Battleborn (Trial) ~ Impressions

After playing the trial it became clear to me that Gearbox's aim in regards to "Battleborn" was to hook a new audience for lobby population sake, and to revive the game's popularity through a lucrative/beneficial free-to-play system. While the term "Trial" doesn't accurately describe this free-to-play version of Battleborn it does hint at the fact that you will not be getting the complete experience unless you fork over some cash for season pass content. In fact you'll only gain access to a third of what the full game contained should you choose to download the trial. New to the trial version of Battleborn is currency based micro-transactions that come in the guise of two forms of coin credits. One type of credit (blue) being easier to obtain through the game's new quests offerings, and the other (gold) not so easy to obtain. Both credits can be earned in-game, or bought through the PSN store via DLC. Earned, or bought credits can buy and unlock the usual content regardless of how you obtained them. This includes characters, cosmetics, and gear that will boost performance stats in one of the three main multiplayer matchmaking modes.

 Speaking of said modes you will not gain access to the story or the operations modes which are, in my opinion what makes the experience worthwhile due to the objective based co-op content contained within each. Instead you'll gain access solely to the game's competitive multiplayer modes including a Versus mode which houses a rotation of game types and maps as well as an Incursion mode which is a more direct multiplayer mode of play. There's also an AI bot battle in which 5 online gamers will face off against 5 AI bots. All game/mode types are a 5v5 team based battle with different goals governing each. Along with the multiplayer comes the promised unlimited leveling, and loot system that will have you grinding for hours upon end to unlock everything in the game while climbing the ranks of the global leaderboard. If you are looking to train on your own there is also a training mode just for that.

For those of you who bought, and played Battleborn before a specific cut-off date you will gain "Founder's Status" upon downloading the trial. This includes a special "Founders" title, some free gear boxes, and enough currency to unlock a couple of characters along with a few lesser extras. All of your former stats will return in full as will your previously obtained gear collection. Like everyone else though your experience will not include story mode or the co-op missions unless you pay for them. In regards to characters for founders, and new trial adopters you'll only gain access to a handful of the game's roster. There are some significant ones among those that are free though. Definitely some fan favorites among the lot. Grinding for the other characters will definitely take some time as earning enough currency is a slow process, especially when compared to the cost for a single character. The character unlocking within the trial is obviously arranged to keep the players playing, so that the community attention does not drift away as it did before. Thankfully there are quests to complete throughout your matches that will earn you credits a little more quickly.The quests are as you might expect. You'll be doing certain things during the match such as winning, getting kills, or even upgrading the turrets, and environmental assists.

When it comes down to matchmaking I was able to find enough people playing fairly easily considering that the listed waiting time is labeled,"Long" by the developer. The quality of the matches I played still suffered from noticeable lag though. Some of which was inflicted purposefully by opposing players. Lagswitching was a huge problem during the early days of Battleborn, and it's still a noticeable issue here in the trial. This alone can easily turn players away as they will die more in-game than they will score kills. Lag being the culprit behind most failed kill attempts. Thus is the number one online gaming dilemma.

In closing ...

For a friend I'm willing to give Battleborn a second chance, but I'll be honest in saying that this trial feels a lot like a cash grab. A way for Gearbox to make up for monetary losses. I'm not saying the game is bad, but money exchange does play an optional and advantageous role in the given trial. On the plus side of it all they do offer a heck of a lot of unlimited content for a trial version of their game though. It's gonnabe up to you as to whether or not you're willing to commit to the grind at hand.