Texas-based Gearbox Software rocketed to success with Borderlands in 2009, livening up the sometimes tedious world of first-person shooters by embracing the absurd nature of a game that pit players against tiny angry psychopaths wearing hockey masks and billed itself as featuring “17 million guns.” Borderlands became a huge hit and launched a franchise that continues to prosper, but Gearbox Software has had some rough patches in recent years as well, including the should-have-stayed-dead Duke Nukem Forever and the disastrous Aliens: Colonial Marines. With Battleborn, Gearbox will be rolling out their first original IP since the first Borderlands, and it’s definitely an odd duck.

Launching any new IP is always riskier than just rolling the dice on another sequel (or even a pre-sequel), and Battleborn is a game that ambitiously bills itself as being “for every sort of badass,” mixing genres and combat styles with 25 characters ranging from up-close melee fighting sword-slingers to robot snipers with cane rifles and knife-throwing healers who also happen t0 be giant anthropomorphic mushroom people. There’s a lot going on in Battleborn, and by extension a lot that could potentially fall flat. The good news is that, at least based on the above 20-minute gameplay demo from E3, Battleborn looks to be fast-paced, silly, and a lot of fun.

Battleborn is set at the literal end of end of the universe, when all the stars but one have gone out and the few surviving factions descend on the last star system standing. On the planet Solus, the evil Varelsi are trying to finish the job and snuff out the universe’s last sparks of life. Standing against them are “25 of the bravest, strongest, strangest, and still-alive-est Battleborn the universe has ever seen.” The demo showcases a mission from Battleborn‘s campaign, which can be played solo or cooperatively with up to four other gamers. The mission takes place on the “Frozen hellscape of Bliss,” another planet in the Solus system. The Battleborn team is sent to “infiltrate an old Peacekeeper base and attempt to close a portal that’s allowing the evil Varelsi to enter the Solus system.”

The line-up for this mission includes bow-wielder Thorn, space marine Oscar Mike, sword-slinger Phoebe, “chaos witch” Orendi, and tech badass Caldarius. Each character’s skillset and playstyle is given time in the spotlight during the demo, showcasing the sheer variety of gameplay Battleborn will offer. It looks like characters will possess elements of traditional MMO/multiplayer tropes such as tanks, healers, and DPS, but with enough flexibility that those roles don’t have to be hard and fast. Battleborn will live or die based on how well Gearbox balances those characters and roles, but it’s a good sign that so far none of the characters look like an obvious “no thank you” at this point.

The last survivor of her homeworld, Thorn brings a bow to a laser fight but nevertheless seems capable of holding her own. In addition to launching arrows into people’s faces, it looks like she can wield various AOE magic/debuff attacks. There are a couple of moments where she also looks to possess a “Force push” style ability for close range, useful for when the bad guys get too close.

Oscar Mike is described as a “clone soldier from a long-forgotten war.” He’s the go-to character for anybody used to standard Halo/Gears-style space marine antics, wielding an assault rifle, airstrike capabilities, and frag grenades. However, he also has stealth cloak technology, which should add a strategic element to an otherwise straightforward character template.

Sword-wielder Phoebe is “one of the Last Light Consortium’s greatest engineers.” Swords might seem even more ill-suited for a pitched sci-fi battle than Thorn’s bow and arrows, but Phoebe also brings telekinesis to the party, meaning she doesn’t always have to get right in an enemy’s face to ruin their day. Her AOE attack that “calls down a storm of swords” looks like something out of Fable. The Phoebe gameplay also shows off a skill-tree system that appears to let players chose between two different sets of abilities on the fly. In the case of Phoebe, she has one focusing on “The March of Science” and another on “The Art of Combat.” It’s hard to get a good look at the skills in question, but presumably those two alternatives will mean the difference between focusing on straightforward fighting abilities or tech/defense/debuffing.

The multi-armed Orendi can light up the battlefield with “chaos energies,” but also seems to be slightly unstable. She’s seen calling down all manner of storms and AOE attacks, and the video also plays up her speed. One thing that does stand out about Orendi: like many games, Battleborn features “battlefield chatter” during the gameplay, with the characters throwing out one-liners or comments in line with their style and personality. Orendi, apparently being slightly crazy, occasionally giggles or even breaks into song. At one point, she even does this while Kleese, the Battleborn’s guide/narrator, is trying to provide some exposition, which makes it hard to hear what he’s saying. Hopefully, Gearbox will dial back the characters’ automated dialogue before release, because otherwise Orendi’s blathering could get old fast.

The last of the five Battleborn getting the spotlight in this video is Caldarius, who rockets around Bliss courtesy of his “J-HTX Assault Frame and jump pack.” That means he’s a very vertical character, allowing players to blast up to overhead cliffs and rain destruction on the bad guys below. He’s also fast, so he should be useful for hit-and-run attacks.

Aside from insights into the characters’ unique powers and playstyles, the video confirms a few other gaming staples that shouldn’t surprise anyone. There are trophies or challenges that reward players for doing things like collecting “1000 shards in a single match.” There are two short mini-boss fights, featuring standard elements such as adds being spawned around the arena. There’s also an escort mission of sorts where the characters have to accompany a huge sentry bot on its way to destroy the portal. The sentries can also apparently be upgraded by spending shards, equipping them with things like extra shields, turrets, or healing auras.

One of the most positive takeaways from this video, however, is game’s sense of humor. Gearbox has proven a knack for this with the Borderlands series, and Battleborn looks to continue the trend. There are several genuine laughs throughout the video, from Kleese’s sardonic observations about the characters — he complains at one point that Rath not actually being a vampire invalidates his fan-fiction — to the awkward moment the sentry bot mistakes a giant door for a computer and engages its “hacking laser.” Battleborn‘s laughs won’t matter if the gameplay isn’t solid, but it could help set it apart from all the other dour first-person shooters out there. Hopefully more people will buy it than Bulletstorm…

Battleborn is due out this winter for PC, PS4, and Xbox One.