James Duggan from IGN got to interview Steve Gibson, Vice President of Gearbox Software, on Battleborn.
Part 1: the different leveling systems
In this first interview, they mainly talk about the different leveling systems Battleborn features.
- Helix – Level from 1 to 10 during the course of one mission
- Command Rank – Level growth continues with each game session you play, story mode or multiplayer.
In this interview, James & Steve will go over how these leveling systems will affect the story mode. That you don’t need to grind to a specific command rank to gain access to a mission, but how unlocking your ultimate ability will affect the level design. Also, you get a glimpse of how the loot is connected to your command rank.
Learn how Gearbox started on PvP gameplay with their history with Half-Life & Halo. How they are balancing Battleborn and how they want to keep the game balanced post-launch. Why the shift system has been so important to game development. And why you need to have a shift account (SPOILERS BATTLEBORN BETA).
Part 2: character roles and classes
In part 2 of the Battleborn interview by IGN James Duggan (IGN) and Steve Gibson, Vice President at Gearbox Software, discuss the roles & classes of the Battleborn characters.
Steve will tell how certain character combinations can work out. You can have a group of a tank, a healer, and a melee guy. There is also the possibility to just have just 5 melee characters resulting in a unique gameplay session. You can also set your lobby to unique characters only, this way everyone has to play a different hero. This ends the discussion of having fixed classes from a while back.
With the right loadout, you can play offensive as a healer class. The loot mechanic lets you customize your character in a way kinda like Borderlands’s class mods. These class mods can affect various things and give you unique boosts. I did some speculation about the subject even before Randy Pitchford said that we could modify our gear.
An update on the topic of post-launch content. Gearbox is able and willing to do so, but it depends on the publisher and if Battleborn is well-received by the gamers. If Battleborn is a success you will see DLC.
