The music of sadly-deceased electronic musician Avicii didn’t initially strike us as a great match for a rhythm action game. The marriage of a single contemporary artist with the medium of video games gives us PTSD flashbacks to The Black Eyed Peas Experience. Thankfully, unlike Will.I.Am and Fergie’s barely-listenable dreck, Avicii’s discography is altogether more pleasant and likeable, often marrying EDM beats with a folksy, yearning sort of vocal style – a sort of cross between NERO and Willie Nelson. Look, we don’t get to indulge our inner-NME very often. Let us have this.
It’s interesting and welcome that rather than exploiting imagery of the late Tim Bergling, Avicii: Invector takes its cues from the likes of Frequency and Audiosurf; you’re a mostly-anonymous spacefaring presence, piloting your modest craft through the songs in a very traditional manner. It’s game first, featured personality second, and it works brilliantly.
You’ll run a track along the, er, track, your ship passing over visual cues that spring up in time with your chosen song. It’s familiar stuff, but the inputs are clearly labelled and quickly intuitive, though its reliance on taps of the L button may instigate nightmares in DS Lite veterans. Thankfully, the Switch is a more robust piece of kit, but it’s still an unusual and somewhat unintuitive choice for a regularly required input.
Essentially, like most other music titles, it’s a timing game; pass over the trigger for the A button, hit the A button, etc. Variety is thrown in by having you switch lanes by passing over certain icons that require you to tilt the left stick, as well as the inclusion of flight sections that have you freely moving your craft to fly through loops – a sequence reminiscent of the motion-controlled bonus rounds of the underappreciated TxK for PS Vita.
These free-flight sections, despite being the least mechanically complex the game has to offer, are the most likeable, memorable sequences of Avicii: Invector, taking away the UI and letting you take in the sights of the shifting, beautiful worlds around you. When you’re playing the more intense sectors, the surrounding graphics tend to melt away as you concentrate, and it’s nice for a rhythm game to find a fairly graceful solution to this common problem with its genre.
Structurally, there are some issues. The game is divided into worlds, each of which is populated by a handful of Avicii tracks – the most well-known stuff (Hey Brother, Wake Me Up, etc) doesn’t crop up in the first half of the game, which may lead to Avicii-sceptics becoming impatient. Though, to be frank, we have no idea why they’d be playing the game anyway. A larger problem is with the difficulty curve – it’s not bad, but it is carried across each of its difficulty settings – move from Medium to Hard mid-game and you’ll find the jump in challenge more than a little extreme. This rather incentivises playing through the songs in order, while making your way up the difficulties, and while this is fun it’s not very friendly. Still, it’s a minor nit-pick in a really rather good rhythm action game.
Presentation is strong; it all runs brilliantly smoothly, the controls are responsive and the environments sufficiently sci-fi and ethereal. Nothing gets in the way, basically, which is what you want in a beat timing game like this. The simplicity of the commands – hit beats, switch lanes, fly and occasionally boost – marry well with the clean visual style, adding up to a polished product.
Between songs, you’ll gradually uncover a rather loosely-told “story” about your pilot, told in seemingly-disconnected, but well-acted and amusing animated vignettes. It’s charming stuff, but it’ll only take you about the length of a double album to see it all on medium difficulty. Split-screen multiplayer will extend the life of the game a little, but it's more of a distraction than a meaningful competitive feature.
35 songs are nothing to be sniffed at, but of course, your interest in this title is essentially entirely predicated on your interest in Avicii’s music. There’s a grand spread here from all Bergling’s albums, as well as EPs and collaborations. The tunes suit the game well, and the grand landscapes serve to enhance the more heartfelt and emotional push of the choruses. It works, but if you dislike these records or this genre, you may as well knock six points off the score below.
Conclusion
It’s a clichéd summary, but Avicii: Invector is better than it has any right to be, and a fitting tribute to an artist who died tragically young. It’s a huge boost if you already enjoy his music, but even haters will have to respect the work that’s gone into this fast-paced, well-designed rhythm action title. It’s just a shame that Tim Bergling never had a chance to see it come together so nicely. Still, until we get Pet Shop Boys: Invector, it’s the best single-artist music game we’ve had the pleasure of playing.
Comments 25
I'm not even a fan (I generally avoid all modern pop music), but I bought this on day one. I enjoyed the demo, and the playlist is miles ahead of the likes of the upcoming Just Dance/Let's Sing 2021 games.
I've already heard his music plenty on the radio at work over the years, so I won't be in any rush to add them to my rotation any time soon, but as long as you have some liking for his music/style, you may find yourself pleasantly surprised.
And I would raise no objection to Pet Shop Boys: Invector.
Frequency and amplitude are two of my fav games all time. How similar is this to them since you name dropped Freq?
>Pet Shop Boys: Invector
Hope it doesn't involve a certain ice wielding bird if you know what I mean
The demo was great. Need to pick up the special edition. There is a code for the demo which unlocks a bonus song for anyone that fancies testing out extra before buying... I can’t remember what it is so google it!
I'm indifferent with Avicii, game looks good though. I'd mega enjoy a hip hop version of this, with DJ Premier, Mr Green, Damu the Fudgemunk, K-Def, Pete Rock, Large Professor etc...
That tagline though!
I love this game so much, I didn't really know his music before the game and have gone on to buy all the albums, then after finishing the game I watched the tribute concert with family. He was so talented and this game is a great tribute to him and his music.
Never heard an Avicii song before seeing the trailer for this game, I bought it because I like Rhythm games and the trailer song was pretty cool. Now I have become an Avicii fan.
+1 for Pet Shop Boys: Invector. As long as there’s a Neil Tennant playable character who looks like Max Headroom and dances to the beat.
yes, but what does Anti-Matter think?
As a fan of Avicii, of course I'm gonna buy this.
Avicii, I miss you...
@RichyM yo that's awesome you've had such a good experience here. You know, I had a similar experience with Sayonara Wild Hearts. If I'd just heard the music on the radio at work, I don't think it would have grabbed me, but when you couple it with a good game, you definitely get a more immersive experience that connects you with the music more. I absolutely love the music from Sayonara Wild Hearts now. It's brilliant.
@PapaMurphy my man!
Give me some DJ premier, Leaf Dog, Illinformed and other boom bap producers and I would be all over it.
It's a 10/10 game for me. I will agree with the reviewer that the L button is an odd choice. Just don't play it for a long time the first time you start the game, the constant use of the L button makes your fingers tired after awhile.
The demo was terrific. I'll definitely be getting the deluxe edition when I can.
I especially love the "free flight" segments where your ship breaks away from the track and you can just fly around before the drop. I don't think I've seen that in a lot of rhythm games.
@Rohanrocks88 Avicii, Chester Bennington, Chris Cornell and Anthony Bourdain were not working on a child sex ring exposé. This is categorically false as stated by the producers behind the actual documentary. What you’re doing is completely doing a disservice to what we should really be focusing on, which is recognising that depression and ultimately suicide are a real problem, especially among men of a certain age. Avicii was just another in a long line of relatively young men who suffered in silence, which we should all be working to counteract. Piss off with your conspiracy theory nonsense.
@Rohanrocks88 Sure, and Lord Lucan, Shergar and the Jules Rimet Trophy are living it up in Ibiza.
> "by no means I'm gonna believe the bs the majority of the world swallows"
Yeah who needs facts and evidence when we can just make stuff up and be fine believing it no matter whose legacy it disgraces right? High five!
I like these types of games, but had no idea who Avicii was. Just went to Youtube, checked out his most popular searched song. Nope, pass.
But for those that like the genre, enjoy.
i don't get all the hype with this guy at all, he was a fairly standard fairly famous (but hardly cultural icon status) pop star and of course it is terribly sad when any one dies but i can't help thinking this is all a little over the top. Is he really much missed by many people outside his friends and family? Or is it just people saying what they think they should? Again terrible when anyone dies but I don't remember him being that big of an influence on people's lives while alive bar a few ok pop songs. Maybe it has all gone over my head and he was a modern day Elvis or something!
@quinnyboy58 He has impacted many and yes he is missed. Is it that you don't think he deserves a quality made game because you don't like his music? He's not a modern day Elvis but he doesn't have to be. His music is great for a rhythm game and part of the money made from the game will go towards the Tim Bergling Foundation which is a foundation made to shed light to suicidal awareness and depression. I think this is very important and I'm sorry you don't see that.
@kobashi100 yeah bro! Leaf Dog is awesome, I would dig a UK expansion pack with him, Jehst, Lewis Parker, Pete Cannon 👍
@JoeyTS he might have just not known that tbf. I thought he asked his question quite tactfully.
I'm all in for Pet Shop Boys: Invector! <3
As someone who loves Avicii's music? It's been amazing!
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