between various NPCs. Most of this dialogue is going to consist of “Oh no, bad guy A is going to destroy thing B. We must top it!” It’s not ground breaking, but neither is it bad. The voice acting in the game is well delivered and gives each character a sense of personality and purpose. Its just that the story seems like so much fluff for some rather generic objectives.
Most missions will see you either escorting an NPC through the level, guarding a base of some sort, or doing both. This can quickly get tedious as failing to defend a base, or letting your NPC companion die means a complete restart. Seeing as how missions can take upwards of 40 minutes to complete on the higher difficulty levels, this can be extremely frustrating and punishing. On a positive note, the game is well balanced, the levels are easy to traverse and in true Gearbox style, whenever you complete one you are showered with loot. Similarly, the hordes of enemies that you face are distinctive, fun to fight and can provide quite the challenge on higher difficulty levels. Although with a well handled team of five, none of the encounters I’ve played are what I would call Dark Souls level hard.
As a note, there are elements of the single player that are shared with the multiplayer and I will go into them in more detail in that section – things like collecting shards to activate gear or build emplacements to combat the NPC enemies, and the levelling system. In addition, due to the way the single player campaign works outside of co-op (you vote on which maps to play, and people tend to choose the maps that offer characters as rewards rather than going through in order) I have been unable to finish 3 of the 8 missions due to lack of co-operative partners to play with. We plan to rectify this and will amend the review, but that’s dependent on Lonesamurai.
Multiplayer
The real meat of Battleborn lies in the multiplayer. The game is broken up into three distinct modes: Capture, Meltdown and Incursion. Capture is the simplest, consisting of three capture points that you and the enemy team fight over control of. The more points you control, the faster you accumulate points. The first team to 1,000 points wins.
Meltdown on the other hand is an interesting mashup of FPS sensibilities and MOBA elements. Each side starts in opposing bases. In between are two lanes running in between, each of which contains an insane talking furnace named MINREC. Teams must escort their minions down the lane and into the maw of the furnace as he screams about environmental responsibility, spouts statistics and gleefully shouts at the minions to be reborn as various new objects such as a replica sword or a shopping cart with a wobbly wheel. Once a team reaches 250 points, their furnaces will move further back, forcing them to protect their minions longer. Scattered about the map are emplacements that you can spend shards on. These shards are awarded for completing objectives, killing enemy Battleborn or minions and for shattering large and small shard crystals found around the map. Emplacements vary from damaging turrets, accelerators that will provide a speed boost and spawners that will place giant special minions onto the field.
Conversely, those shards can be used to activate gear that has been brought into battle. This gear is generally awarded through completing campaign missions, levelling characters up to a certain point or they can be acquired via loot packs purchasable with in game currency. Up to three pieces of gear can be equipped at in any given loadout, and depending on the rarity of the gear costs a larger amount of shards to activate. This system applies to all three game modes and creates a surprising element of strategy within each match. You can choose to play the map and level up emplacements, earning XP as you do so. Or you can choose to save your shards and activate your gear to gain passive power and defensive attributes. Smartly, Gearbox has crafted this system in such a way that both playstyles are not only rewarded but can make a significant impact on the outcome of a match.
Incursion, the final mode, is a break the base mode that involves a central area with tons of minions and Battleborn clashing in a constant explosion of violence. Each base is guarded by two sentry robots. There are also multiple NPC camps about the level. You can attack these minions and upon their defeat, they will join you in battle as powerful pushers. Its important to have minion backup when taking on the sentries, as they will make quick work of a single player character. Speaking of characters….
Presentation
Complimenting these game modes is a wide cast of characters. Battleborn features 25 characters, with more planned later. All characters and maps will be free, however Season Pass holders will get codes to unlock the new characters immediately. Players without the season pass will likely have to complete a challenge to gain access to the new characters. Unlike some other hero shooters, Battleborn has a both ranged and melee characters. There is a lot of balance on display here, and all the characters have their own unique moves and personalities. Theres Rath, the dual sword wielding space sith who is totally not a vampire; Kelvin the living crystal monster who likes shiny things and Orendi the four eyed magic wielder just to name a few. Most characters are unlocked via mission or challenge completion.
In game, each character has a primary attack, some type of secondary such as a shield or sidearm or blade and three abilities. Two abilities will be unlocked from the start of a match and the third Ultimate ability will become available once level 5 is reached. At the start of every match, all players start at level 1 and gain levels via map actions, completing objectives or killing enemy Battleborn. Each time you level up, you can access the Helix, which looks rather like a DNA helix. Each level of the Helix contains two choices that will modify your abilities in some way. The bow wielding Thorn for example, can have her scattershot of arrows changed to fire in a wider arc for more AOE damage, or tightened up to three more precise bolts for a concentrated punch. These levelling choices provide depth to each match by allowing you to react to the battlefield and choose abilities that will let you counteract the enemy team.
In terms of graphics, Battleborn is gorgeous in motion. It shares a similar art style with Borderlands in that it seems cellshaded in a way, but also has fully 3d models and some reasonably high resolution textures. It’s bright and cartoony, splashing the screen with brilliant color at every opportunity. However, this is a double edged sword. Battleborn in the middle of a giant 5v5 fight is a mess of chaos and particle effects. After a few matches, I found myself able to sort through the chaos, but I still had situations where I didn’t know quite where I was once a battle cleared up.
Characters are distinct, voice lines are well delivered and; on the PC at least; the game runs silky smooth. It’s important to note that the console versions are locked at 30 FPS, which may be a major negative for some players. All in all though, Battleborn is gorgeous and plays extremely well.
Verdict
Battleborn is a great game. It can be chaotic at times, and it suffers from a lack of map variety. Each mode only has two maps available making for a total of 6 multiplayer maps. The characters and voice acting are great, but they single player campaign suffers from some repetitive design and frustrating failure states. All in all however, Gearbox has crafted a lively and vibrant shooter with some truly unique game modes and playstyles.
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.
