Even though Blizzard’s new game, Overwatch, was just released a little over a week ago, it’s already been constantly compared to the new title that Gearbox released a few weeks ago, Battleborn. I’ve played both games thoroughly, as I’m a huge fan of Blizzard’s recent releases, and I’m writing a guide for Battleborn (and I love Borderlands 2), so I felt it’s time someone pointed out the other side of the coin: five things that these two games don’t have in common. Brace yourselves.
1. The Combat
The battle of the century, no hotfixes allowed.
Much like a hobo with a knife compared to a hobo on drugs, the combat in both these games is very dangerous in very different ways.
Overwatch is by far the more fast-paced game with a roster of colorful characters that all want to murder you. But in Overwatch, murdering you is item number 4 on their checklist because of how easy it is. Weaker characters like Tracer (the British time-traveler) and Zenyatta (the zen robot monk) can be taken out in a single body-shot from Widowmaker (the spider-sniper lady).
Meanwhile, Battleborn is a much more attack-when-necessary kind of game. While you’re encouraged to jump around like a rabid ferret in Overwatch, Battleborn insists that you take your time and work as a team. The latter game has just as colorful a character roster, but the characters aren’t quite as overpowered.
Battleborn also borrows more from the MOBA genre than Overwatch does. In Battleborn, each character has a couple of abilities that need to be manually aimed, a unique basic attack, a passive buff, and an Ultimate that they can activate once it’s off cooldown.
In Overwatch, each character has their own way of moving around the map quickly, their own weapon/gun, and maybe an ability or two. And unlike Battleborn, characters in Overwatch have to attack the enemy and secure kills in order to charge their Ultimate ability before they can use it.
In Battleborn, every character follows the same mold: two basic abilities, a passive, and an Ultimate. The amount of abilities that a character in Overwatch has varies depending on the character; Widowmaker has a grappling hook, poisonous mine, and her Ultimate (3 abilities) while Torbjorn has a turret, armor pack, lava gun, hammer, and passively collects scraps from his enemies, all in addition to his Ultimate (4 abilities, not counting his two different weapons).
Overall, Overwatch is more creative and flexible with how their characters function, while Battleborn dutifully follows a pattern, while still keeping its characters fun to play. Both games do a great job of creating unique characters, but Overwatch’s are more liable to kill you in a couple seconds, while Battleborn’s will probably stun you first, knock you back into their team like a soccer ball, then taunt you with a quick bow and an annoying voice line after you’ve been torn apart.
2. Character Selection
I choose... the protagonist of the game's marketing.
It’s true: two different games made by two different developers and publishers have two different kinds of gameplay. Who would’ve guessed?
In Overwatch, choosing a character is a very flexible process; you’re meant to be constantly switching between different characters, depending on the situation you’re in. Matches feel like you’re meant to drop-in and drop-out on a whim (even though players get penalized for leaving too often – what’s up with that, Blizzard?), since they allow you to change characters mid-game as frequently as you’d like.
Meanwhile, in Battleborn, you’re following the vein of MOBA’s. You select a single character at the start of the match, and you’re stuck with them til the end. Because of this, the game feels a lot more stagnant in its character choice, so you’re not really meant to drop out of the match midway through (and yet they don’t have a penalty for frequently leaving. Did you two mix up your file cabinets or something?)
3. The Guns
To quote the Mad King... Burn them all!
No matter what the developer of the hit game The Slaughtering Grounds says, gun sounds aren’t everything.
Luckily, though, both games have very different and very effective ways of looking at guns.
Essentially, in Battleborn, if you have a gun, you can aim down the sights. Targets are effectively smaller, and it’s much easier to miss. There are also melee weapons in Battleborn, but the guns are the focus of this section. Deal with it.
Meanwhile, in Overwatch, the only characters who can actually aim down the sights and look through their guns’ scopes are snipers. To my knowledge, this means a single character: Widowmaker. The guns in Blizzard’s game are much more run-and-gun, less aiming required. There’s the standard aiming up and down and left to right, of course, but the accuracy for hip-firing is actually pretty damn impressive.
4. The Backstory
A time in the world when everything had Instagram filters.
I know: it’s so brave of me to veer away from gaming-related differences. Oh well.
Let’s be fair, though; this is a huge difference between the two games.
Overwatch is set on an Earth sixty years into the future. Thirty years after the organization known as Overwatch helped restore balance to a war-torn world, conflict is starting to rise again. This is where you and your little 6v6 battles come in. Don’t ask me how, but somehow, those fights are helping.
Vastly different, Battleborn isn’t set on any particular planet or time period. There’s one last star that remains in the entire galaxy, and it’s your goal to stop a mastermind, Rendain, from helping an ancient race, the Varelsi, take over the last star.
Therefore, the cast of characters is much more diverse on Battleborn¸ since they’re from multiple different planets and galaxies, rather than from different cultures on a futuristic Earth.
5. Everything
This sums up the argument pretty well.
It’s not a cop-out, I swear. Just keep reading.
The fact that these two games are being compared in the first place is actually somewhat shocking. TotalBiscuit explained it best in his video comparing the two: they’re really nothing alike except for having a colorful cast of characters.
Truthfully, the only two reasons these two games are being compared is the fact that they were released in similar times, and because they’re not dark, gritty, and slathered in a grey filter like so many of the Call of Duties and Battlefields we’ve been getting for so long now. So when two colorful, lore-rich games come along, we’re obviously going to get excited and even start comparing the two.
And of course, there’s always going to be people that will force a rivalry between two things. Mac and PC, PC Gaming vs. Console Gaming, etc. But I see no reason for there to be a rivalry between Overwatch and Battleborn. They’re similar in some ways, yes, but overall, they’re two vastly different experiences that I personally think everyone should try just a bit of. If you like one more than the other, that’s great. If you hate both of them, that’s fine too. And if you love both equally, then congratulations. It’s all about your opinion, and what you personally think about the games. Why create a rivalry when it’s possible to just enjoy both?
If you enjoyed this article, take a look at these!
11 Best Overwatch Heroes You Should Master
Overwatch: 10 Interesting Facts About This Awesome FPS
And by the same author: The Culling: A New Game Based on The Hunger Games?
Written by Colin Bellairs.
