Inversion possesses two different types of gameplay: the campaign and the multiplayer. Let’s start with the multiplayer. Within the multiplayer there are several types of modes which support anywhere from a max of 4 to 12 players, depending on the mode. All but one of these modes are competitive, being divided into deathmatch and team deathmatch type of gameplay. The last mode is a co-operative survival mode, which features a standard Horde-like set-up. Up to 4 players can join up to fend off waves of enemies which get progressively tougher. The gravity mechanics from the campaign can be utilized here for an extra bit of flavor and three different maps are offered for this mode.
Players can either set up their own lobby for the various multiplayer modes, or use the matchmaking system. If you plan on buying or renting Inversion, however, I would suggest not relying too much on the matchmaking system. The community for the game (or at least the amount of people utilizing the matchmaking system) appears extremely small, even just a week after the game’s release. Several times I attempted to use the matchmaking system to find either a survival or competitive game, and was unsuccessful. One time I even sat waiting for 15 minutes for the survival mode and found only one other person who dropped back out after waiting for a couple minutes when it was clear we weren’t going to find others anytime soon. Bizarrely enough, there is no matchmaking for the campaign, so if you want to even play the campaign in co-op, you’ll need to convince a friend to also pick up the game.
This brings us to the bulk of the gameplay of Inversion: the campaign. The story campaign is the same for single-player or 2-player co-op. To my extreme disappointment, Inversion now only supports online co-op, though in the past I was repeatedly informed that it would also have local splitscreen co-op as well. Other publications were told the same thing, and I’ve run across many forum posts online from players who bought the game expecting local co-op to only fire up the game and realize this was not an option. If you are one such player, we’re certainly sorry we misinformed you, but understand that we were misled as well. As such, it was difficult for me to get rid of the bad taste in my mouth of, what I felt to be, deceit.