Inversion Review

Inversion takes place in a city that has been over run by an invading force known as the Lutadore. The Lutadores manage to overrun and cause chaos throughout the city. You assume the role of a cop, Davis Russel, who is searching for his daughter amongst the rubble of city. Leo Delgado is his partner and will aid him through the city. The following review was on Xbox 360 version.

I’m the right way up, Are you?

Inversion is a co-op based 3rd person shooter where you use a cover base system to hide and dodge enemy fire. The closest comparison in terms of game play is Gears of War (GOW), however there is a twist, you have the ability to use gravity as weapon. This gravity as a weapon is the key aspect to the game that makes it stand out from other games. When Davis Leo is equipped with his ability to manipulate gravity the game moves from a standard shooter to a different game. The characters can reduce gravity which causes  enemies to float in mid air from a hiding position and then allowing you to blow them to smithereens. By increasing gravity on enemies it can slow them down to a crawl or help bring flying enemies down to earth. You have standard weapons from any shooter: grenades, shotguns, machine guns and sniper rifles to help you blast you way through levels and the environment.

Come get me!!!

Davis is searching for his daughter and the whole story focuses on his search for her.*YAWN* Now that I have got the complex story out of the way, the game play is broken up all too often by cut scenes. You never get into the flow of the game. The scenes and visuals are stunning and help to build the sense of chaos and fear that penetrates the city. Areas of the city are effected by an imbalance of gravity which means players float or suddenly start walking the ceilings, gravity vectors means you walk in different planes. The vector effects add another dimension and an awe factor to the game.

The Good:

• Gravity weapons
• Destructible items and buildings
• Great imagery and general sense of dread
• Reduced gravity areas
• Vectors – walking in different planes

The Bad:

• Poor voice acting
• An inherent sense of ambivalence to the protagonist’s cause
• Two many useless cut scenes which breaks up game play
• Game play can repetitive

• The Lutadores fit the ugly bill well
• Ultimate disconnect with story
• Formulaic shooter for the most part

I have you in my sights

Overall

It’s a decent attempt to plug another shooter into an overloaded game genre. The innovative gravity system and the ability to destroy scenery is a brilliant feature. It’s quick and easy to pick up without much thought. Graphics and visual of the city in decay is awesome. But the first few chapters in particular really break the flow of the game before it gets a chance to get into its stride, with an overuse of cut scenes and the non-cut scene levels being too short. Storywise the game isn’t helped by a pretty poor story with some awful voice acting. This game has so much potential but overall is a good fun shooter with real pick up and play value.

6/10  Good but not great, lots of neat little touches but game needs more refinement in story and cut-scene to game play ratio.