Some skins are really well made, they feel more–polished?-- than some of the lesser ones. I will rank them here as I enjoy them, this is simply how i perceive them and is in NO way a means to incite a riot or hatred. Let’s say what we like and don’t and WHY, so the devs can improve and get new ideas!
Best Looking/Most visually different
Alani - the decals and face covering really attempts to set her apart from her previous skins and i love how it references fictional backstory in this case te little mermaid. I would love to see more like this, in the vein of Grimm Fairy Tales skins, very cool!
Attikus - for a character that doesnt get much love, how incredible a skin he got! Looking like an elemental of molten rock, this skin is awesome. His fierce presence is represented well and i think it also hints at further possibilities with others. Think Deande as the elemental goddess of wind or Kleese as an old elemental god of lighting? I would buy those!
El Dragon - Any skin where i can mentally say it is the evil twin of the character is a fun one in my book. I love how this hearkens back to a day of the dead vibe and at the same time fits naturally on his character. A culture infused skin set would be very cool to see on each of these characters, fleshing out where some of the inspiration for their original designs came from, in this case dias de los muertos and luchador wrestling. Bravo!
Melka - My favorite. This is just a brilliant rework of her original design and i can practically hear Ghalt and Kleese speaking about her worsening condition as the cybernetics take over he body ala Cable of X-men fame, while a distraught Deande quietly chokes back sobs. Dark, i know? But now she breaks free and is te new threat to the Battleborn as the Magnus AI manifests itself inside of Melka! So freakin’ cool! Please, more like this!
Miko - i am basing this off of the leaked skin screenshots that have circulated for awhile, aince all the others revealed were the same. I love a dark version of this character where its evolution became overwhelming and a new parasite infected it, taking over its body. The eyes all over were a unique take and added some edge to the character. I would like to see more organic “fusions/mutations” in future character skins.
Oscar Mike - anytime they are going to dip into the lore, i feel it is worth a mention Nd this is a great example! I believe that this should have been his mastery skin instead of the purple, which doesnt make much sense in his case, but it feels like a new character because we know his clone backstory means this is a different “Mike”.
Phoebe - a very unique take on the character. I didnt expect this for her skin but i am happy they did. The stitches on the skirt make her feel like a possesed seamstress and the swords begin to feel more like needles. The pale face adds to the ghoulish effect and i love it. An evil coraline like entity. Brilliant!
Rath - i dont even like this character but this skin is freakin cool. It embraces his “not a vampire” mythology and makes him a true demon swordmaster. I picture this as his star wars nemesis version of himself he must face in the dagobah tree lol. The deliberate bat placement also accentuates the vampire vibe. More like these!!
Shane & Aurox - so i bought this one for two reasons. I love the addition of the gradient and the new highlight plus Shayne’s old school UK punk attire, this coupled with her new taunt-dance partners was a definite pickup for me. Aurox could be a little bit more different but still a unique addition.
Thorn - I mentioned above about the evil twin mentality, this nails it. Totally changes the vibe of the character from “generic elf archer” to “vengeful woodland spirit” i love her expression with the dead eyes, makes it really pop on contrast to the new color pallette. This is worthy of your munny
The Meh Ones
Ambra - the Silent Sister is kind of a mess. The pallette is a simple skin color swap woth her Gold deluxe outfit and the extra gold in her face makes it harder to discern facial expressions during taunts. Skip this one.
Benedict - i enjoy this one. But it would have been better as a T3 skin so foreworks shoot out on impact instead of rocket explosions and a taunt could have been added where he throws on an uncle sam hat. Really play off the fourth of july vibe. The bland blue throughout the whole costume washes it out and it makes harder to see he is a bald eagle now.
Boldur - though i like the idea behind it, him being made of wood/ ancient golem, etc. i dont think ot wprked. The texture still looks like stone from the front, and it is poorly defined in his hands and arms. His face is well done, but more was needed here to make it look like wood.
Ghalt - the skin has potential but the green is too bright if they were going for an undead look and the stitching on his back, i guess was made to indicate there was a creature of some sort within him, just comes across looking like a weak patch. Defining that area on his back and making it look more textured would have been the way to go.
Isic - my problem is that with all the emotes in his repetoire and lore, no one made the effort to make him do anything except that skull. Worse yet, some taunts reveal that they just made his casing opaque, his real skull still exists in the model itself. That feels uninspired. I loved the concept of 8 bit, but it was poorly executed.
Kelvin - full disclosure, i bought this skin, i dont think Kelvin has enough good choices and i adore him, but it really is a simple pallette swap. I am a sucker for the black/green combination and here it is implemented very well, so i am down with this. Personally of the artifact in his mouth was a different color it would have made this a higher tier.
Kleese - an awesome concept that looks muddied and unpolished. If this was retextured and made to look a bit crisper and not so–blurry? It would be a must buy. Right now his facial hair and skin bleed together and the whole model looks put of focus. Alien/monster takes on the characters would be super awesome though!
Marquis - anyone knows that my favorite character is this guy. His reskin today, was going for a steampunk look, but falls really short. It just looks like a pale brown and sepia swap out of his first costume. More detail and less brown, more bronze, pewter, and silver, would have made this really cool. Steampunk characters though… I am SO down.
Montana - while giving the big guy armor is awesome, the taxi cab yellow with chlorine blue under armor is a bizzare choice. It is jarring and makes a stand out character even more of a target. Not a fan of this one, but the armor idea is awesome, i would like to see more takes on this. Full armored knight Montana is a dY one buy from me.
Toby - this poor little guy. I love the idea of the hotrod colors on the mech but i felt like it was overkill here and as woth any of his skins, the light focused and seemingly emanating from the cockpit is weird. Keeping him a cute little penguin would have been a great juxtaposition against his badass mech without the recolor and gradient effect.
Back to the Drawing Board
Caldarius - i undestand the “transformer” vibe i think they were going for but this was just bad. The color combo is awful. The arrows pointing to his knees? What is the point? “I have knees here!” Not exactly a threatening message for an assassin lol
Deande- forgive me. She has a keyhole in the middle of her face and i cannot unsee it. I expect Sora to unlock her head. If they wanted a “Geisha” aesethic, which would have been beautiful on her and made sense with the aformentioned culture themed skins, they failed miserably by adding that unibrow makeup line across her face. She channels klingon now, not Geisha.
Galillea - i feel like this is the most borderlands themed skin in the whole bunch but it is so generic looking. The odd addition of the random caution stickers seem useless and clunky. The color is okay almost like a faded Samus, but not a fan of the caution tape placement, especially on her sword.
Orendi - my least favorite skin. The cotton candy pink with the bright sky blue looks like somethig a four year old would choose for their first day of school, when the parent is supposed to explain why you shouldnt wear it. It seems out of character to be so bubbly. I would love a “toby fangirl” colorization and a jailbird colorization. Since both of these are referenced in her lore. I <3 toby shirt. Orange jumpsuit with numbers. I would buy both! @Ganjamira, i know you are a Huge fan of Orendi, what do you think?
Reyna - i dont like this skin, it feels out of place for Reyna, too flamboyant and the white hair with the white eyebrows and the white cowl, coupled with all the gold is too bright. All the gold in the middle is jarring and looks muddled. Second least favorite. Seeing her as the second in command of the Battleborn would be awesome, in a battledamaged suit that shows her scars, that would be great for all of them. Incorporating small pieces of the other rogues that she leads into her design would be really neat too.
Whiskey Foxtrot - turning any character into a reptile sounds awesome, but this is really bad execution. I would argue that he has one of the best textures of the game with this new skin, the scales really pop, but other than that it is very bland. The muted gold tone is strange and i see it was meant to compliment all the green but it seems thrown together. I think taking away the helm would have made him much better. The flipside is making him the ultimate zombie skin in a torn apart police mike costume. That would have been cool.
That was my two cents. Anxious to hear what others think.
care to elaborate why you don’t like it?
I always imagined her as darker skinned, since her name has roots in Hebrew.
I’m having fun with her…