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Preview: Battleborn (PvP)

Stevivor headed to Sydney last week to check out Battleborn‘s PvE Story mode and PvP Incursion mode. Today, we can share our thoughts on Incursion with you.

The easiest way to describe Battleborn’s Incursion mode is calling it the lovechild of a first-person shooter and a MOBA. Not unlike Dota or even SMITE, Incursion is a 5v5 game mode where two teams composed of any matchup of the game’s 25 heroes go head-to-head. Heroes are to guide NPC minions two the other team’s base, take out two giant, spider-like tanks and then destroy the enemy’s base. The first team to do that, or at least rack up the most points before time is up, wins.

On the paths – I was going to say lanes, but I thought better of it – to the enemy base are points where you can purchase and spawn different turrets to aid your team on its way to victory. Those items cost shards, which can be farmed by shooting and blowing up the stuff all around the map. You can also find non-allied NPCs at certain points in the map; taking those out and then gaining control of their spawn point puts that faction on your team.

battleborn-incursion

That’s it, really. Advance, work as a team and blow sh*t up.

Of course, it’s never really as simple as that; Battleborn’s character types can roughly be placed into several class types – healers, ranged, tanks, etc – so picking the right grouping to go up against the other team is essential. As in MOBAs, each character will start off a match at level one, and experience earned in that match will allow you to add and enhance your skill sets. In Battleborn, its Helix system means you’ll get to choose from one of two skills at each level. My character, the healer mushroom Mika, could be specced as a pure healer, dealing life to my allies, or as a combo healer and soldier, swapping out some healing capabilities with poison-laced bombs and the like.

It’ll take a while for players to figure out just who to play as. I didn’t do too bad as Mika, but had a hard slog with heavy, rocket-powered birdman Benedict. Looking at the character, I expected to have some flight capability alongside a couple cool guns. Instead, I found that flight was limited to an escape-type special move and rockets were slow and lumbersome. In short, he wasn’t my cup of tea.

battleborn-mayhem

If I was a PR person, I’d say that Helix system, combined with myriad characters and groupings, would make no match in Incursion the same as any other. That, though, would be false. What usually takes place from a match’s start is utter mayhem. Kill, be killed, watch as stuff explodes around you and characters make (what Gearbox thinks are) witty puns. Rinse. Repeat. It’s not exactly my cup of tea, but those with a hankering for Borderlands crossed with Dota should have a great time with it.

Check back next week for our thoughts on Battleborn‘s PvE Story mode.

Battleborn will be available from 3 May on Windows PC, Xbox One and PS4.


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About the author

Steve Wright

Steve's the owner of this very site and an active games journalist nearing twenty (TWENTY!?!) years. He's a Canadian-Australian gay gaming geek, ice hockey player and fan. Husband to Matt and cat dad to Wally and Quinn.