Inversion takes place in the near future and puts you in control of a local cop, Davis Russell, and his partner, Leo.
When an invasion of a more advanced race that looks pretty human happens, Davis and Leo are captured. After some time, the duo are able to escape and they steal some of the alien tech. In fact, it’s this technology that is supposed to make Inversion stand out. It seems this race has mastered gravity fields and can make the gravity in a localized area lighter or heavier and thus cause objects to float or fall respectively.
This not only gives the game some interesting possible puzzles, but it makes for some different combat. For one, many paths that are blocked by debris can be cleared by causing the junk to float away, or grabbing it with the GravLink (the device you use), and throwing it towards the barrier. There are even times when increasing the gravity will cause objects to fall and create walkways over chasms. It’s just too bad that every single instance that you use the GravLink in a non-combat situation feels overly scripted.
As far as combat is concerned, there is something to be said about being able to slam objects into your enemies, much like Darth Vader against Luke Skywalker at Cloud City, but causing your opponent to float away and lose control while you snipe them feels rewarding as well.
Inversion also has places where gravity is out of control. There are times when you will flip around and start walking on walls, or even jump from floating asphalt to floating asphalt as an entire city block has a low gravity field around it. Unfortunately, much like the gravity-based puzzles, these points in the game feel very scripted.
Something also needs to be said about the pacing of the game. Inversion has a very noticeable stop and go feel to it. You will run into a room, clear it of bad guys, and as you leave the space, a cutscene takes over that shows you and Leo walking and talking a bit before you turn a corner and find a new group of enemies. Your characters jump to the side and take cover, and then you proceed to take out another group of Lutadores (the enemies), all to walk into yet another cut scene and repeat the process. While this style of gameplay does provide story throughout the level instead of just at the beginning, end and maybe at some point in the middle, it is very jarring and messes with the overall feel of the game.
Inversion offers quite a few multiplayer modes, but almost all of them fit into the standard molds. The only thing that makes them different is the use of the GravLink. Unfortunately, I couldn’t ever find anyone to play against/with to get a good feel of the game styles.
