Battleborn
(2K Games)
PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PC
Two-and-a-half stars
Battleborn has a cartoony aesthetic and a robust line-up of playfully animated warriors. (A penguin in a mech suit? Where do I sign up?) But it's hamstrung by some unfortunate design choices.
The initial drawback is that only a handful of its 26 characters are available from the start. You can unlock more by playing solo or cooperatively through a tedious eight-mission campaign, or by competing in its three multiplayer modes. Each of those has just two maps, though, and playing them over and over in order to unlock the hero you really want gets tiresome.
Developer Gearbox Software is responsible for one of the funniest franchises ever, the Borderlands series, but the comedy in Battleborn falls flat. And after a few matches, so does its combat. Battleborn came out just a few weeks ago, and I'm already having trouble rounding up enough online players to go a few rounds.
artslife@thenational.ae
