Disclaimer: I got this game in a humble bundle for a much lower price.

Battle-Born had bad luck and received a bad rep early on. Its release was thrown into shadow by the Overwatch beta, and it never took off. The community quickly died and the game was left unplayed. With the recent "Humble 2k Bundle 2" in which you could purchase the game for $15 instead of the usual $70, the community got a bit of a jump start.

I've had no troubles finding matches in multiplayer modes, and the wait times have been minimal. The gameplay is smooth and entertaining and puts a bit of a twist on the classic MOBA. The campaign was also quite enjoyable even though I haven't played co-op.

Battle-Born has a very large amount of potential and as long as the community holds, I don't see this game dying any time soon. The developers are very active and there are plenty of updates to show for it. I could definitely see the game becoming a popular E-sport as soon as they buff a few characters to even the field.

Being that Battleborn has been created by the team behind Borderlands and has similar stylised visuals, the two were always going to be compared to each other. And right from the outset, it is plain to see that there is a heavy Borderlands influence in much of Battleborn. But they are indeed separate entities, with Battleborn taking a MOBA style approach with the multiplayer element of the game, and featuring new characters and a different setting. The premise behind Battleborn is that five races are vying to control the last star, but decide to put their disagreements aside to battle the evil Varelsi, who want nothing more than to destroy the star and plunge the galaxy into darkness.

The initial cutscene does a great job giving us this brief backstory. It also emphasises the fast paced nature of the game with some up-tempo tunes. Indeed, I played one early mission as the sniper character known as Marquis and took my time thoroughly scouring the locales for all the bonuses and credit shards. Apparently, there’s a time limit, and I used up the allotted time. OK, so I did spend a couple of minutes making myself a cup of coffee…but a time limit for the single player portion of the game? Really?

I didn't make that mistake again. Besides that gripe, the private singleplayer (with AI) or public co-op missions (with online compatriots) are rather enjoyable. The co-op allows five friends (or indeed strangers) to team up to play one of the eight story chapters that follow on from the tutorial style introduction. Although there are only eight chapters and there really isn’t that much of a story - apart from the battle for the last remaining star - the levels are well designed and journeying through them with a couple of mates is a heap of fun.

Apart from the playing co-op, there are currently three multiplayer modes, each with 3 maps. Capture mode is basically a Capture-the-Flag derivative where teams must capture and protect various points within the map. The other two modes are somewhat more original. The Meltdown mode has teams guiding groups of minions towards a minion grinder at the centre of the map, somewhat like a bunch of lemmings falling off a cliff to their deaths. The goal of your team is to get as many minions as possible to their destination whilst preventing the opponents from doing so. The Incursion mode has teams attempting to find and destroy two Sentry Bots, with the first team to destroy both declared the winners. All modes feel extremely well balanced, giving teams a chance to catch up if they fall behind at the start.

The variation comes in the form of the character roster, or as they are known, the Battleborn. With 26 characters to choose from, you would think that some of them would be largely familiar. But this isn’t the case. Although the characters would fit into stereotypical classes, their special abilities give them an individuality that sets them apart from another character of a similar class. As you would expect though, not all characters are available from the get-go and need to be unlocked by completing missions or accomplishing specific goals.

Combat feels somewhat more basic than in other shooters, primarily because most characters are limited to one weapon (with increasing capabilities) and their two (or three) special abilities. Unlike Borderlands, where new guns were as rare as grains of sand on a beach, in Battleborn, gamers are pretty much stuck with the same preset weapon throughout the entire mission. But they also have the use of the character's special abilities. These abilities have increased effectiveness as the missions progress through leveling up. And leveling up happens quite quickly throughout the course of a mission, and at each upgrade point, players get to select one of two upgrades to their abilities through the Helix system.

These special abilities can take a little bit to get used to and a strategy is often required for when best to use these powerful attacks. Boss Battles (which are presented in much the same way they are in Borderlands) are particularly important for ability use. These battles can often be drawn out and do provide a challenge in both single player and co-op. Along the way, players will be able to collect bonuses that give short term gains, such as increased speed or shorter cool-downs for abilities. Credit shards can also be collected. These shards are used as the in-game currency and allow gamers to purchase turrets, traps or drones that aid in destroying the enemy.

Like Borderlands, Battleborn is full of colour, and the stylish visuals are painted with the same brush. The cartoon style visuals, combined with the often humorous quips, add to the comic nature of the game, giving the impression that it doesn’t take itself all too seriously. It all feels like a classic Saturday morning cartoon. Indeed, the opening cinematic had me reminiscing about He-Man and Astro Boy. Despite many things happening on screen, the interface is simple and easy to decipher. Shield levels and health are clear, enabling gamers to take added cover if their shields are low. Voice acting too, is clear and understandable, with each of the characters being discernible from others.

Battleborn has clearly been influenced by Borderlands in a host of ways. The visuals, the humour and even many of the gameplay aspects such as the loot crates and shield regeneration, seem to come right from the Borderlands school of gaming design. If I was to sum up Battleborn, it would be Borderlands with new characters and a new setting and an added MOBA style multiplayer component. Of course, as a gamer who played countless hours roaming over Pandora and Elpis, there isn’t too much wrong with that, as all the Borderlands games have been enjoyable. Battleborn, despite the simplistic nature of the combat and time limit issues, is still a fun jaunt, and one that has a ton of replayability due to the characters alone.

I can't believe my eyes.. Only 64% of reviews are positive...
Game isn't THAT bad.
I played it for a few hours and I enjoyed it.

-Single player-
You can play single player alone, with friends or with random players.
Story mode felt interesting (funny, how people are hating Battleborn's prologue while I watched it and tried to understand, what's happening in BB's universe). I played about 3 missions (I am not counting the 1st one) with random people and it was fun (75% of players were nice and helpful while the other 25% were just players who didn't seem to care about their co-op team (rushing, not waiting for the others, playing only for the.. kills?? Because some of Medic class players didn't do what their class is ♥♥♥♥ing made for.... Yeah..).
I don't suggest playing it alone.. Because I think it would feel emptyish and boring. So.. Go with randoms or friends (I can imagine how much fun this game would be with friends..)

-Multiplayer-
Multiplayer (at this moment, since devs are saying they are working on even more.. and they won't cost anything) has 3 modes:
1st one is something like League of Legends/DoTA2 only in first person (had most fun while I was playing this one)
2nd one is a gamemode where you have to protect your small robots while they are on they way to get eaten. Team which gets its 500 robots sacrificed first - wins.. Of course it's not THAT easy.. But I just can't explain all the details because that would be difficult :/
3rd one is something like Capture the point.. That says it all pretty much.

I must say that in multiplayer I had some teleportation issues (I don't blame servers.. for now.. since my internet isn't good) and I think its optimisation could be a bit better.. But tbh it runs pretty ok.

If I will experience something new/something good or bad I will update this review.

https://youtu.be/gCt2Ad5NrvA
Note: This review is mainly focused on the single player / co-op story mode experience.

+ The gameplay is a ton of fun. It feels very much like borderlands
+ 25 characters to unlock and choose from all with different playstyles, and unique abilities to learn.
+ A unique upgrade tree to enhance your characters weapons / abilities which resets after each mission. Each mission is designed to be played at anytime as they start off easy, and let you gain experience to level before fighting the bosses.
+ An interesting "loadout" system, where you basically equip items that you get from loot (mainly from bosses), which can then be used to give various interesting buffs throughout a mission.
+ The overall artistic direction and graphics of the game are absolutely fantastic!
+ The levels all feel very grand in scale and highly detailed
+ You can build various turrets, drones, and so fourth which can help aid you during difficult sections.
+ Lives.... Unlike borderlands when you go down while playing solo you can actually revive yourself by finding and using lives. This is a huge sigh of relief for solo players out there.
+ Each mission, and all the bosses feel unique and actually fun to play through. Each boss has unique mechanics which you must figure out in order to defeat them, and are often very challenging.
+ The animated 2D cartoon-style cutscenes are an absolute joy to watch
+ There are 9 missions, with each mission being about 40mins long with about 2 major bosses in each. I felt like this was plenty of content for the price I paid for this game especially considering the added replayability with the amount of characters. About 6 hours to finish the game solo.
+ Comical dialogue with some very good voice actors

- The game seems to be focused towards playing co-op with 2-4 players, so if you choose to play solo it will be very challenging at times and can be frustrating.
- The cutscene during the prologue mission is a bit too long, and the rap music did not match up well with what was going on in the scene. It was pretty cringe-worthy to sit through.
- The story... I'm not sure if it was just me, but I had a very hard time understanding what was going on story-wise. Characters tend to talk in the background and are hard to hear as you are mowing through enemies.

Note 2: I think most people giving this game bad reviews are bashing it for the price tag which isn't completely fair. I got the game for cheap and had a great time.

i love how there is this negativity to battleborn due to overwatch existing

to me battleborn is fun and original

although i have gripes like character locks and story difficulty in solo its still entertaining to play

I am not a fan of Borderlands, so it quite surprised me that this game really is enjoying. The artstyle is beautiful, the gameplay feels really good and there is progression going on which I like. I got it in a HumbleBundle for 15 bucks. Never really thought I would buy it, but the whole bundle was a steal and the game is great. I realy don't get the hatred, the creativity in this game is awesome. The humor is funny and the characters are quirky as hell.

Battleborn's latest update gave it both more content and doubled its playerbase, as well as numerous changes in the favor of balance.
Give it a shot.

*****edit*****
I'll leave my original review below, but I want to point out if you're still interested in this game even after the review, humblebundle has it in their bundle along side BL:TPS for $15 until August 2nd, 2016. That's a great deal for BL and getting BB would be a plus at that price point. Not to mention all the other great games with it.
And I want to point out that I know this review sounds like I'm being hard on the game, but I could give this review as a fan and ignore what's keeping it from being great or give the best advice I can for the game in its current state. If things change, rest assured, so will my recommendation!
*****/edit*****

I need to preface my review with the following:
I love the Borderlands series.
I think Gearbox is a very talented developer.
With around 220 hours put into this game, I play it almost every night.
I think it's one of the most fun and unique games I've ever played.

Now then, let's get this out of the way:
Do NOT buy this game. "But... but... why? You just said..."
I know what I said and as a huge fan of the game it kills me to tell you that in its current state for the PC the game is not worth it. The player population has dropped dramatically since release and unfortunately 2K is complete trash when it comes to getting the word out on this game. The game has already seen two DEEP discounts and still can't peak over 1000 players on-line at any given moment. Most of the time it's closer to 500.
That combined with the somewhat lack of PvP variety just makes for a painful experience. The handful of story mode missions are incredibly fun, but there's only so many times you can run them (some I've done dozens of times already) before they feel stale.

Still interested in the review, please read on.
Graphically this game looks fantastic however it does require a bit of GPU horsepower. The recommended requirements for the GPU are ok if you're running 1080p. Anything higher and you'll wish you had a better card. I'm running a 4GB GTX680 and I have to scale my resolution down from 1600p to 1080p just to be able to play it at a reasonable frame rate.
The humor of this game is something else. There's a lot of very funny laugh out loud moments. Though, as pointed out above, after a while it becomes stale and repetitive.
The PvP, when you can find a game, is seriously a lot of fun. It has SO much potential. But it's just not there yet.

I'll keep this short and sweet. Close your wallet. Wait. Be patient. In a few months check back and this game might be worth it.

In the mean time, it's one of my favorite games of all time that I can't recommend you buy. Honesty sucks.

Coop FPS tower defense and lame puns. I can't really explain why, but it's kinda fun.

I love Battleborn but this game still has severe issues. This game has barely improved with the patch on 7/21/16.

1) Both the heroes and the enemies still get stuck in the co-op campaign maps and this can be game breaking.

2) This game still desperately needs more co-op missions for a game which originally cost $60-80.

3) Micro-transactions are still completely unacceptable in a game which originally cost $60-80.

4) There is still far too much grind for a game with so little content because leveling up the heroes takes forever.

5) It is still difficult to find a full team because players disconnect and the game never adds new players.

6) This game still needs better optimization because it is the single worst running game that I play.

My Critique of the Co-op Campaign
-mission 1: good
-mission 2: good
-mission 3: too repetitive
-mission 4: good
-mission 5: good
-mission 6: too repetitive
-mission 7: too repetitive
-mission 8: good

My Favorite Heroes
-TF2 heavy weapons (Montana)
-space marine (Oscar Mike)
-witchblade elf (Mellka)
-Barack Obama (Ghalt)
-dark samus (Galilea)
-na'vi archer (Thorn)
-happy feet (Toby)
-TF2 spy (Pendles)
-sith lord (Rath)
-skynet (ISIC)

Conclusion
For me this game is great because co-op shooters are my thing and I like to replay the campaign with different heroes. I would not bother buying it for the competitive mode.