REVIEW: ‘AVICII Invector’ Pays Homage to Avicii and Rhythm Games (PS4)

AVICII Invector is a rhythm game developed by Hello There Games and Wired Productions and published by Wired Productions on Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, Xbox One and PC. The game exclusively features the music of Avicii, the popular Swedish DJ who passed away in 2018. AVICII Invector is a creative, fast-paced and fun tribute that properly honors Avicii’s legacy while still entertaining rhythm fans who may not be well acquainted with his discography.

In AVICII Invector, you play as a small spaceship traveling through various worlds by beating Avicii songs. There is technically a story the first time you play the game, focused on the female pilot of the ship who just wants to vibe and have a good time. However, it is possible to skip all story cutscenes if you only want to play the songs.

The gameplay for AVICII Invector is surprisingly complex and challenging. There are essentially three modes that you can encounter throughout a song. One involves flying your spaceship through rings in the sky, controlling similarly to a Star Fox game. The second is on a flat plane and mimics the Guitar Hero series as you jump around from left to right to hit the correct buttons with the right timing. The third, and most difficult, takes place in a sort of 3D triangle – instead of the ship moving left to right when you flick the control stick, the world spins around you.

AVICII Invector’s gameplay was a blast and a breath of fresh air as someone who adores rhythm games. The premise of the gameplay was so creative in a way I wasn’t expecting and I truly have never played a rhythm game that worked quite like AVICII Invector.

Plus, the developers’ solution to having a handful of buttons to work with on the controller was very well executed. Essentially, the game uses the left or right trigger (you can use either or both depending on your preference) and the four face buttons. To complicate the gameplay, even on the easier difficulties, the game uses the three-dimensional space and the control stick to create a feeling of fast-paced, frantic energy.

However, I will say that, occasionally, the game felt a little too frantic. Especially on higher difficulty levels or toward the end of the track list, the game had you move around so quickly that it was hard to see what was coming up next, making it incredibly easy to miss the notes. For some, this may be a welcome challenge, but for me, it was frustrating to know I could have nailed a section if I had just been able to see that it was coming up.

The boost function to help earn more points was aggravating in the same way. When you used the boost, which worked as a multiplier but also physically propelled your ship forward faster, it would often go so fast that I would inevitably miss a note, causing me to lose my streak and rendering the multiplier useless.

Part of the reason notes were so difficult to miss was because of the flashing lights in the background, which would often cause the notes to blend in. In general, however, I loved the atmosphere of this game – combined with the music, the visuals did an amazing job of making you feel the scale of the worlds you were flying through and delivering an emotional impact when I least expected it.

Because of this, AVICII Invector quickly became a comfort game for me. I’d boot it up, listen to some great music and zone out, blasting my way through the notes after a weird day of work. The upbeat songs made me feel like the coolest person in the world when I nailed the combos and the sadder songs affected me in a way I really wasn’t expecting from a game with so many strobe light effects.

Overall, I really have very few complaints with AVICII Invector. I began the game not knowing much about Avicii other than he had passed away and that I had heard “Wake Me Up.” However, I walked away from the game feeling an enormous amount of appreciation for his music and craving more tracks. AVICII Invector is not only a rhythm game that nails the genre almost flawlessly, but also pays tribute to an incredibly talented musician that we lost much too soon.

AVICII Invector is now available on PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch, Xbox One and PC.