For those who don't know, Battleborn is set in a vibrant, futuristic universe on the verge of destruction. A mysterious force has devoured almost every source of light in the cosmos, and the game's eclectic cast battle over the universe's remaining star.
Battleborn has a single-player campaign, which can be played both in online and split-screen co-op, and Battleborn's multiplayer versus modes feature unique twists on competitive staples. The first is Incursion – in which players defend their bases from the enemy team's players and A.I. minions in similar fashion to a typical MOBA. The second is Capture – which combines death match and point-capture gameplay modes, and the third is Meltdown – which tasks players to defend their team's A.I. minions as they move towards an objective at the center of the map.
Regardless of how you play Battleborn, you get rewarded with points and levels allowing you to permanently customize your character's skills and abilities. Gearbox claims that no two heroes will be the same, and at the very least – that's certainly seems to be true of the following character reveals.
Deande - Stealth Assassin
Deande is a melee fighter with decoy and stealth skills. She wields war fans which deal tremendous damage when in range, and can be thrown to deal ranged damage in a pinch. Some of Deande's abilities include the Burst Dash, which allows Deande to close the gap with ranged fighters, in addition to weakening opponent's damage output. Holotwin, which enshrouds Deande in a stealth cloak and leaves an A.I. duplicate in her stead, which continues to fight while she sneaks away and finally, Blink Storm, which stuns enemies in a conical area of effect, dealing massive damage in the process.
Like all Battleborn heroes, Deande's skills can be augmented using the game's progression system. Some of the augments allow her abilities to drain health from her victims, deal more damage or in the case of Holotwin, boost survivability.
Ghalt - Heavy Gunner
Ghalt is a heavy gunner, with dual-wield automatic shotguns and a penchant for traps. Ghalt's damage output might seem slower than Deande's, but his abilities give him greater potential to control the battleground. Ghalt's Scraptrap ability will stun, and damage foes absent minded enough to trigger it, and for those that aren't, Ghalt can pull them into traps using his grappling hook ability. Ghalt can also equip a second shotgun for a 10-second double damage boost, which should help him to rapidly take down foes stunned by his traps.
Some of Ghalt's augments allow the hook to steal shields and health from enemies, grant slowing status ailments to foes or increase the survivability of his scrap mines.
Both trailers reveal that you'll be able to customize your heroes with unique outfits and taunts, which continues trends seen in Destiny and other upcoming multiplayer shooters. Battleborn could go directly head to head with Blizzard's Overwatch a superficially similar hero-based arena shooter which is also targeting a Q2 launch. Which (if any) will you pick? Let us know in the comments.
Battleborn launches on May 3rd, 2016 for Xbox One, PC and PS4.
