Sooo...
Who else was surprised (pos / neg) by the beta?
I was not. I went in expecting little, and after about 20 levels worth of unlocks and whatnot, I was left roundly unsatisfied.
+ This genre (FPS MOBA) has real potential and BB shows that
+ Some great ideas for certain character classes
+ Chat fully integrated is great (compare with recent releases like Battlefront) allowing for proper team organization
+ Item/cosmetic unlocks are pretty good. Good enough to get you to stick to characters.
+ Controls feel right on a controller
+ Fast matchmaking for a MOBA with only a Beta-sized community
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- PC performance left me uninspired. My 980Ti was dropping significant frames @ max settings. I wouldn't be concerned ordinarily but game launch is imminent.
- I didn't like skill unlocks being attached to character levels. Let me have access to all the skills, please. I don't need your hand-holding. It would be like a regular MOBA with half the purchasable items greyed out because...reasons. Fuck outta my face with that.
- The visual clarity never reached a point of satisfaction. Too many effects are either overdone or underdone. The result is a constant clouding and fogging vision when needed, failure to see and confirm target positions or scored hits, or to know from where and whom you are taking damage. Aiming down sights or zooming is often an impossibility if standing on ground-level as explosions, minions and taller friends/foes combine to constantly block FoV.
- Gunplay felt suprisingly uninspired. Coming from Gearbox who has made great gameplay in their Borderlands franchise, I'm surprised to see how genuinely weak weapons feel. Affects some weapons/characters more than others in my experience.
- The skill mod unlocks in the chests (like the +9% crit chance and whatnot) feel strangely implemented. Very strange. It's a MOBA; let me get the perks I need situationally.
- The audio queues are extremely weak to me. When visual clarity is lacking, audio clarity needs to be what clears any and all confusion. Yet most of the audio seemed to me to do a poor job of clarifying what was being done and by whom.
- Almost everyone having some sort of AoE field casing ability felt lazy. Why does the archer have an aoe cast ability? Why aren't all of her abilities focused around her agility, ability to reposition and arrows? One of just many examples, as just about everyone has one in their kit. zzzzzz.
- Character designs feel truly all over the place. There doesn't seem to be a consistent design thread that runs through any of them and ties them to the game world. Not a big deal, just...few of the characters felt like they meshed visually with the game or other characters.
- Game doesn't feel as good on a KB&M to me as it did on the controller. Unfortunately the speed of the game makes controller play largely untenable. Especially if focusing on characters like Phoebe who need to turn fast to keep enemies in front of her. It didn't feel bad; it just doesn't feel as natural. Game was clearly designed for a controller. I suspect the game is a bit more enjoyable on consoles.
Game feels alright to me I guess. Nothing special and nothing I'd spend $60 on. I hope it's a success but this game launches into a crowded FPS field with heavy new competition inbound. People making a choice might not end up buying this game due to some if the perceived weaknesses and high asking price compared to its competitors (every major MOBA is Free2Pplay, CSGo and similar games are free and Overwatch is $20 less). I get the feeling its initial success will ride heavily on extremely favorable reviews. If it doesn't deliver, it will have a decent lifespan on consoles and a short lifespan on PC.
I wish them good luck and look forward to Borderlands 3. I think I'll be passing on Battleborn until it's like $20 and if there's still a meaningful community left. Maybe not at all if the visual clarity and audio clarity aren't drastically improved. This is the only game in the FPS genre that I've had this kind of clarity issue with. Not TF2, not CSGo, not Overwatch, not Planetside 2, not UT, not Quake, not Doom. Only with this game.