I had the chance to review Inversion which is a 3rd person shooter game developed by Saber Interactive (known for having a hand in Halo Anniversary) and published by Namco Bandai who’s other titles I’ve played plenty of including Tekken & Soul Calibur. With these companies involved I could only be excited for what I’d find in Inversion.
Based sometime in the near future you play as Davis Russel, a trigger happy guy or (depending on co-op) Leo Delgado, the calming level-headed influence and dependable partner, both of whom are cops. On a normal day doing their job the whole city begins to panic as numerous objects ranging from rocks to parts of buildings start floating and a group of new barbaric styled enemies invade the city. They are instantly known as the Lutadores (despite being a new threat, a name is put to them almost immediately which was rather overlooked in the story), instantly rampaging around shooting or capturing anyone in sight.
The cop buddies decide it’s their duty to fight back whilst also reaching Davis’ house to save his wife and daughter. Upon arriving at his apartment block he finds his wife has already been attacked but before he can find his daughter they are outnumbered and held captive by the Lutadores. Now they must escape, continue the search for his daughter and strike vengeance on those enemies who block his path.
Before you think I’ve spoilt it for you, that is basically the prologue/first mission and one thing you’ll instantly find yourself thinking is “this plays like Gears of War”. Well in some way you’re right with the cover system where basically anything is available to hide behind to protect you from incoming fire. The thing is almost everything is destructible so if you’re firing from the side of an abandoned car you better run if it starts smoking or if behind a stone pillar it will get smashed to pieces in no time so you never get long in cover. Another would be the health system as the only way you know that Davis is dying is when the screen gets darker, I would prefer a proper health bar as it’s very misleading at times. Add to that the factor of a city-wide invasion, with cut scenes around almost every corner, it is similar to Gears in that sense.
That is where the similarities end though as you immerse yourself further into the game you start to feel the game trying to add its own stamps into the mix. Let’s go with the Gravlink, a futuristic contraption that allows you to give objects/people low or high gravity, so they either float in mid-air or can drag them heavily down to earth. I found these gravitation fields fascinating as enemies or objects can be pulled close to either throw or end them with a vicious finishing move. As much as you’ll always need guns, the Gravlink becomes increasingly important especially when large numbers mount an attack on you. My favourite usage was lifting up a car and knocking down five enemies like bowling pins as I launched it at them. The fun part is finding new ways to kill the Lutadores and there are many items to be thrown.
There are times when your whole world is literally turn upside down, due to some random gravitational pull or anomaly you can end up duelling on the sides of buildings. These aren’t the only strange areas though as you’ll find parts that have no gravity whatsoever, meaning floating is the method of movement which makes combat rather odd but innovative. Whatever the atmospheric changes there are points in the game where having a partner is key, for opening shutters or getting a boost over a ledge, takes me back to the Army of Two style team work. They are very small parts but it adds little reminders to co-op partners that you are a team and to work together.
With all the aspects that you may have experienced in some form via other games, plus the gravity elements that will be new to most gamers, it’s one of those campaigns that gains momentum. After a mediocre start it slowly gives you more of the key weapons/features and you will enjoy the short-ish chapters of which there are many. A tiny flaw is the difficulty, although easy to kill enemies on the lowest setting it is all too easy to be killed yourself. I’d say it’s similar health-wise to most of the highest difficulties on other 3rd person shooters which had me restarting a lot of checkpoints.
Graphically it’s on par with most modern day shooters with realistic scenery and the amount of work put into the gravity parts are spot on. Seeing as it’s an 18 rated game, you’d expect gore and you certainly get it as you pop off enemies’ heads or rip them apart with your futuristic Gravlink. The voice acting is average and nothing terrible stands out, however something I’ve noticed with most games, when you enable subtitles it doesn’t actually show everything that is said which I find odd.
Multiplayer, well unfortunately I can’t tell you if this is great, awful or just ok simply because barely a month after being released in Europe it has died a horrible death. No matter the time of day I cannot find an opponent, which is disappointing, maybe you the reader can change this if I’ve convinced you to buy it. If so you can look forward to the usual Team Deathmatch, Free-for-all style matches plus various others like Hour Glass (King of the Hill) and Assault (capturing objectives like Headquarters). Most disappointing is being unable to try Survival mode where you can fight against waves of AI enemies which is usually great fun with friends.
Despite the obvious comparisons to recent 3rd person shooters, I feel it does have its own style in certain concepts within the game. In my opinion there’s a possibility that Inversion has been overlooked in a summer of very few big games and it deserves at least a rental. I reckon it can fill that void between now and the next big hitters are released in time for the winter video game fest. It isn’t going to win game of the year but I’m sure for the price you can pick it up for now (£25 and less) you’ll get your money’s worth.
7/10