Inverison (PS3)

So I bought this game of a whim. It’s been kind of a slow summer and when I saw it had dropped to around 20 dollars I figured it would give it a shot. I wasn't expecting too much. I have to say this game was not that great. It provides a minor degree of entertainment, but towards the end of it I was begging to be done so I man move on. I mean it’s a solid game but maybe even when I spend 20 dollars, I expect something. I guess I should have expected as much because Saber Interactive made Time Shift, another forgettable game with a gimmick of time manipulation. However while Time Shift had some memorable and original concepts (still all together forgettable), I think they got lost in making Inversion. 

In reality this game is a Gears of War clone with a gimmick of gravity manipulation, however not very well done. You first have to shoot something to in case it in a gravity field and then you can grab it with your power glove backpack gravity thing and that doesn’t make sense to me. Why not just let me manipulate gravity without the field? The gravity does have two different settings, low and heavy gravity. I found heavy gravity pretty useless, the shield did come in handy in some parts but it drains so damn fast. I just found myself using low gravity more, lifting enemies from cover and other stuff. High Gravity  is just pointless.

When I call this game a Gears of War clone, I mean this is a pretty much a copy and paste clone. The Lutadores (stupid name) look like COGs (big beefy no neck Neanderthals) and they burrow up from the ground like the Locust.  Chest high walls are everywhere.  I am not the biggest fan of Gears of War (well the first one was amazing, and then they jumped the shark with second and third one), but it was still a solid game. I think the biggest problem is fluidity. When before and after every fight you have a one to two minutes cut scene it really breaks up the game play to say “hey we are now going over here” or “Oh no it’s the same boss we encountered last level”. Nothing is fluid. And that’s what is missing from Inversion fluidity. Nothing feels smooth. Even the selling point of gravity manipulation isn’t very smooth.

Also if anyone can figure out the story line of this game, please let me know because I am still lost. *Spoiler* something about a giant ship and different worlds in bubbles and mechanical aliens and who knows. I will say the one twist at the end I didn’t see coming.

Maybe they tried too hard to make a big budget title, maybe they got sidetracked, but much of this game feels like moving from one cut scene to another. I knew I wasn’t going to “like” this game, but I at least wanted entertainment and that was not the case.