Story
Everything seems nice and normal for Davis and Leo, the main characters for the game, until out of nowhere an invasion from what is a human "alien" invasion. A race called the Lutadore who are armed with advanced weapons and the ability to control many facets of gravity have rushed in to enslave the humans for whatever evil plan they have concocted. It's now up to Davis and Leo to take the Lutadore weapons and fight back and save Davis' little girl.
Hated
For a game that had at least a two year cycle and was delayed over four extra months you would thing that they would have taken extra care to polish up the visuals for the game. They are by no means the worst I have ever seen in a game, but with all the time the art team had you would think that they would have made something worthy of "next gen." The characters looked very bland as well as some of the environments. It didn't really ruin the feel of the game, but it definitely didn't help.
Another thing that got on my nerves to no end is the collision detection when it comes to the gravity guns. Unless you are very specific and precise it doesn't seem to work, unless you are an enemy or NPC. So many times I would shoot the high or low gravity gun and have it hit/explode right next to an enemy and they kind of just look at it and keep running like nothing happened. While on the converse if I'm anywhere near the blast radius of their attack I'm screwed. With the gravity thing being one of the selling points one would think this would be spot on. But no…no it wasn't.
One last thing would have to be the constant repeating of commands from NPCs as well as your co-op partner. Once you get a new ability it is nice that the game tries to remind you or help you out with calls to when to use said ability. But when you here it repeated an umpteen amount of times throughout the game and in instances where it makes no sense it gets really annoying. In the middle of an extreme firefight is not the best time to remind me that I have the ability to launch small items into the air for extra cover I don't need at the moment. Hells this wouldn't have been so bad if it wasn't for the fact that it is the same two phrases repeated over and over for the duration of the fight.
Loved
For some of the faults I would have to say that Saber completely hit the nail on the head when it comes to destructible environments. In fact I got caught off guard so many times because I've grown use to the non-destructible cover in games. Here in Inversion though, hiding behind a thin apartment wall will only protect you from a bullet or two before you have to find yourself running for new cover. This was one of the best features I found in the game. This is a form of realism that is lacking in a lot of games and it was much appreciated here.
While it was a little bit of a pain, the gravity functionality and effects did lend to some interesting game play. Like the fact that when the AI sticks to blind firing and makes it all but impossible to kill the enemy you get the option to lift them out of cover or force the environment to attack them through gravity. Then there is the full 3D firefights that occur in specific areas where gravity is turned off. Picture having a shoot out in space without suits and the innards of everyone being sucked out of their body or freezing. Kind of a fun and new way to play a shoot out.
Overview
I do have to say that Inversion seemed like a title that was slipped under the radar. While it isn't the most amazing title of the year it was enjoyable and at least tried something new in a gaming world filled with a load of the same stuff. It isn't a need to go out and purchase right now, but when the price comes down a bit it is totally worth a play through and a second one with a friend. At the very least it is worth the time to coordinate a rental with a friend to play solo and co-op. If only there was a bit more polish during the down time they took it would be a must own.
Inversion was developed by Saber Interactive and published by Namco Bandai on June 5th 2012 for the PS3, Xbox and PC. A PS3 copy of the game was provided by the publisher for review purposes.
