Tip:
Highlight text to annotate it
X
I
think of all these third-person shooters like Gremlins. You know, Resident Evil 4 kinda
dropped off the first one, Gears of War threw water on it and all of a sudden, the **** things
are everywhere. And for the most part, they’re all the same. They bite your legs, they try
to kill old people, they chase Phoebe Cates.
Then again, who wouldn’t?
Anyway, Inversion is one of those games. We grabbed it by the ears and kept it in a cage
long enough to spend some time with it, and after extensive research, I can say this one
at least tries to distinguish itself from the horde...or at least, it claims to.
Don’t tell it I told you this, but that’s all a big lie.
So the promise of Inversion is that it’s essentially Gears of War meets Super Mario
Galaxy. You play as a gruff white guy indistinguishable from and as forgettable as the other gruff
white guys in gaming. He’s a cop or something, aliens have kidnapped his daughter...seriously,
this **** is ridiculous. But alas, who cares? It’s a third-person shooter that promises
gravity-defying gameplay.
And frankly, that sounds awesome. In fact, if done right, it’s exactly the kind of
fresh twist this tired genre could use. The problem is Inversion doesn’t do it right.
As hours pass and the game progresses, you just keep waiting for the gravity mechanic
to do something special. You keep waiting for it to come into its own.
And then you wait some more.
Sadly, the extent of the concept is just a backpack that gives you abilities that are
anything but unique. You can lift enemies into the air, you throw objects, you can battle
in zero gravity...sorry, did I miss the part that was a new idea based on gravity? I mean,
the only thing I’m seeing in Inversion are ideas done far better in far better games.
To the game’s credit, it does offer “vector shifts” in which levels are flipped, gravity
changes, buildings become horizontal...that’s the kind of thing you want Inversion to really
exploit in its design, but it never does. Like most parts of the game, it’s like an
interesting idea that just never gets off the ground.
And so, because its new ideas are fewer than expected, Inversion ends up being the very
thing you think it won’t be...just a standard duck-and-cover third-person shooter. Despite
its cool ideas, Inversion plays like a less-inspired Gears of War, like another note in an overplayed
song, like another Gremlin in a snow-covered town.
Good luck telling this one from the others.