Finally, Gearbox is showing off the Incursion mode of Battleborn. There have been little teases on this mode but never has it been fully shown to the public, well until today. If you have followed my social feed you might have noticed that I was able to fly to the 2K UK Office and get some hands-on time with the game. Here I got to play the new Incursion mode with the creative director, Randy Varnell, himself. Also, GBX Product Manager Jeff was on my team, so I can’t lose, right?
Incursion Mode
So what is Incursion? In the few sessions that I have played, there was a lot to process so I’ll break it down for you. Incursion is a full-scale war where you have to destroy 2 spider bots of the opposing team. The team that destroys the enemy spider bots will win the match. If this goal isn’t reached within the time cap the team that did the most damage to the enemy’s spiderbots wins the match. While play sessions in Capture last around 10 minutes and with Meltdown you have sessions of 20 minutes, Incursion is capped at 30 minutes as these battles can take a while.
Killing these spider bots isn’t an easy task as they are protected by an energy shield. Going head-to-head with a spiderbot will result in your death within 5 seconds. In order to take them out you have to bring along your minion robots with you. These will attack the spiderbot’s energy shield, and once it’s down you can attack it. While his shield may be down this doesn’t mean he is a pushover. However, I noticed that landing several devastating hits will result in a down state giving you a few seconds window to land some more hits. Incursion isn’t like meltdown where you just have to escort your minions across the map there is a lot going on during the match.
Besides having to deal with the minions and the spiderbots there are some thrall outposts on the map. During the match, you can engage them and if you successfully take them out you can capture this outpost. This is done similarly to capturing the zones in the multiplayer mode capture by simply standing a few seconds on the zone. Now this outpost will spawn a thrall warrior that will help you in battle as he will also follow the path of the minions. As these Thrall warriors are no pushover this will give you an extra push to complete your goal and add some pressure to the enemy team. In the map that we played, there were 3 outposts one near each base and one in the center of the map, each outpost will spawn 1 warrior except the one in the center of the map as this one will spawn 2 thrall warriors. So this one i a high point of interest for both teams as the one in the center will give you a huge boost. So expect that the other team will also be fighting for this.
On top of this, you still have the shard gathering and buildable turrets. From what I have seen there are a lot more buildable on the map than in the other multiplayer modes. So there is lots of combat and resource management in this mode. Having a good team setup really helps because this mode will demand your best play as it’s highly competitive. So stick together and know what are you going to push for and when. This is something the game tries to help you with. During the battle you get your voice messages on what the teams are doing but also if you have the upper hand and should make a push. For example, if you have taken out 2 or 3 of the enemy Battleborn you get the notification to take the others out or go and push for the spiderbot. If one of the teams tries to capture a Thrall Outpost you will be notified giving you the opportunity to stop this or help out in sealing this deal. The battles can get intense as you all the minions heroes and thrall meet up at one point and you have turrets firing. Keep an eye out for the Spiderbot life bars on top of the screen. These will indicate if a spider bot is under attack. As your second spiderbot is located in front of your base it’s useful to teleport back to your base if you have to fall back. This takes 3 seconds to perform which is probably faster than walking all the way back if you are halfway across the map. Another advantage is that your life bar is also fully restored once you are back at your base. So if you are low on health and need to get out of a hairy situation. Teleport back because this is way more efficient than dying and waiting to respawn, because the longer the match takes the more time it takes to respawn. So when you die at the beginning of the match you have to wait for 5 seconds, but near the end mark it can take 40 seconds and a lot can happen during that time frame. So remember get a solid team and have some one that can push the team forward. That person has got to have some heals, so bring a healer for the team. Have someone to hold the line so your team isn’t pushed back. Knowledge is power communicate have someone who keeps an overview like a sniper. Get someone to collect shards so you can build a fortress with all the turrets on the map. I hope this helps you out and is your first step to victory.
So in these few multiplayer sessions, I got to experience the Incursion mode of Battleborn. Like I said there is a lot going on and battles can get intense. In the first game, we had to counter-wave after wave and had a hard time getting a grip on the match. This was also the first time that I played Ghalt so I needed to get a bit used to him. I can tell you that pulling in a Rath was a bad idea. In the second match, we pushed early and got the upper hand, but this didn’t mean victory right away as the other team managed to push back. therefore it took some time before we managed to get the second spider bot down. With Meltdown I had more of the feeling that if there are no minions there is no point in attacking or staying in that lane. Now I wanted to smack the other team around and forgot to check my life gauge from time to time. That spider bot is ripping through your health and shield. I had a great time playing the game. I know I could have done a better job at the game by picking some of the old cast but I wanted to try out the new heroes.
