I don’t know about the rest of you, but tonight I’m buying Battleborn not for the multiplayer (I’m more or less uninterested), but for the intriguing story and interesting characters all wrapped up in that Gearbox humour we all know and love.
However, despite that, I am concerned.
One of the more interesting aspects of Battleborn is their lore unlock system, where you can learn about your favourite Battleborn’s backstory at your leisure, without forcing it down your throat. As you may know these challenges are also important for unlocking various flavorful items like Taunts and Legendary Gear. Initially I thought this was an amazing idea to let the people who really wanted to dive deep into the lore do so while not affecting the people there primarily for the gameplay. That changed, however, when I got a good look at some of these challenges.
Take Whiskey Foxtrot, for example, he has a LORE challenge that requires you to kill an enemy Oscar Mike 25 times. This means if you want unlock lore and backstory for Whiskey Foxtrot, you HAVE to play multiplayer (not to mention a fairly substantial amount of multiplayer). I must also need to mention that private matches vs bots DO NOT seem to count for any progress.
Normally I wouldn’t care as there are similar challenges that require you to play the campaign. But these are LORE CHALLENGES. Why would Gearbox bar LORE from people who want to play their game for the story? Its not like Activision bars zombies content within their multiplayer. I seriously don’t care about the gear unlocks and whatever else you can get from these challenges, but locking lore behind PvP is inexcusable in my eyes.
Yes I do feel strongly about this, maybe too strongly, but nevertheless I feel like I’ve made a pertinent argument about a serious problem that needs to be addressed.
So Gearbox, I plea, don’t make me play PVP for my lore. I’m sure I’m not the only one here, and I welcome you all to help further this discussion im hopes that Gearbox pays attention.