Inversus Deluxe adds bots to the monochrome multiplayer shooter
Ebony & Ivory
The original release of Inversus [official site], the debut game from Hypersect, was a relatively quiet affair. While well-reviewed it seems that it got a little bit lost in the deluge of smaller-scale multiplayer releases of the time. With its relaunch as Inversus Deluxe, we hope the appeal of its monochromatic tactical arcade combat will reach a larger audience, especially now the game features some fiendishly capable bots.
From what I've played of Inversus Deluxe, it absolutely deserves more love and attention. In essence, it feels like a hybrid of Bomberman and a twin-stick shooter, but more controlled. Your limited, slowly recharging stock of shots not only threaten the life of your enemy directly, but paint a path in your team's colour, allowing you to traverse more of the arena, or box in your enemy by firing a shot across their bow. As with Bomberman, frenzied button-mashing attacks are the last-ditch tactic of the desperate, and better players (including the devilishly precise bots) will know to hold back, especially as your shots can be used defensively to cancel out enemy fire.
It's exactly the kind of easily understood multiplayer romp that's best shared with a few friends and, ideally, a few gamepads, assuming you can crowd enough people around your PC. Failing that, the game does offer full online play. On the surface, Inversus is simple enough mechanically to learn in seconds, but has just enough tactical depth and mind-games to make for a properly satisfying 1v1 or 2v2 match and presumably a high skill ceiling, after seeing how thoroughly the bots stomped me on the highest AI difficulty.
Inversus' relaunch brings more to the game than just AI for the (primary) versus mode, although that is the most significant of the new additions. There's also new maps for both arcade and versus modes, and ranked online multiplayer, making it a significantly more tempting package than it was originally. And when playing solo, at least the bots are kind enough not to mercilessly taunt you after grinding you into the dirt.
See the patch notes for details on all that's new.
Inversus Deluxe is out now on Steam for £11/€15/$15.