A Return to BattleBorn

Battle Born Post Beta

I know I said I would never return to Battle Born, but it went on sale for $10 and I figured what the heck.  I will say that it is a considerable improvement from what I played in the Beta, but there are still some issues that made me glad I waited to buy it.

The Bad:

1) It is definitely made for multiplayer.  I don't think they will even try to say otherwise.  It does have a single player mode but the levels are difficult to maneuver and play without at least a second player.  I've only played the first 2 levels so far, but in them its clear you need a distance shooter and a mid-range or defensive player.  You are able to beat the level but you may have to sacrifice a life or two in order to do so.

2) Your lives are numbered still.  They did get rid of the time limits however so kudos there.  But the specific number of lives things is irritating and in the event that I'm mind numb enough to die all 6 times in a game I really don't want to have to start the entire level over (however your teammates can revive you in coop).

3) A ton of characters and no real training on how to use them.  You do get a short prologue with somewhat of a tutorial, but it's only for one pre-determined character.  They don't show or tell you how to equip your attributes you earn on each level.  I was 3 hours into playing before I realized they even existed and that they were the reason my characters where being left behind when playing with others online.

4) Still somewhat slow moving.  They have improved on times for abilities to charge up but movement is still an issue.

5) Leveling up in game sucks.  For every level you play you start over in your leveling system.  I think there are something like 12-15 levels and you can reach these levels in each stage of the game however those levels do not carry over to the next game.  You can keep the loot you earn which helps, but you always start back at the beginning during every match.

The Good:

1) I will admit that I may have been to quick to judge this game as a "I will never return to it again" type game.  It does meet all my requirements of a good game, and I have enjoyed playing it despite its many flaws.  So I will say for The Good #1 it is fun to play.

2) In my previous review I mentioned the art work and animations were beautiful, and now they are even more so!  The anime style prologue and intros mixed with the introduction of the characters that your party chose and the story line art is amazing!

3) Again the characters take front and center.  They are often silly on both sides (good guys and bad) but they really add to the development of the game.

4) I'm not a huge fan of the single player mode as a private match, however I did start playing with an open network and the people I teamed up with really made the experience fun, and it didn't feel like one person was really over powering the team.  If you were smart with the way you chose your character then you ended the match well.  It doesn't show team score post level, but it shows yours by itself so you don't know how your teammates did (**Edit: You can see your teammates score by hitting the RB button and scrolling through different screams post match**).  I avoided the multiplayer as much as possible here though.  Match making didn't seem to have issues either.  I was worried about there being a lack of players this far into the games release but it still seems to have a healthy player market.

5) I was really worried about purchasing the game with it being mostly online play, however the single player mode private, and single player mode public really changed the way I viewed playing the game.  It was definitely worth the $10 but I'd probably not pay any more for it then the $20-30 range with the amount gaming I'll get out of it.