Battleborn's Incursion mode finally laid bare

{Battleborn} is creeping closer to release, with its entire 25-strong character roster and mission modes revealed. We finally got hands on with its most interesting multiplayer mode, Incursion, which seems to be loosely based on DOTA. Players are split into two teams, battling five on five to destroy their opponent's pair of giant spiderbots. You can check out a full playthrough of the mode with Orendi in the clip below:

It's very much a meeting of a tower defence game and a DOTA clone. Automatically-generated minions attack along given routes from both sides. The minions vary in sizes and weaponry, but they are much better than the players at taking down the spiderbots, as they neutralise their shields, allowing the players to attack them. Players attacking the spiderbots alone die very fast indeed.

It's a straight parallel of the minions-versus-towers mechanic from DOTA, and it works well. In another DOTA hat-tip, players can also defeat neutral creeps around the map to recruit them as allies, bolstering your attack. And, as in other modes of the game, you can also purchase and upgrade a wide variety of turrets and robot allies at summoning points around the arena, using the shards collected as you run around the arena.

Actually playing Incursion changed our opinion of it. The single stream of minions (compared to three in DOTA) focuses the combat, and the more limited variety of attacks means fights can play out relatively similarly if you don't use your head - a giant pile-on in the middle of the map was fairly normal.

However, taking the time to quietly eliminate enemy turrets and recruit allies paid huge dividends when it came to pushing towards the enemy lines and wiping the enemy team. Particularly, all the characters benefitted from the slow teleport - again, a nod to DOTA's recall ability. This allows damaged characters to retreat to spawn, after a three second cast, where they're instantly healed. Given that respawns slow gradually as the match goes on and how deadly being outnumbered can be, dying regularly can lose your team the match. Using that teleport retreat will be essential to victory.

I was playing solely as Deande, the Jennerit assassin, mainly because I couldn't work out how to change character in-battle (in retrospect, I don't think you can). Though it took me a long time to work out her playstyle, her core trick is the ability to clone herself and cloak, enabling her to sneak around the back of an enemy formation and backstab the healers and snipers. The game is so saturated in visual effects that most new players don't even notice that they're being stabbed...

Despite the limited flexibility of Battleborn's characters, Incursion introduces a strongly tactical variety to offset the other multiplayer modes and the co-op story campaign. We'll be talking more about the campaign on the 23rd.