Filled with fun characters but lacking soul

Battle- bilities, overwhelming at first but very much appreciated. They also differ in play styles; while one will primarily be a sniper, another will focus on close range encounters.

It’s these variations that make Battleborn enjoyable; without this huge variety, this could get very dull, very quickly. Within a single campaign level (yes, there is a campaign), once the novelty of a new character has worn off, it can get boring. It’s not because this is a bad shooter necessarily, but there’s something lacking - despite the colours and the characters, playing with a random team through many of these levels feels dry, uninspired at times.

What these levels lack is a soul. Each one offers waves of repetitive enemies, spruced up by boss battles every so often. These are by far the highlights of these missions, but due to its eight-or-so hour length, the campaign lacks in content, not helped by a messy story that isn’t worth investing in.

Battles are frantic, offering variety throughout the various game modes. Unfortunately, it takes a lot of investment to gain access to many of the characters and can begin to feel like grinding. On the plus side, the addition of splitscreen multiplayer is fantastic. As with Borderlands, Battleborn is best played with a friend by your side, and often this feature is dearly missed on other games.

Yet, what Battleborn really reminds me of is a much lighter version of Timesplitters - a game that defined my multiplayer experience for some time. Where the Timesplitters series succeeded was in embracing its own ridiculousness, with challenge modes such a curling monkeys poking fun at itself and the genre as a whole. Sure, it was basic, but then again, you didn’t have to be constantly connected to the internet, you could jump in and go.

And what Timepl s i t t ers did, it did well - something Battleborn needs to work on. THE INDEPENDENT