Inversion Preview

May 23, 2012 by Nico Di-Maria

Upside down…

With plenty of third-person shooters currently flooding the market, any new addition to the genre must have feature its own twist to make it stand out from the pack. Whilst some games have one unique aspect, Inversion has many. Is it enough to push on and become a force in the genre? Read on to find out more.

Inversion is not your typical third-person shooter, featuring the ability to gravity shift alongside the usual gunfire and melee attacks. Davis Russel, the main protagonist, and his partner Leo Delgado must fight off the surprise invasion of their planet from the mysterious terrorists known as the “Lutadore”. However, taking them out isn’t Russel’s main objective. Amongst the chaos, his wife is killed, he is kidnapped and his daughter has gone missing. As you’d expect, Russel plans to escape, save his daughter and seek some explosive revenge on the Lutadore.

On the visual front, whilst it doesn’t match up to the big hitters in the same genre, Inversion manages to look quite decent. Environments and cutscenes very good, with the latter excelling thanks to the inclusion of some impressive CGI. This helps the story flow, at times, turning it in to more than a game. However, the character models could be a lot better, with most looking a tad unnatural due their size. Hopefully, they’re improved prior to the game’s full release and end up appearing more natural.

Apart from the slightly odd looking character models, even though the demo wasn’t 100% representative of final code, there were no visible bugs present. The transition from gameplay to cutscenes was most impressive, extremely smooth, Even the switch between firing your weapon and performing melee attacks was natural and fluid, with the addition of gravity shift introducing a tactical element to the game. It’s a very interesting way to defeat enemies. For example, you can use the ability on an enemy behind cover, launch him into the air and then fire a barrage of bullets into his body. The gravity shift ability comes courtesy of a weapon stolen from the Lutadore. It’s essentially a pack Russel puts over his shoulders, kind of the pack the Ghostbusters wore. If you have a pack, the ability will be your saviour during the tougher parts of the game. However, during some sections you won’t have access to any packs at all, which means you’ll need to kill a few Lutadore and earn the right to use gravity shift on any further enemies.

The CPU AI is impressive though and will not go down with out a fight. On higher difficulties if you make a silly move or a mistake, enemies will make you pay. There is even one point when they try and push you around! The environments add an extra element to game too, as you can’t just hide behind walls. Why? Beacuse they’re all destructible! The Lutadore will take advantage of this, attempting to draw you out of cover. Of course, you can do the same too, giving you to ability to expose enemies and pump them full of lead. Whilst it could do with a few tweaks, the gameplay has enough potential to stand up against other titles in the genre.

It seems like online seems will be a big part of Inversion too. The game will features a mass of different modes for you to play through with others players all over the world. There are some really different and innovative modes, which could end up being a real breathe of fresh air. Some modes require stealth, others tactical team play and some just task you with killing in sight.

Inversion is shaping up to be a really good third-person shooter, and if Saber Interactive can iron out its kinks before release, the game could end up being be a major player in the genre. The solid gameplay, intriguing plot, promising online modes and the interesting use of gravity could be a major factor in the success of this title. Don’t invert just yet, stay grounded and keep a keen eye on this third-person shooter.