AVICII Invector Review (Xbox One)

STAFF REVIEW of AVICII Invector (Xbox One)

Sunday, December 22, 2019.
by Adam Dileva

While I was never a massive AVICII fan, I did quite enjoy his hits that I would hear daily on the radio. Even though I’ve never purchased any of his music, his passing in 2018 was quite sad, as he was one of the faces of a whole musical genre and quite influential. Where there’s darkness though, there’s always light, as we now get to experience 25 of AVICII’s top hits in a new rhythm based game dedicated to his body of work; AVICII Invector.

There’s no denying that AVICII has some amazing hits that even casual fans of the genre have probably heard, such as Wake Me Up, Lay Me Down, Without You and more, so to say that he had an influence and reach around the world is an understatement. With AVICII Invector, we get to experience his body of work, celebrating it with an interesting and challenging musical game that I ended up enjoying more than I expected. And as a bonus, a portion of each sale is going to the Tim Bergling foundation to support mental health awareness, which makes this tragedy have some semblance of positive in it.

Like any good musical rhythm game, you’ll need to press button prompts in tune with the music, which happens to be very catchy and fantastic melodies as well. While I can appreciate that a snippet of narrative was included between certain stages, these cartooned cutscenes don’t really tell a captivating story and don’t feel all that needed. There are certain types of games that are just fine without having to add a narrative in just to have one, and musical games like this are one of those. These cutscenes more felt like a slight interruption between stages rather than a reward. Again, glad the effort was there, but simply didn’t feel needed in a game like this.

Invector is broken up into multiple sections with a handful of songs in each before being able to move onto the next group of songs. You’ll need to hit a certain score threshold before ‘passing’ the song, though this is incredibly easy to do so on the Easy difficulty, and not too terribly difficult on Medium once you have a grasp of the mechanics. Songs become progressively more challenging of course as you progress, but the difficulty lies more in with what mode you’re attempting them on, as Hard mode is just that; Hard.

So you’re the biggest AVICII fan and simply want to know what 25 songs are included? I have to admit, while I knew the massive hits, I actually fell in love with some of the lesser known songs the more I played through them on multiple difficulties, trying to raise my highscores.

Tracklist:

Can't Catch me
Pure Grinding
What Would I Change it to
The Nights (Avicii by Avicii)
Waiting For Love
Gonna Love Ya
You be Love
Friend of Mine
Sunset Jesus
Fade Into Darkness
Wake Me Up
Lonely Together
Without You
Hey Brother
Levels
I Could Be The One
You Make Me
Lay Me Down
For a Better Day
Broken Arrows - M-22 Remix
True Believer
Talk To Myself
Heaven
Tough Love
Fades Away

You control a small spaceship flying along a set path, tasked with hitting specific button prompts as you pass over them to the beat and music of course. There’s basically two different types of ‘highways’ you’ll be cruising along as you attempt to fly over the prompts and hit them to the beat. You have flat three lane 'roads' where you can be on the left, right or middle, or will be placed in a triangle tunnel, much like a Toblerone box, where you can navigate to any of the three sides. Each has its own challenges, as the flat ‘road’ will have turns and hills that can obstruct the upcoming button prompts when it gets going quite fast, and the triangle tunnels and mess with you when you’re rotating around each face quickly.

Crank up the volume and enjoy the melodies that made AVICII known. I suggest starting with Easy to simply get your bearings of the controls, then move up to Medium and Hard as you become more comfortable and can react quickly without having to think as much. As for the button presses, you’ll be using either of the Bumpers, the face buttons and Left or Right on the stick.

When you pass through or over a white beam of light, you want to match that with the press of the Bumper at the same time. You’ll also pass over ‘A’ or ‘X’ button prompts on Easy as well. When you move up to Medium difficulty the ‘B’ button is tossed in, and Hard also includes ‘Y’. It sounds easy, but given the quick tempo of some of the songs, you’ll need to be on your game and looking ahead to watch’s coming if you want to hit the correct button on the beat.

What I really thought was clever is the subtle tutorial system in the beginning. For example, it’ll teach you to press the Bumper when you pass over or through one of those white beams, or hold it for certain sections, but get enough correct in a row and it’ll stop showing the prompt. Make a mistake and it’ll remind you for a few notes until you start doing well again. Certain sections will also free you from the restrictive lanes and allow you to fly your ship freely through some rings floating around for extra points, as these serve as small sections to break up the gameplay or help during the slower portions of songs. You can even use a boost after getting enough points, acting as a multiplier for higher scores, but the notes come towards you much faster, so it’s challenging to do so perfectly.

Games like these suffer from longevity unless you’re the type to want to climb and try to top the leaderboards. Given that this is solely an AVICII game, you’ll also need to be a fan of his, obviously, if you want to get the most out of it. With only 25 tracks, you’ll be playing many of the same songs repeatedly, trying to do better than the last to climb those online ranks. Making the jump to higher difficulties does feel genuinely more impressive, especially when you nail those really challenging sections at a quick pace. And for those that have more than one gamer in the house, there’s also a two to four player mode as well for everyone to enjoy AVICII’s work together. I really don’t have any negatives to mention about AVICII Invector. The mechanics work well, the visuals are bright and colorful, and of course, the music is fantastic throughout.

Music based rhythm games are one of my favorite genres, and it’s been quite some time since I’ve enjoyed one this simplistic in premise, but challenging at the same time. Obviously your enjoyment will depend on how much of an AVICII fan you are and if you want to challenge yourself to climb the leaderboards, but if you fall into those categories, AVICII Invector is a great way to spend some time experiencing the work of the late, great AVICII.

Overall: 9.0 / 10
Gameplay: 8.5 / 10
Visuals: 8.5 / 10
Sound: 10.0 / 10

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STAFF REVIEW of AVICII Invector (Xbox One)

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