Arriving next week, Attikus and the Thrall Rebellion is the first story DLC for Battleborn. The first of five Story Ops, the DLC is a side story, fleshing out the characters and world of the Battleborn universe. Meant to feel like an old detective noir story, the Operation involves one of the game’s heroes, Attikus, reminiscing and recounting his journey during the Thrall Rebellion.
Explaining in an interview with YouTuber MentalMars, posted on the game’s website, Creative Director Randy Varnell says that while the DLC is technically taking place after the main campaign, “Attikus is essentially hooked up to a simulation of what’s going on, like the Star Trek holodeck, and replaying a very important battle, really the battle that kicked off – for the lore nerds out there- the third thrall rebellion on the planet Tempest. It was the rebellion where Attikus kind of rose up from the thrall, from the ground, and led the thrall in a revolt against the Jennerit.”
More than anything, the team wanted to mix up how the story was told, making it fresh and exciting. At the same time, this particular story gave them a chance to make Attikus question his own heroism.
Taking to the cramped, dark slums of Tempest, players will fight through alleyways and on rooftops. But as with the story missions in the main game, each playthrough only gives you a small piece of the story. “With each one of the subsequent playthroughs, and there are multiple ones here,” Varnell says, “he [Attikus] is going to tell a bunch of different slices of the story. And every time he runs through the different parts of this rebellion, he’s going to talk, and interact with different characters, to talk about what was being requested of him… It’s a deconstruction of what it means to be a hero.”
Varnell equates each playthrough of the DLC to being like a single episode of a Netflix series, with multiple playthroughs required in order to experience the full season.
For $4.99 or 700 Platinum in-game, Attikus and the Thrall Rebellion releases October 13, alongside a free new multiplayer mode called Face-Off. The second of the five planned Story Ops, Toby’s Friendship Raid, launches later this fall. All five Story Ops are included in the Battleborn season pass.