REVIEW: ‘Invincible VS’ Is As Unforgiving As It Is Brutal

Invincible VS, the new 3v3 tag fighting game from developer Quarter Up and publisher Skybound Games, challenges players to survive in the brutal world of Robert Kirkman‘s Invincible. Featuring an all-new story, players must out-fight and out-think their opponents if they are to triumph in the bloody battles that await them. 

Fighting games are, in general, one of the most punishing genres of video games. Quick reflexes and deep knowledge must be used in tandem, or a player can quickly find themselves facing a loss. The mental demand increases further for tag fighters, as knowing how characters can work together adds another layer of complexity. Invincible VS fully embraces these complexities in a way that feels fair, yet unforgiving, allowing its gameplay to feel cohesive with the bloody aftermath that awaits a resounding defeat. 

Like many fighting games in recent memory, Invincible VS foregoes complex button inputs for a more straightforward control scheme. Four attack buttons: light, medium, heavy, and special anchor what you do during a fight. Combined with a pair of assist buttons, a boost to augment some attacks, and a dash, there are only a handful of combination presses to learn. These streamlined controls help keep the player’s focus on what they need to be doing, rather than how they do it. 

The balance between fighters in Invincible VS feels good.

Offering 18 unique characters, players can expect to find all the usual styles of combatants available to them. From rushdowns like Invincible to zoners like Atom Eve, everything players would expect is here for mastering. Each class of fighter felt dynamic and strong in my games. Though it is important to note that, due to scheduling, I was unable to play much against other players, and played almost solely against the AI.

The balance between fighters feels good, and while some styles obviously spoke to me more than others, everyone showed off clear strengths. The only place where some characters feel like they have a natural advantage over others is with maneuverability. 

Many characters in this game can fly. This can prove a strong advantage over the grounded members of the cast. While it can be overcome, it creates a slight discrepancy in some match-ups. Personalities like Robot and Cecil can knock foes out of the air with range attacks, making for an easier time, while others like Monster Girl take a bit more finesse to snag an airborne foe. Players will want to make sure one or more of their team members have easy ways of dealing with the added maneuverability of some characters. 

Quarter Up does a great job of ensuring the characters have distinct play styles.

When it comes to character variety, there was one area that was a major concern to some: How many Viltrumites there are. With so many characters who are largely known for flying in and simply overpowering foes, there was some concern about how differently these characters would play. Quarter Up does a great job of splitting these characters across different classes, ensuring they have distinct play styles. 

While every fighter type had its expected strengths and weaknesses, the universal focus of Invincible VS is crafting long, combo strings as you swap characters in and out, pummeling your opponent. These strings are not complicated to put together on a basic level. Simply pushing light attack repeatedly will get you a solid string, and moving a bit further than that merely requires moving up the chain of attacks from light to medium, to heavy, to special. Throw in active tags that let an ally jump in to continue the chain, and a player can unleash a massive amount of damage without too much trouble. 

While you can rack up a ton of damage this way, Invincible VS allows players the chance to escape such traps, but they are limited. Calling in an assist break can instantly stop a combo, but it has a seven-second cooldown before another assist can be called. And while that doesn’t sound like long, it can be an eternity in a fighting game. But it’s still better than getting ko’ed. This is just one of the elements that make tag management crucial in this game. 

Invincible VS is especially generous in how much and how fast it regenerates health.

Another aspect of the tag system that drives home the importance of proper utilization is the health recovery. Being able to recover some lost health while a character is on the bench isn’t new, but this game feels particularly generous in how much and how fast it regenerates health. Being able to retreat a character for healing properly can keep players in a fight long enough to get a read on their opponent and snag a win. 

However, if both players are managing their benches properly and keeping health levels up, a match may go to time. Rather than simply calling it a draw, the game goes to a sudden-death round. Each player only has access to the character they were playing when time expired. All leftover life from their team gets combined into the remaining character, with up to a full health bar being possible. The fight then proceeds with no time limit. 

Sudden Deaths never took long when I ran into them. With several of the core mechanics that extend the match stripped away, the battle quickly runs its course once one side or the other gets the upper hand. It feels like a clean way to avoid ties. It could also impact player skill, as you’ll want to be familiar enough with any character you are running to potentially be able to hold your own with them in a sudden death. 

True to the source material, Invincible VS’s visuals do a great job of adapting the series to a 3D medium.

True to the source material, Invincible VS‘s visuals do a great job of adapting the series (both animated and comic) to a 3D medium. The characters and location look authentic to the setting. The way each character plays also feels true to how you would expect. With aggressive characters like Battle Beast and Invincible, every move pushes them into the fray, while more fragile personalities like Cecil stand back, firing guns and sending bots out to slam into his opponents. And, of course, one cannot discuss this game’s visual presentation without mentioning its visceral nature. 

From the opening screen, which features Omni Man slamming Invincible through a car and the driver therein, to every bloody punch and exploding body super finish, the game reveals the hyper-violence the franchise is known for. While it still isn’t the most graphic game in the fighting genre, it more than meets fan expectations. However, it is important to note that the gore can be turned off. So, people not enamored with the level of blood and flying body parts on display here can still enjoy the game, should they wish. 

One area where the game’s dedication to delivering on its mature content goes a little astray is its dialogue. While characters speak as you would expect them to, the amount of profanity getting slung around can become grating, given how frequently you hear some lines. After just a handful of matches, hearing Omni Man (J.K Simmons, Baldur’s Gate 3) constantly yell, “I’LL F___ING KILL YOU” with every fight start became eye-rolling. Like the presentation is trying too hard to remind you of that M rating.

Invincible VS offers players numerous cosmetic awards.

Along with the expected versus, training, arcade, and online casual and ranked matches, players can also look forward to a great story mode. While not super long, I easily played it in a single sitting. The story pops with plenty of energy and keeps its momentum through to the end. Some genuine surprises await as the narrative comes together to tell a wholly fresh tale within the universe. 

What truly makes this story mode for me is how elegantly they use the narrative to explain how all these fights work. In the lore, certain characters are just untouchable to most of the others. While games can always just ignore these discrepancies, that Invincible VS comes up with a clever way to make them reasonable without ever directly addressing the issue is fantastic. And there are even some hints that there could be even more story to come.

Beyond the drive to hone your skills and climb the ranked ladder, Invincible VS offers players numerous cosmetic awards for playing. A general player level, as well as individual character levels, allows players to gain access to concept art, color swaps, and decorations for the player ID. Since many will enter the game with favorites already in mind, these cosmetic incentives bring a little more pull to them than is often the case, as having icons for a long-time favorite can be more alluring than an unknown character whom you simply enjoy playing as. 

Invincible VS delivers a fun, frantic, and brutal fighting game experience. While it can be unforgiving at times, it never feels like you don’t have the tools to survive the bloody battles it challenges you with. The only thing that remains is to see if you can withstand the onslaught of Viltrumite fists and energy projectiles that stand between you and victory. 

Invincible VS is available now on Xbox Series X/S (with Play Anywhere), PlayStation 5, and PC.