Inversus is a minimalist but incredibly fun shooter. It’s like a much more violent version of the classic board game Othello (aka Reversi).
What? You don’t know what Othello is? Have a read here, I’ll wait.
*Waits. Taps Fingers Impatiently*
Are you back now? Good.
So Inversus takes the colour flipping idea of Othello and uses it to extremes. You play a black or white square, and you can only travel on the tiles that are the opposite colour to you. So if you are black, you can only move on the white tiles, and vice versa.
When you shoot, your bullets will turn the tiles the opposite colour to you – so every time you shoot you create new paths around the map.
There
are two game modes available in Inversus, and the first is Arcade Mode. This is your only single player option, and pits you in various different maps (that you unlock as time goes on) against an un-ending swarm of enemies that spawn from all around you. While fun, this mode didn’t grip me very long. It’s an arcade mode in the truest sense of the word – there is no progression, the enemies never stop, you can never win – you’re just always trying to beat your previous score.
The maps are well designed, starting you off with a basic one before graduating to different shapes, tiles that can’t be changed, maps that wrap around from right to left so you can leave one side and appear on the other – sometimes appearing on both at the same time… but the lack of any feelings of progression made the arcade mode feel quite slight to me.
But this wasn’t a game designed for single player. This is a game for multiplayer. With options to play both locally and online, a multiplayer game can go in a variety of different directions depending on the style of play favoured by you and your opponent.
For example, I’m a “shoot first then figure out where I’m going later” kind of player, so I would often run out of shots and have to wait for them to regenerate. However, some of my opponents were playing very strategically, trying to trap me or confuse me with their paths.
There’s not really a lot more to say about the game – it’s nice and simple, and in many ways that is its charm. At the moment it’s replaced Rocket League as my go-to game to kill ten minutes on the PS4, and that is high praise indeed!
Inversus
Pros
- Brilliant Idea
- Fast Paced Gameplay
- A Blast in Multiplayer
- Simple yet Striking Graphics
Cons
- Arcade mode slightly unsubstantive
