Heyooo readers, grab your guns and come help me sort this out because honestly I'm tired of seeing it flooding my interwebs. Huh? You don't know what I'm talking about? You don't like shooters? Well I'm not very good at them myself but enjoy the occasional romp online, the point is recently I have gotten into a game called Battleborn, and despite having great difficulty with it at first, I am slowly becoming better at it which is quite nice. Now for those of you who don't know, Battleborn is a mixed genre co-op FPS (First Person Shooter) and MOBA (Multiplayer online battle arena) which was birthed by Gearbox, the studio who brought us the frantic hilarity that is the Borderlands franchise. Now, the day it was released May 3rd, was also the day that Blizzard released their hero shooter, Overwatch's BETA.
Now you may shrug to yourself and say "Well ok, cool, 2 games with unique, personality-filled heroes on the same day, quite glorious no?" Well yes, but people don't take it like that, let's be honest, barely anyone ever can, human mentality is always my team versus yours these days, why do you think the US only ever allows for 2 political parties to take up all the media space, it's simpler for them to just have red vs blue... umm I'm getting side-tracked, the point is now these games have unavoidably been pitted against each other, you are now either team Overwatch or Team Battleborn, and you can't talk about one online without it being somehow compared to the other in the comments to follow.
Again, this is not to say that everyone is like this, but a majority of people are and it gets rather tiresome when I want to look up some BB content only to see a slew of Overwatch comparison videos in my search... That is irritating, it almost seems as though people don't wish to try this game for fear that they will somehow be barred from playing Overwatch as well, and believe me, I am not bashing Overwatch, in fact, I am quite fond of Blizzard and cannot wait to play it myself (I mean they still haven't gotten me off the Hearthstone hype train, so Overwatch is just something more from them that I can't wait to dive into.) That said from what I have seen, there is no reason for these two games to be competing against each other and otherwise splitting fanbases into rivals. One is a FPS MOBA and the other is a traditional FPS, but more in line with the Team Fortress model, which is great since Valve has an issue with making 3rd installments into games.
Both have something interesting to offer and both have things I dislike, however both are very different, seriously, at the risk of sounding like a broken record, aside from the characters being unique heroes and them both being in FPS format, what else do these games have in common? Go on, I'll wait..............................................huh? Oh, you haven't said anything yet, ok I'll wait................................................................................................. ok I'm tired of waiting, I do chuckle at the thought of someone yelling at their screens like if this were an episode of "Dora the Explorer" and I'd somehow react when you did. :D As for those who didn't say anything, then you understood my point, gameplay-wise, these are 2 very different experiences. For one in Battleborn you have a single player campaign, split screen co-op (which is a huuuuuuuge plus as far as I am concerned), and objective based competitive multiplayer; whereas in Overwatch you get a much shallower experience, which is not a bad thing per-say, simply stating that it's a game in which you just hop in and kill the enemy with colorful unique heroes (still a good time as far as I am concerned).
In Battleborn's gameplay you have leveling, shards, buildables, gear, and you are stuck with the hero you choose for the entirity of the 15-30 minute match, that's right, 15-30 minutes, Battleborn's competitive MOBA style game has you undergoing long, strategic battles over Overwatch's hop in and play modes. Now don't get me wrong, Overwatch's simplicity is a plus as it's great for a few rounds of pushing a car and killing, and all you need to worry about "collecting" are health packs when you are in need, the straight-forward nature is addicting and appealing, and I can definitely understand that. Quite similar to the old school Battlefield vs COD debates, where Battlefield was a grander scale to COD's jump in "arcadey" shooter style. Additionally, both games offer loot systems at the end of matches, while Battleborn's loot system is towards gear for future rounds, Overwatch's seems to be more cosmetic in nature with character skins and the like. Overwatch is also more like a regular FPS in the since that the time to kill is quick and to the point, for example, head shots are one-shot kills the vast majority of the time; whereas in Battleborn, players are much slower to kill, and deaths can be brutal in the late game due to the longer waits for respawns, again making it the deeper of the 2.
All in all, I would like to end this by re-iterating that again, just because they are both shooters with distinct playable characters all with their own unique skills and weapons, doesn't mean they are the exact same game, nor does it mean that you must ally yourself with a certain camp and not play the other. Enjoy them both, as for the time being, neither are stepping into micro transaction territory, that is a welcome note; though Blizzard has been sketchy when answering fans about future business models for the game, so keep your eyes peeled and your wallets close. In the end, I feel I repeated myself a bit too much, much like many who have done this comparison before me, and will undoubtedly continue to make after the fact when Overwatch officially launches later this Spring.
With that I leave you to enjoy whatever you choose to play, be it Battleborn, Overwatch, or the new Pokemon Sun and Moon coming out in November #TeamRowlet
Much Love,
Wachi
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