If Battleborn went free-to-play tomorrow, would you play it?

I don't think anyone's "chasing" multiplayer dollars, i mean multiplayer games is not a niche genre at all.

I do feel very sorry for Battleborn. If Blizzard wasn't absolutely trying to demolish it, I'd like to actually see it being discussed in terms of gameplay mechanics instead of being constantly overshadowed in a discussion. I think the boss fights look fun in co-op, and as someone who has never played a moba maybe this will be refreshing and fun.

I might be pursuaded by some friends to try it but I wouldn't bother playing it alone.

Also the f2p writing has been on the wall for the game for so long now. It's been so heavily discounted and after seeing the shot in the arm that Evolve got after going f2p I can't see 2K looking at this failing as it is and not pulling the switch.

Having said that though, since Evolve went f2p, although it's player base absolutely surged, it's been losing thousands of players every day. Week on Week it's concurrent playerbase has been cut in half.

It's a bad game at any price.

@dudeglove said:

I hope they don't take much from those games, borderlands is already better than all 3 of those.

Why bother? Overwatch is superior to it in every way.

This, but specifically Gearbox and Pitchford.

I have every achievement in Borderlands 1. This includes the ridiculous ones from Mad Moxxi that are basically "Spend a day doing one horde mode arena". I played the FUCK out of that game.

When Borderlands 2 was coming out, I was so fucking excited. I bought the four pack on Steam for me and my PC pals, and bought two copies on 360 so me and my coop buddy from the first game could play it too. I went as far as to buy the season pass on both platforms.

I was a little disappointed when there wasn't really anything like Brick, but Zer0 seemed neat enough. Then I got to Ultimate Vault Hunter mode, the NG+ of Borderlands 2. My whole build was worthless. I couldn't ever get close to an enemy, or I would just die. Soon, people came to the conclusion Zer0 in general wasn't viable in UVH. I had a completely worthless character.

But I couldn't make a new one, because that'd mean dragging myself through that fucking snowy opening area again. You kill the boss, and think it's over, and it loads into more snow.

I would later find out you get the ability to start at the main hub area eventually...but only after beating UVH.

I never could bring myself to make progress on 360, because I knew what was waiting for me. My coop buddy wasn't having much fun with it, because he just had to murder his fucking bird from the first game.

To rub salt in the wounds, they eventually did bring something closer to my old playstyle back. It wasn't part of the season pass.

This whole shitshow, then the Colonial Marines travesty (I highly suggest picking that up on sale for like 3 bucks sometime for a coop night and just soaking in misery) that resulted in the closure of Timegate, a rather promising studio, has made me feel nothing but bitterness towards Gearbox and Pitchford.

Finally, if you guys haven't seen the quote, Pitchford mentioned offhandedly that Battleborn is what happened to Furious 4.

Fuck.

@sdoots:

Not sure what you're talking about suggesting Zero is a worthless character. A melee focused Zero build can be extremely powerful. Your build might have been bad, but you can respec in Borderlands at the drop of a hat, so that shouldn't have been an issue. Nothing about Zero is incompatible with True Vault Hunter mode, or Ultimate Vault Hunter Mode. And if you're playing in co-op, builds shouldn't matter much anyhow, outside of raid bosses.

Here is an example of end-game play with a fully leveled Zero.

Not really. I played a bit of the beta and it didn't really grab me.

I might try it down the line, if free, and I'm very, very, very bored.

Me and my wife loved Borderlands 1 & 2, and we both cried when Tiny Tina (and yes we freakin' adored her) hugged the statue of Roland, and we both laughed at the (some) of Handsome Jack's escapades. Battleborn drew us both in due to similarities but our interest died quickly during the betas. It just seemed soul-less and completely uninspired. Like the art team obviously put in some effort but whoever stitched it together into a game either didn't care or didn't have time to create something fun with the assets.

I would if I had the time.

Id try it out on pc if there is gamepad support. The writing is really really bad though from the little i played on ps4 and the ps4 graphics were horrific.

His entire build relies on specific pieces of gear. That's not something respeccing can fix. That's just getting the right drop and then making a build around it. I'll fully admit he is making melee Zer0 work, but when you have stuff that makes your melee crazy buffed in specific circumstances, and then put yourself in those states intentionally, yeah, shit is going to pan out.

Raid bosses are a whole other issue altogether. It's an incredibly halfassed way to be able to say "We've got endgame content!". Bosses that are only accessible once a day, with really great loot drops aren't what I want from Borderlands. I came to the series for the constant feedback loop of shooting and looting in varied environments with fun quests. Not standing in a big boss pit pretending I'm playing an MMO.

I wouldn't play it if it was the last game on earth.

I kid. But no, if it was free I still wouldn't try it. Looked like a neat idea just poor execution.

Sure, If the single player component was still included I would probably add it to my games library to use at some future date. It wouldn't cost any money or hard-drive space.

However the only way you would be able to get me to touch the MOBA-styled multiplayer would be if you paid me. A LOT.

I'd play it if they paid me

If they added a third person camera even a rough one Elder Scrolls style I'd give it a shot. I just have no interest in a fps moba and what's the point of buying things like skins when I can't even see my character?

I'd give it a fair try if Gearbox refunded me for Colonial Marines.

I'd probably try it, but I doubt I'd stick with it from everything I've seen of the game.

Nope, already played the demo for like 25-30 hours.

After getting it cheap in the last humble bundle, I would like to say, the game is decent when played with other people. Not good, not great, merely decent. The same way as Borderlands, the "campaign" still scratches an itch few other games do, so it still have a place in my library, but for the most part, the game is so cheaply put together I would have been furious if I bought it for 60 U$S...

Nope. I played it in open beta, it just isn't a fun game.

Played the Beta/Technical test, absolutely hated it.

@dudeglove: Could I ask why you irrationally 2K? I could think of you hate Randy Pitchford, but I can't think of anything for 2K specifically.

I'll stick with Paragon. PM me if you want a free PC code for it.

Nah, probably not. Battleborn seems like a time investment and I don't have all the free time in the world. At least not with a game that seems kind of mediocre.

I'm sure it does need to hit free to play status sooner rather than later if they want to maintain a player base. I participated in the beta and from what I played during that time I severely disliked the single player aspect of the game and the multiplayer aspect felt like a "serviceable" moba/tower defense hybrid. That was probably the most damning thing about it to me. If someone were to ask me to describe the game, the multiplayer in particular, I would say it was average at best ... a totally mediocre experience. It did absolutely nothing to stand out (in a good way) for me. One of the more unique parts of the game is the Borderlands humor, and that was kind of grating to be completely honest.

My interest in Battleborn is as big as my interest in Overwatch, Paragon or any other MOBA-thingy: absolute zero.

I at least give it a shot. But isn't doesn't look good enough to risk money just to give it a shot.
Even the Humble bundle deal wasn't enough. Which probably tells me I am not really interested.

Yea I would at least try it. I didn't hate the beta on the PC. Unfortunately, the superior DOOM and Overwatch came out around the same time, so I had no interest in buying it and now the playerbase is too small anyway.

The failure of Battleborn has fascinated me greatly since it's release. I had no idea what kind of game it was until downloading the open beta shortly before release. Oh boy, that was an underwhelming experience. Everything about the game, the art and writing and characters, seemed so uninspired. Not even horrible or anything, just like, painfully OK. Even the UI seemed like a wannabe Borderlands. And the writing had the same tryhard desperate quality Borderlands 2 was dripping with, so I guess that's just Gearbox's trademark now. What a depressing thought. Since the beta my wife and I have played through Borderlands 2 again and all the DLc and we've had a lot of fun. But playing through it again (after playing Telltale's Borderlands game months before) I'm entirely reminded how fucking sick of Handsome Jack I am. He's a character who wears out his welcome extremely quickly, and it's a damn shame that the franchise has become something akin to The Handsome Jack Show. All that to say I don't know how to feel about Gearbox anymore. There's been a lot of bad shit around that developer in recent years, but Double Fine has had a similar experience of its good name going through the mud a bit and I still trust a lot of the talent there to produce good stuff. I'm zero percent interested in playing any kind of MOBA and im not even sure I want a Borderlands 3.

I chose the second to last because as soon as I saw the UI and how cluttered it was I knew that I could not play that game.

No, I got more than enough multiplayer games in my life. I do think the hyperbole bashing of this game has gotten a little out of control, it doesn't look like a 1 star game to me. At worst a 2 , probably a 3.

However!

If some of my friends got into it and asked me to to play, I would be willing to try because it's free now.

Ehhh, I feel almost bad for saying it, but no, not really.

It just wasn't very fun! It never looked particularly fun before I got my hands on it, and unfortunately it plays just as you'd figure. Slow, low impact, somewhat visually befuddling. Some cool character designs, though altogether it's not as vibrant a bunch as you might expect from only seeing a handful.

Hope this doesn't set Gearbox too far back, because it really seemed to come out the gate and just immediately fuckin drop.

Nope, but then again I bought Overwatch and haven't played that in over a month so maybe I just hate video games now.

I own it now and don't play it. It's not a bad game it's just that there are so many better multiplayer games Id rather be playing. Between Overwatch, Rainbow Six, Halo 5 and Rocket League I barely have time to get through the rest of my backlog.

I played the beta for a little while and was almost instantly turned off of the game. Not that it had any specific irredeemable flaws, I just found it really, really boring.

No, I'm not really a fan of Gearbox games. I didn't like Borderlands 2 very much and I can tell Battleborn is going to annoy me the same way.

They basically sabotaged their own game with the way matchmaking worked upon release. I don't know if they've ever fixed it. Basically it seemed like matchmaking on PC took into account which steam server you were connected to, and would match you with those people exclusively(?) As a result, matchmaking in certain parts of the world would take several minutes to find a game, like 10+, and that was right after the game came out. I tried coming back to the game a few weeks after launch and every time I tried to get into a match it would take way too long and I would quit. The game itself is alright but they made so many weird design decisions that I don't really care to ever go back to it now.

No, I played the beta and didn't like the game at all.

no because I already purchased overwatch and until no one is on ps4 except the crazies I will keep playing

There are plenty of other games, F2P and otherwise, that I'm not playing right now that look far more appealing than Battleborn. So, no. Also, if I wanted to go back down the hole of a MOBA ruining my life, I'd reinstall League of Legends.

I'd probably give it a try. Doesn't seem like my genre, but it did look more enjoyable than Evolve at least.

That said, I'm not too fond of Gearboxes efforts past the original Borderlands.

I've played the beta and the full game and I feel I've played enough of Battleborn and don't need to force myself even further. It has some neat ideas that were executed poorly. Not much drew me in for all the time I spent playing it and trying to take my time, being hopeful that I might actually eventually like the game. Didn't happen.

I'm honestly just waiting for them to get on Borderlands 3 already.

Nah. I put some time into the beta and although there were things about it that I liked, it didn't blow me away or really grab me. Plus there are just other games, single- and multiplayer, that I would much rather spend time with.

If the entire game was completely free and everything was unlocked from the very beginning, I still probably wouldn't bother with it.

I barely have the time to play good games I'm not going to waste my time playing something so mediocre