Inversion

I just had my first hands-on time with Inversion, the upcoming gravity-defying shooter from Saber Interactive and Namco Bandai. While it looks and talks like a straight Gears of War rip-off – the trailer I watched before the demo is full of gruff, muscular men talking about how “six months in a prison cell gives you time to think” and other action game clichés – the gravity-based gameplay may provide enough unique hooks to help Inversion stand out from the crowd.

The key to it all is the Gravlink, a weapon that helps main character Davis Russel manipulate gravity in the environments he’s trudging through. Is a pesky enemy surviving too long by hiding behind cover? Blast him with low gravity to make him float into the air. Does a group of opponents keep scattering whenever you toss a grenade into their midst? Hit them with high gravity to stick them to the ground for a short period of time.

The Gravlink is incredibly easy to use, encouraging players to turn to it frequently. A tap of the left bumper shoots out a burst of gravity-changing energy, while a quick push on the right stick switches between high and low gravity. You can quickly identify which option you’re on by looking on Russel’s back – a glowing blue arrow will point up if he’s on low gravity and will switch to a red arrow pointing down for high.

In the section that I played, I fought through a lava-filled cave, taking cover and shooting my monstrous opponents down one by one. Some boxes hung suspended by cranes, which I could blast with high gravity to bring down as cover. I also discovered that once I had sent some debris floating using low gravity, I could grab it out of the air and throw it at enemies. Using explosive barrels, gas cans, and large rocks, I was able to take out multiple foes and knock down enemy structures, such as a bridge full of baddies and a tower that housed a brute with a rocket launcher. I was also delighted to discover that I could use debris and even enemy corpses as temporary shields.

Later in the level, I was ambushed by a crowd of quick-moving melee opponents, the perfect chance to become familiar with my shockwave ability. By pressing the left and right bumpers at the same time, Russel performs a powerful attack that kills or gravely injures any enemies in close range. In this demo, I was able to keep using the shockwave over and over until all of the attacking enemies were dead, but both the shockwave and gravlink will have a limited amount of power to draw on in the final version of the game.

Near the end of the demo, Inversion threw yet another twist on the third-person shooter my way. At certain points in each area, Russel will come upon glowing blue spots on a floor. Stepping through these conduits causes gravity to shift, allowing him to walk on walls or ceilings. In several spots I encountered enemies who were already on a wall, firing at me from odd angles, often able to hit me even as I was ducked behind cover. Grenades switch gravity when tossed through conduits as well, allowing me to surprise the bad guys with explosions. I had to quickly get used to checking for enemy fire from every single direction, a process that led to my death more than once.

My overall impressions of Inversion after this first demo are more positive than I expected. While there’s still a chance for Inversion to be lost in the constant wave of grisly third- and first-person shooters being pumped out these days, it seems to be bringing some new and genuinely interesting ideas to the table. If it can keep doling out those unique twists on the genre bit by bit throughout the game, it’s got a good chance of turning my mind topsy-turvy and making me a happy gamer in the process. We’ll find out more as Inversion approaches its planned release date of February 7, 2012.