The story so far, it is the 21st century and humankind has decided to do what it does best….explore the unknown without worrying about the consequences. Using alien technology known as Robotech, the humans make contact among the stars with the Invid, a parasitic alien race bent on conquering any race it meets. The Invid, now intent on transforming the Earth into a new home have to contend with the survivors of the Robotech Expedition as they lead the way for one final attempt to liberate the Earth. You assume the identity of Locke, one of the many pilots with the Expeditionary Force. Upon landing you are instantly thrust into battle, using only your wits and pistol to engage the Invid shock troopers, this also acts as a tutorial where you learn how to lock onto opponents and how to read the radar. By the end of the lesson, you will be captured (not much of a spoiler) and this is where the story really starts. It has been four years since the initial assault and you have no memory of your previous life but you have been recruited by the resistance to fight the Invid whilst using your cyclone.

Gameplay:

‘Invasion’ is a hybrid first / third person shooter which offers on-foot and motorcycle play modes. The on-foot is played mainly in first–person view with a handy targeting system which in my opinion makes it rather easy to shoot the enemy, but it does allow you to refine your aim to shoot the soft Invid eye for a quick kill. Unfortunately this pinpointing only works on the robots and hot the renegade humans. The third person view is applied for the motorcycle mode, and what a let down this is. After having such accuracy with the on-foot action, you are now presented with an awkward, unbalanced bike that does move very fast or shoot with any precision. Most of the time you end up ramming your bike into walls since this bike can not slide around corners. The switching between the two modes is slow and cumbersome and has no real benefit against the enemy; in fact, you are better off staying on foot. You do have the ability to launch missiles whist riding the bike but they rarely hit the targets and when they do, it doesn’t seem to cause that much damage. The one pleasing factor is that the action is non-stop with plenty to shoot at.

Graphics:

This is not a game built on looks, the environments are bland with very little effects and fairly short draw distances but there appears to be hardly any loading to slow the game down. Only when the environments change, do you get a chance to rest your fingers. There are several different environments including crumbling cities and tight interiors to the Invid hives and freeway systems.

Sound:

The music suits the game with some dodgy voice-overs but that’s about it.

Longevity:

This is probably its strongest suit in an otherwise weak hand. The game can actually be played online via LIVE but with stronger titles on the market already dominating the FPS scene, you will be hard pushed to find a game.

Round Up:

Considering this is a budget title, the value for money is not bad but the game doesn’t push the Xbox to any of its limits, in fact, I’ve seen better on older generation consoles. It is at best a rented title rather than a must have purchase for your collection

Pros:

• Auto-targeting.
  
• Live Enabled
  

  Cons:
  

  • Unattractive graphics
    
  • Poor motorbike handling