Gearbox Software has become well-known for its best-selling Borderlands series. However, the studio has been around for decades, so Borderlands is far from the only success story for the team. Plus, Gearbox opened its own publishing division in 2016, giving it another avenue to put its weight behind phenomenal games. With so much history, there are bound to be several games that have flown under the radar. Below, you’ll find a few such games, but keep in mind that I’m only taking one game per franchise. Otherwise, the top three would all come from the same series.
Here are five Gearbox games you forgot were awesome.
5) Borderlands Legends
Courtesy of Gearbox
I might be overselling Borderlands Legends. The mobile-only game launched alongside Borderlands 2 and featured turn-based tactical combat. You played as the four Vault Hunters from the first game, using their special powers to augment your tactics and take out enemies.
Here’s the thing: Borderlands Legends wasn’t a great game. When it was working, the combat was a fun take on the Borderlands formula, but AI pathing was often wonky, leading to frustration. However, I still remember Legends fondly because of its potential. Imagine a world where Gearbox stuck with the mobile game, adding new Vault Hunters and weapons over the years. Clean up that combat a little bit, and you’d have a great handheld twist on the series.
4) Homeworld: Deserts of Kharak
Homeworld 2 launched in 2003. It was a critical and commercial hit from the team at Relic, which went on to make fan-favorite games like Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War and Company of Heroes. Unfortunately, a third Homeworld game was never in the cards for Relic, thanks in large part to publisher THQ filing for bankruptcy in 2012. That could’ve been the end of the classic RTS, but Gearbox was able to save the day.
Deserts of Kharak was developed by Blackbird Interactive, which would go on to work on Hardspace: Shipbreaker and Minecraft Legends. The good news for fans of the classic series is that Blackbird knocked this prequel out of the park, giving players a streamlined strategy game that ticked most of the boxes you’d want from a good Homeworld game. That led to Homeworld 3, which hasn’t been quite as well-received by fans, but is still a relatively solid strategy game.
3) Battleborn
Honestly, it’s hard to forget about Battleborn if you were there at the time. Gearbox marketed this as the first hero shooter, building significant hype around the mix of shooter and MOBA gameplay elements. It was actually a pretty solid game once you got used to its complex systems, but it never gained a large enough audience to make it a major hit.
There’s one big reason why that happened: Battleborn just so happened to launch right around the same time as Overwatch. Blizzard’s hero shooter vacuumed up all the players, making it impossible for anyone else to exist in that space for several years. Still, Battleborn was a good game that didn’t get a fair shake due to poor timing and a few missteps with microtransactions.
2) Half-Life: Opposing Force
Gearbox got its start making expansion packs for Half-Life and porting games like Halo: Combat Evolved to PC. From that era, Opposing Force is probably its best game. Randy Pitchford and his team took the central story of Half-Life and put players in the shoes of a new character.
Opposing Force starred Adrian Shephard, a U.S. Marine who had been sent in to neutralize an alien force after a mishap at Black Mesa. It was a fun twist, putting players in the shoes of the bad guys from the main Half-Life campaign, and most reviewers agreed that Gearbox had created one of the best expansions of the time. The developer put out a few more Half-Life expansions with similar ideas, but none of them topped Opposing Force.
1) Brothers in Arms: Earned in Blood
As mentioned, I considered putting all three Brothers in Arms games on this list, but decided to branch out to keep this list more interesting. With that in mind, you can really pick your favorite Brothers game and put it in this slot. Road to Hill 30 and Hell’s Highway are also exceptional games that are deserving of the top slot.
That said, Earned in Blood just barely edges them out for me. Hell’s Highway is a bit too short and easy for my taste, and Road to Hill 30‘s gameplay is improved enough by Earned in Blood that I have it just below the sequel. Still, it’s worth noting that you’ll love Earned in Blood even more if you’ve played Road to Hill 30 because of how much it builds on the original game. Either way, Brother in Arms is a must-play series, and here’s hoping Gearbox will actually make good on the long-rumored fourth game in the mainline series.
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