A fun test of speed and patience – INVERSUS Review.

The top down shooter genre has seen a big bloom recently, but it seems like there is something missing with it. That thing is competition. The genre is not shy to having co-operative play but outside of “who can get the most points/kills” there isn’t any real reason or ability to go head to head in a battle of wit and skill with your friends.

Thankfully Hypersect created INVERSUS, a top down puzzle-shooter with a fun multiplayer mechanic that rewards strategy, skill and guts. At first glance, one cannot help but to think of Geometry Wars meets Snake with a mix of Reversi, a mix that shouldn’t work but is probably the best way I could describe the indie title to you. A simple design but yet there isn’t much like it, and it is a blast!

The gameplay is simple, players take control of their little black or white cube on top of a black and white board, depending on the colour of your cube, you are restricted from moving on only black or white squares. Given 5 bullets (with reasonable reload time per shot) players must hit their opponent once, with the bullet changing the colours of the squares as it flies to its target, giving you more space to move.

This allows plenty of strategy, by opening up pathways to reach your target to setting up a charge shot that will fire across 3 lanes in a chosen direction, and picking up a handful of different powerups which range from faster shots, shields, and more.

The main focus of INVERSUS is its multiplayer, while yes it does include a Single Player Arcade mode in which players are treated to a great Geometry Wars-style game which can be frantic and amazing in its own rights, a few rounds of multiplayer and you may never want to go back to the arcade mode. With focus on 1v1 or 2v2 games, players are forced into a game of control, speed, and skill in order to take out their opponents.

The game features a large variety of maps to play on, some ranging from simple designs like a square or diamond field, while others become a trippy battle arena full of mirror paths and loops, adding a layer of confusion on top of an already frantic firefight for control between players.

The biggest complaint I had about the game is its matchmaking and the lack of randomizing the multiplayer, in some cases during playthrough, I was in a match between the same person over 15 times and did not get prompted to move on to a different opponent to do a rematch or to do a search, matches started almost immediately after the rounds ended.

INVERSUS is a multiplayer game that is well worth your time and offers something very different to the sea of competitive shooters, giving that “one more round” feeling on almost every match.

Want to see the game in action? Check out Lucas and Pentavus from our Twitch Broadcast!