Inversion: A new breed of third-person cover shooter?

Hey, do you like Gears of War? Yes, us too, obviously. We reckon Saber Interactive are pretty keen on the macho franchise too.

Hey, do you like games that are very like Gears of War? That's a much tougher one to answer, but if we're going to have an attack of the clones, it may as well be from a team which has been given huge amounts of money, time, and access to that King of Destruction, the Havok engine.

Timeshift creators Saber plan to make the most of this honour by ladling a thick layer of gravity-meddling over the over-familiar third person cover-to-cover shooter set-up.

So the next time anyone brings up the 'Gee-Oh-Double-U' game, they can throw a freighter train across the map into a foe's face and say "Can Gears of War do that?"

GRAVITY TRAIN
The context for this mix of cowering and destruction doesn't make even a vague stab at novelty: you're maverick cop Davis Russel, accompanied by your neighbour Leo Delgado on a mission to find your missing daughter after your wife is killed by invading aliens.

Well, actually they're 'an unknown enemy' called the Lutadore, but whoever they are, they love pissing about with gravity - soon your hometown is plagued with pockets of perverted physics, and once you get the power to play with gravity yourself, the fight is on.

Co-op - both splitscreen and online - is central to Inversion. Never mind the huge battles, you and Leo will be chasing your own agenda, mixing physics puzzles with combat to get closer to your kid.

Rather than plugging an enemy with your shooter, why not drop a lorry on the sod, or just send them flailing into oblivion with zero gravity? And if a raging inferno stands in your way, just pick up a nearby lake and drop it in the right place to proceed.

Yes, we've seen it before, but the technology powering the gravity antics does make this a pretty deluxe jumble of familiar concepts. And, of course, everything in this beleagured town falls apart like a dream.

So, does this mean Inversion stands apart from other games of its type? We'll reserve judgement until we go hands-on, but for now let's leave the verdict to the majority of the experts with whom we saw the game at this years Gamescom: "Er... it's just like Gears of War, isn't it?"

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