Battleborn

Open Beta Impressions (April)

Standing somewhere between a MOBA and Call of Duty, Battleborne finds the right balance between the genres. It neither slavishly abides by the template set by League of Legends and Dota 2to a fault like Paragon nor feels so far removed that the only thing left are player abilities, as is the case with Blizzard's Overwatch. The result is a fast, creative combination of the two that is continuously entertaining but may lack the depth to keep players invested for long.

Whether decided by its overlords at 2K or internally, Battleborn announced itself as a FPS MOBA-alternative only to parade out other multiplayer modes and a single-player campaign no once asked for. It feels like a tax put upon those that only want to play its excellent Incursion mode and it highlights the mode's biggest problem as it currently stands: There are only two maps (one of which is present in beta) with a vague promise of more to come for free post-launch.

Incursion intelligently revises the traditional MOBA structure of three-lanes, towers and a base. As best displayed by the sluggish awkward pace of Paragon, action games require a different pace whether achieved by mobility or smaller arenas. The dance between teams trying to bring the fight under their own tower doesn't work well in an action game. Incursion puts the focus on creep waves by boosting their impact -- whoever can guide their creeps the furthest will have the lead. This allows constant conflict and a thrilling tug-of-war that isn't done until a match ends.

Towers are nowhere to be found but in their place are set turrets that players can build at key points of conflict on the map. Most of these can be built by either team, so territorial control plays a vital part in a match. The same is true of the Thrall, which act as a jungle: one near each team's base and two together in the middle-edge of the map. Instead of leveling you up, the importance of these neutrals is that you recruit them after and they help you further push your lane.

Being limited to a single lane leads to the game's biggest problem: This feels more like an innovative new FPS game mode than a MOBA. MOBAs keep players' interest despite having one map (usually) due to the strategic possibilities that can happen in a match: the way characters can be customized, the multiple lanes that require attention, and the different ways that character powers can be combined to achieve varying results. You won't find this level of depth in Incursion and the lack of maps means the immediacy and excitement of a grueling tug-of-war might get old after some time. Maybe three lanes would remove the pacing of the game, but I'd be curious to see how two lanes would work out.

Gearbox has outdone themselves with Battleborn's roster. With 25 characters, I expected a lot of repeats and unimaginative loadouts but of the half I played (need to unlock the rest), I was pleasantly surprised by how each feels different yet controls great. It's a shame that both teams build their roster blindly, not knowing their opponent's until the match begins. Battleborn has a few hard support classes (a healer, another character that buffs shields) but the game goes so fast that you want strong melee and ranged characters to push as fast as possible and get first blood. Maybe balancing will change this, but characters not suited for this fall behind quickly while characters that can guarantee a kill with their ultimate are favored above the rest.

The FPS MOBA dream that fans and developers have may very well be dead soon and the victors will be Blizzard and Gearbox who understood that it's better to take select elements from the MOBA than to apply them wholesale in a shooter. Battleborn won't consume my life for a year in the way DOTA 2 did, but I can see it becoming a nightly ritual for a good month or two. The great controls, tense matches and ongoing character and equipment unlocks create one of the most infectious loops in a multiplayer game I've experienced this generation. But once players have fully explored the characters and learned all the tricks to optimizing their play, there will be only boredom left. I'll take a month of fun with Battleborn than a lifetime of misery with Smite and Paragon, however.