Yes, you can play Battleborn alone. Though mentioned (or at least hinted at) in the past, for some people this will be most important piece of the news that Plano-based Gearbox Software and the game's publisher, 2K, announced today.
The game, the most recent big project from the creators of the best-selling Borderlands games, has been pitched as a multiplayer-focused "hero shooter" -- something akin to Dota or League of Legends with more of a first-person shooter feel. But while Borderlands could be enjoyed alone (though it had a strong cooperative component), many of Gearbox's fans expressed concern that they might not be able to enjoy Battleborn by themselves.
This morning the developer allayed those fears when they said that the game's story mode "is a narrative experience playable in a single-player capacity, as well as cooperatively by up to five friends via splitscreen or online." They didn't specify how this would be accomplished -- whether the game would scale to be more difficult with more players, for instance -- but they did say that the story mode is "modular, allowing players to choose which missions to enjoy next."
The story, which Gearbox has discussed previously, is set in a distant future in which the universe's last surviving races are all at war in an effort to control the final star, Solus.
If you'd rather be competitive, though, Battleborn has you covered. The game sports three team-based competitive modes, each available for up to 10 players online (in 5v5 matches). The modes, according to the press release Gearbox and 2K issued are:
Incursion: Teams of heroes defend their base from waves of AI-controlled minions while working together, alongside their own minions, to destroy their opponents' base.
Devastation: Teams of heroes face off in a fast-paced death match and must capture and hold objectives on the map to win.
Meltdown: Teams of heroes protect their minions as they march to their death at the center of the map. Points are scored for minions who throw themselves into the incinerator, and the team with the most points wins.
All of this is tied together by a single progression system in which the experience points you earn both in the story and in competitive modes will contribute to two ranks: Character Rank and Command Rank.
The Command Rank sounds like a relatively generic overall rank for you as a player, though you'll earn loot associated with this rank that can be used for the game's different characters. Each character in the game can permanently take their Character Rank to level 10, earning new skins and augments along the way.
Speaking of characters, Battleborn will feature 25 different playable characters, "each with its own personality and equipped with unique weapons and powers," according to 2K. Within each story mission or competitive match you can level your character up to level 10 with the "Helix System," allowing you to unlock new skills during the mission/match.
Yes, if you're counting, that's three distinct forms of progression -- two permanent, one temporary. Hopefully that won't get confusing in the actual game.
Battleborn is due to hit stores "this winter," though Gearbox and 2K don't actually commit to that being in 2015. It's coming to the PS4, Xbox One and PC, and we can probably expect to see a bit more of it at E3 later this month.
