56ok.org

Inversus - a new concept that depends on online

Inversus sounded like a decent enough game to try. And knowing obscure indie online titles, after a day or 2 it will be forgotten. So I picked it up on day one to see if it will fly, becuase if I don't, I may never find someone at all, especially with Nintnedo socila network being even more of a "Stranger danger" network. You can't talk to strangers, and you can only talk to friends on a smartphone app, assuming theirs is on. So time to beat the randoms.

THe concept of Inversus is simple. Similar to what the Xbox 360 Indie game, Opposites does for Tetris, this does for shooters. In either a 1-on-1 or a 2-on-2, or single or co-op against bots, let's assume you are a black block with white dots, but you could just as easily be a a black block with white dots. The dots represent your shots. You can run around in an Atari 2600-type motion (meaing no animation, just a pixel move) on white squares. Your black opponents can walk around white squares. Your walking squares are their walls and vice versa. (I'm not talking about skin colors or race, I'm talking artistic pure white, the combination of all 3 primary lights, or no pigments, and artistic pure black just swap the words lights and pigments in the clauise about white.) You shoot shots Robotron/Smash TV style, where you can move and shoot independently, but you are only limited to the 4 cardinal directions, no diagonals, yet your moves are 360 degree with the analog. Your shots do 2 things. One is kill (in a rated E way) your opponent with your shot, and the other is open up new squares. I assume there is a grey square termination in all the levels I played so far. The shots stop on grey and are both walls, unmovable squares, and shot stoppers for all shots. The basic level at first I just assume it hits an edge, but every level I played except the basic has "Asteroids warping" so watch out for those edges. Gray squares determine the batllefield geography. The demo video on the Nintendo Switch store shows better than I can type it.

Strategy dictates that you just can't walk up to your opponent and shoot him. There are strategies like giving yourself more room, trapping your opponent, and red weapon pickups. Even though your recharge bullets over time, pickup can make you recover bullets quicker, and some even speed your shot. What's a pickup? Anything in red.

The network wasn't optimum, so maybe a retest is needed, but...

I was so eager to test it, that I had a couple other games downloading on my Switch without me knowing it. PLUS Cuphead wasn't finished loading yet on my Xbox One, so that took bandwidth. ( amazing a 11 GIG game, something bigger than a double layer DVD, is a download exclusive, and they expect us to download THAT game, and NOT be kind enough to offer it on disc.) PLUS unbeknownst to me, someone was watching a you tube video. If it didn't work, and I forgot about that, you would expect online gameplay to be a 56KO with the 3 internet sources.

Well, one of 2 things happened. Maybe my network router is smart enough to put more bandwidth towards my gaming, (I did not program my router, so it's in natural mode) so that my Switch and One downloads temporarily slowed down or stopped. Either that or the game is SO efficient, that with 3 other internet appliances using internet, I was able to play a co-op game against bots with one partner. Which is what came up first when I said any game. Also you can select what type of games you are interested in between arcade 1v1 and 2v2. So if you're in the mod for competition, turn on 1v1 or 2v2. If you want the co-op, select Arcade. When I selected only 1v1 I lost 2 matches 3-2, on my first online games against more experienced people. I don't know who I played and whether they experienced good gameplay or not, but I noticed an occasional opponent jump, one time in 10 minutes of gameplay. And it wasn't a critical part where I was aiming or trapping, and most likely I was the only one who was effected, due to low inbound speed. Unfortunately, I can't talk to Switch strangers without friending them, and even so I can't talk to Switch friends without a smartphone, so if you played a guy nicknamed Beast321 or username : tripletopper, (same person) let me know if you had any unusual gameplay against me.

But if I was using 2 other internet appliances as well as downloading on my Switch, and I had only one jerky moment that affected me, and I was able to win a few rounds with this, and I really lost because of my dumb mistakes like going down a single corridor with no bullets, I give this game a resounding 56OK.