No One Remembers One of the Best Hero Shooters Ever to Release

Hero shooters are a dime a dozen at this point, and most of them seem to flop on release. Concord was the unmitigated disaster we’ll seemingly never stop talking about, Highguard appears to be following in its footsteps, and Overwatch 2 continues to get lambasted online owing to its numerous unnecessary alterations to a near-perfect formula and missing promised content. It can feel like in a time of missed opportunities and lacklustre entries, that the golden age is behind us. In many respects, that’s true; it is just a shame we didn’t appreciate it more at the time.

In fact, one hero shooter we collectively seemed to overlook, so much so that it was shut down long before it had its chance to shine, was Battleborn. The Gearbox Software-developed title had a lot going against it, from steep competition to an unfortunate release date. Yet, despite it all, Battleborn did something no one else was at the time and still hasn’t to this very day. It was a very special hero shooter, and one that should be more fondly remembered now, especially as it didn’t get its flowers when it released, or even when Gearbox pulled it from existence in 2021.

Battleborn Is A Misunderstood Gem

Battleborn may not be considered one of the greatest hero shooters ever made by the general public, but I think that’s probably due to a fundamental misunderstanding of what the game was, and thanks to the tarnishing of its legacy. Battleborn had practically everything going against it at launch. Not only did Gearbox hinder Battleborn’s success by pricing it at $60 (as was the norm back in 2016), but it also released it mere weeks before Blizzard’s now legendary Overwatch. Gearbox simply didn’t have the same level of popularity or status as Blizzard did in 2016, ensuring its scrappy, overpriced hero shooter was fighting a losing battle from the start.

It also didn’t help that Battleborn was positioned as a MOBA-FPS hybrid, rather than a hero shooter. It, therefore, had League of Legends, the free-to-play Paragon, and Dota 2 to compete with, all of which were fairly fresh in players’ minds. Overwatch ostensibly had Team Fortress 2, a then-9-year-old game, as its competition. Battleborn was trying to squeeze into two overcrowded markets, while Overwatch had found a niche and fit in rather snugly. It is no wonder then that both players and Gearbox itself abandoned Battleborn pretty quickly, with the developer moving the majority of its staff working on the hero shooter to Borderlands 3. The skeleton team that remained simply wasn’t big enough to keep Battleborn alive and well.

Yet, beneath all the drama and poorly priced antics, Battleborn shone as a truly excellent hero shooter. It allowed for customization of your hero on the fly with its skill tree system, making each battle feel distinct and every hero infinitely more complex than they seem at first glance. The addition of MOBA elements elevated the experience through its addition of mobs and unique game modes, and the roster of heroes was diverse and genuinely fun to use. Most importantly, Battleborn had a story mode. Sure, it was perhaps worsened by the infamous Borderlands sense of humor, but it nevertheless brought something that no one else in that space was offering and, upsettingly, still hasn’t.

Battleborn Elevated The Hero Shooter Genre

While we’ve seen games like Battleborn come and go since its 2016 release date, none have done what it did with such aplomb, and that’s a genuine shame. Battleborn’s narrative helped ground its characters, furthered the lore and world, and offered a way to engage with its central mechanics, its excellent shooting, and ability-based hero design. We are yet to see anything even remotely similar materialize in a game within this genre, especially after Blizzard canceled Overwatch 2’s hyped PvE mode that would have, more or less, offered something akin to Battleborn’s campaign.

Battleborn is, much like the monster-hunting first-person shooter Evolve before it, a game that felt a little ahead of its time. Its inevitable flaws and Gearbox’s poor handling of it led to its legacy being somewhat tarnished, and a lack of support from the developer meant it would never be polished. Pulling it from all digital storefronts without making the campaign (at the very least) accessible offline has meant that this will be yet another hero shooter no one can play. That is devastating, as while not the most groundbreaking of experiences, Battleborn’s fun characters, beautiful stylized visuals, and dynamic gameplay all felt fresh, even up until its very last day on this earth five years after release.

The death of any video game is something that should be treated with at least a modicum of solemnity, as, no matter the general sentiment toward it, it is still a loss of art. While I doubt Battleborn will ever be respected in the same way as Overwatch or Marvel Rivals, its brief existence was one I shan’t forget. I have a propensity toward obscure, misunderstood, or lesser-known titles, and I think it helps me resonate more with Battleborn in a rather sentimental way. It was a game that, despite it all, offered hours upon hours of fun playing co-op with my sibling, desperately trying to figure out how Miko works, and constantly losing to Orendi.

Upsettingly, in an era of Concord-sized misfires and a disparaging cautiousness toward over-hyped multiplayer experiences, I somewhat doubt Battleborn would survive. It means there’s little chance of a revival or a sequel, not that the game’s commercial failure would have allowed that anyway. So, I’ll hold onto my memories and hope that, one day, a developer who enjoyed it as much as I, or, at the very least, saw the value in the innovations it brought to the table, will attempt to make something like it and prove to the world Battleborn’s legacy should go beyond merely being a game that tried to beat Overwatch and failed.

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