Review – IronFall: Invasion – Gamerview

Almost 10 years ago, the Gears of War franchise was heading towards its success and continued to experience the peak of its popularity on Xbox consoles. Just like every good exclusive, the game cried out for some generic clone on competing platforms – and to everyone’s surprise, it wasn’t on the PlayStation that we received one of the most decent ones ever made. In 2015, IronFall: Invasion arrived exclusively on the Nintendo 3DS!

Technically speaking, IronFall: Invasion remains one of the handheld’s most impressive games. Its visuals were above average and the gameplay worked well enough, considering that it was a shooter on a console that only had one analog stick (the New 3DS even had a second analog stick, but it wasn’t ideal for the genre). Almost a decade later, it’s time to experience it again through a remastered port – now for the Switch.

Quase Gears

IronFall: Invasion is a generic game in every way possible; Anyone who has played Gears of War will certainly feel like they are playing an inferior fangame. In its campaign, we control two characters: Marine Jim Woper and his support agent Sam Fich. Jim is the typical Gears soldier, with a brutish body structure with exaggeratedly burly armor.

The plot revolves around an alien invasion on Earth, and it is up to our protagonists to protect the planet and expel them in the most polite way possible. In the 11 phases of the campaign, we control Jim most of the time; its sections are focused on the most basic thing the game has to offer: we explore linear scenarios and shoot everything that crosses our path. Sam’s excerpts take a more stealth approach.

The change of scenery helps break up the game’s repetition, but there is a big problem here: although the game wants you to play stealthily as Sam, there are no stealth mechanics to use! This way, its stages end up being a more hardcore version of the shootouts, since you only have a pistol and a dream. I don’t know if that was the intention from the beginning or if they forgot to do this part of the game – I just know that it was a huge shot in the foot.

IronFall: Invasion replicates the Gears of War mechanics well enough, bringing the same cover system and even the timing mechanic when reloading the weapon. Overall, its campaign is pretty dull and clearly lacks more inspiration, but it’s not a bad game. This is one of those titles that we play on autopilot, without paying much attention to things. What’s more, it’s a Gears-like on a Nintendo console!

Slightly adapted

In this Switch version, the game obviously runs better and features improved graphics. The leap is big, since on the 3DS it ran at the incredible 240p resolution. Now, it reaches 1080p in docked and 720p in portable mode, always maintaining a frame rate of 60 fps. From time to time we see some frame drops, but there is still the possibility of reducing the resolution to make performance more stable.

The game also needed to be adapted in some aspects. On the 3DS, there were several puzzles that had to be solved on the bottom screen, using the console’s touch screen. On Switch, they have been updated and can be solved completely the old-fashioned way, using only the control buttons. However, touch mechanics have been completely removed in handheld mode, which doesn’t make any sense.

IronFall: Invasion also has two more modes in addition to the campaign. The first would be Multiplayer, which features classic Team Deathmatch matches for players to kill each other; Unfortunately, I couldn’t find anyone playing it to test it out. The second option would be Survival mode, which allows us to face endless waves of enemies until we can no longer take it. In the end, they are just alternatives to continue doing the same thing you are already doing in the campaign.

For those who are a fan of Gears of War and have a Switch to spare, it could be an interesting title to give a try. It’s fun as much as possible, but it doesn’t stand out at all. On the 3DS, there was still the difference of being a technically impressive game, but on the Switch it ends up being just one of millions.