Ironfall: Invasion is a third-person cover shooter, that immediately calls to mind Xbox’s Gears of War franchise. The story is simple, Earth has been invaded by aliens and you play as a solider who is trying to stop the aliens. Story is not the focus here though, as IronFall: Invasion is all about the gameplay, This is a fast-paced, hit the ground running third person shooter that will see you attack aliens and robots left. and right when not taking cover.
Yes, it does not try anything all that new, but the game was a technical marvel when released on the 3DS, and while the visuals have not really been improved as much as they could have been, it still looks fine to me. One interesting detail is that while most of the game is about Jim Woper, who is a battle armor wearing marine, you will occasionally switch to Sam, Jim’s tech support who uses a pistol. These sections kind of confuse me to be honest, since while Jim’s stages are well structured, if a bit repetitive, action stages, Sam’s feel off. It kind of feels like these sections were meant to be stealth sections but just come across as a retread of Jim’s sections but with a pistol and no armor.
There are some other sections though, like the turret shooter sections and sniper sections, and some minigames that really help bring in variety. That was needed as Ironfall:Invasion just feels like it does not bring enough in the HD era, especially since, the game was made to push the limits of the 3DS. Speaking of, the controls have been reworked to play better on Switch, but the touch controls are gone and sections that were clearly designed with a touch screen in mind, now just feel weird to play.
Lastly, I need to mention that the multiplayer was a selling point of the game, but I was not able to find a single match at any point. I did get to enjoy the survival mode though, which was neat. Survival mode has you take on waves of enemies and see how many you can take out in a given time limit. It is good, but I just wish the multiplayer was better.
Ironfall: Invasion was a technical masterpiece on the 3DS and stood out well for that reason. On the Switch though, it does not have that advantage anymore and its faults become much more apparent as a result. It ends up feeling average at best, and not as special as it could have been. Perhaps a full ground up remake that reworked more sections and took into account changes in game design would have been beneficial. As it stands though, only get this if you are really in need of something to play. It just does not stand out well on Switch on its own.
Disclaimer: A review key was provided
