When evaluating a rhythm game, I take into account its complexity, soundtrack/tracklist, and replayability. Invector: Rhythm Galaxy’s gameplay ever-so-slightly improves an already good gameplay loop for a rhythm title thanks to how well it blends rhythm beats with cruising through stellar futuristic landscapes. Its difficulty spikes inconsistently, needing some mild curation in onboarding players. Its tracklist that’s comprised of licensed music is fantastic, on the other hand, and should appeal to fans from multiple audiences. Is it replayable? Yes, but some may feel pressured by its arbitrary completion requirements in its campaign. Taken together, it’s a great entry in the genre, and hopefully Hello There Games continues to refine the series and cement its place as a modern rhythm series of must-play proportions.
Back in 2019, Hello There Games released AVICII Invector, a rhythm-action title featuring over 20-tracks from the late AVICII. At the time, many (including me) were devastated by the loss of one of EDM’s best producers, and AVICII Invector commemorated some of his most memorable tracks along with futuristic graphics and tight gameplay. At the time, I enjoyed the heck out of it because of how well it blended high-speed cruising with rhythm inputs. Fast forward to today, Hello There Games has released Invector: Rhythm Galaxy, this time featuring a wide assortment of licensed music for players to enjoy.
Invector: Rhythm Galaxy’s (i.e., Invector) gameplay hasn’t changed much from its predecessor (AVICII Invector), thankfully, because I had a fantastic time then and I had a fantastic time during my review period. There’s been some slight updates to make the user interface a bit more readable, though. The visuals are clean despite so much occurring in the background behind the note table of notes and button inputs that fly towards the player. In most cases, it’s possible to see upcoming notes quite a way ahead and prepare for a potential waterfall of note combinations.
The usual control scheme of a rhythm game involves waves of notes falling down the screen. Invector: Rhythm Galaxy is no different. I conducted this review using a DualSense, so I was tasked with pressing the D-Pad and action buttons (e.g., X, O), and the L1 button in time with the music. After accruing energy from successful button presses of glittery inputs, I could press the L2 button to spend the banked energy to achieve hyperspace-like speeds and a high point multiplier. It’s important to note that Invector: Rhythm Galaxy is slightly forgiving, meaning that I was able to press the necessary buttons a little earlier-and-later-than-expected without losing my streak. It also has an in-depth calibration tool that works quite well in accommodating multiple audio setups.
Visually, Invector sets itself apart from its competitors with futuristic planetary landscapes and gliding along an interstellar racetrack. Its “freeflight” mode is interwoven throughout each track and gives players the ability to literally steer their ship throughout space. While flying through glowing rings continues your streak in free flight, the reprieve of simply cruising along Invector’s landscapes is quite delightful. This shouldn’t be anything new for those who’ve played Invector’s predecessor, but for unfamiliar players it’s a unique touch. For comparison’s sake, it’s smoother than Sky: Children of the Light’s flight controls because of how weightless yet agile the ship moves. I wouldn’t mind if Hello There Games introduced a “cruise control” mode (or even a standalone title) comprised of the “freeflight” mode alone because of how great it feels. Please, Hello There Games, consider it!
Outside of its single player and multiplayer arcade-style modes, Invector: Rhythm Galaxy features a single-player campaign mode. Its story is incredibly light and doesn’t contain that much worldbuilding. As Ebula, you’re tasked with going on a road trip with your four friends to commemorate the life of Ebula’s late grandmother. Completing a level gives you a few new lines of dialogue, and not much else. Let’s face it, though, the most hardcore rhythm players will disregard the story more often than not, as story-driven campaigns are overlooked in favor of achievements, high scores, and other bragging rights. This then begs the question of what the point of a rhythm game’s campaign is if not to tell a story? In my Rhythm Sprout review, I praised its writing because of how much it surprised, delighted, and entertained me in between levels. A campaign’s story should make the player feel something, even if that campaign is short but sweet. For the case of Invector, its story content is too sparse to evoke that emotional connection with Ebula and her friends. I won’t fault Invector for trying, however, but I would have much preferred Invector to place a firmer flag in the sand and go deeper into worldbuilding or avoid it altogether.
There are other reasons to complete Invector‘s campaign–unlocking content! Yes, a few additional songs and ships can be unlocked at the end of each “chapter” in the campaign. Each chapter contains a few songs with a challenge level as the penultimate song of the planet. Challenge levels are harder in the sense that player shields don’t regenerate, so you can only make so many mistakes before it’s game over. I enjoyed this variation, but I wished that there were other challenge levels with different win conditions. The campaign’s default win condition involves getting a percentage of the notes correct on any given level. As I proceeded throughout the campaign, that percentage requirement incrementally increased, making the game more difficult.
On the topic of difficulty, Invector: Rhythm Galaxy is inconsistent with gradually upping the difficulty of its campaign and differentiating between its difficulty levels. When I think of a difficulty curve, I think of how the Guitar Hero series strategically placed “easier” tracks at the start of campaign and “more difficult” tracks near the end. Take Guitar Hero III, for instance: Foghat’s “Slow Ride” is one of the first tracks, whereas Muse’s “Knights of Cydonia” is one of the later tracks. This is for good reason, since Muse’s 2006 classic is more difficult because of its note density and nearly six-minute runtime; simply put, there are more opportunities for a player to fail. Invector’s campaign doesn’t have tracks that are strategically placed, and as a result, some players will struggle on seemingly random tracks that are more difficult than others. For me, that was Charlie Puth’s “Attention” during the third world. Its chains of utilizing the trigger keys with the action buttons in close connection was unfamiliar with the two tracks prior, and its 85% completion requirement was surprising, too. After a few tries, I prevailed, but the fact remains that the difficulty spike came seemingly out of nowhere.
I reviewed Invector: Rhythm Galaxy on the Normal difficulty, occasionally testing tracks out on Hard and Ultra (most difficult). Like other rhythm games, like Guitar Hero and DJ Hero, increasing the difficulty increases the quantity of notes in a track as well as the kinds of buttons to be pressed. In Invector’s case, Normal involves two buttons and one of the triggers, whereas Hard and Ultra each add a new note respectively. The difference between Normal and Hard difficulty is quite significant, and I hate to admit that I had trouble on the Hard difficulty even after getting through most of the campaign. This could be because the tracks’ notes were inconsistent in their alignment with the music itself. Some notes were synced to vocal beats, whereas others were synced with a track’s baseline, and others aligned with the melody. This results in an unpredictable experience for rhythm players, as we’re trained to home in on specific musical elements.
Perhaps much of my critique of Invector: Rhythm Galaxy involves how it curates tracks to get players familiar with the gameplay loop. Shorter songs with lower BPM (beats per minute) tend to be easier to pick up, whereas longer and more complex tracks require additional practice and dexterity. The campaign itself lacks that curation, as songs seem to be placed randomly throughout its multiple worlds. When it comes to rhythm game difficulty tiers, my metric of selecting a difficulty involves switching to a harder difficulty on an “easier” song when the current difficulty becomes “too hard.” In doing so, the “easier” song’s additional difficulty acts as a half-step bump and shifts my perceptions of difficulty. There’s little means of evaluating a track’s difficulty in Invector prior to playing, so it’s up to the player to go in blind and repeatedly play a song to master it.
This is not to say that Invector’s tracklist is bad, absolutely not. In fact, it’s a fantastic tracklist. It contains a healthy combination of licensed songs spanning multiple genres, many thanks to Warner Music Group’s collection of artists. It’s becoming increasingly rare to see rhythm titles feature licensed music thanks to the increasing fees, and some have been led to believe the days of rhythm games of well-known tunes being long past. Not here! I was pleased to see so many genres spanning EDM, pop, country, rock, and more. At this time, I’m unsure if there’s DLC planned for Invector, but if there is, it’s going to make an already diverse tracklist even better. I’m sure that Invector’s tracklist will expose players to new artists and songs, too. I’m thankful to see Warner Music Group taking steps into the gaming world and licensing their music; hopefully, other recording companies follow suit to incorporate popular music into rhythm titles to share the love among players.
Invector: Rhythm Galaxy has split screen multiplayer support, but no means of playing online. This seems like an odd choice for a PC game, since I don’t usually consider bringing someone over to share a game on my monitor. I could imagine that the eventual console version of Invector: Rhythm Galaxy would be great for couch co-op, but I wish that there was a way for online multiplayer for us PC players.
When evaluating a rhythm game, I take into account its complexity, soundtrack/tracklist, and replayability. Invector: Rhythm Galaxy’s gameplay ever-so-slightly improves an already good gameplay loop for a rhythm title thanks to how well it blends rhythm beats with cruising through stellar futuristic landscapes. Its difficulty spikes inconsistently, needing some mild curation in onboarding players. Its tracklist that’s comprised of licensed music is fantastic, on the other hand, and should appeal to fans from multiple audiences. Is it replayable? Yes, but some may feel pressured by its arbitrary completion requirements in its campaign. Taken together, it’s a great entry in the genre, and hopefully Hello There Games continues to refine the series and cement its place as a modern rhythm series of must-play proportions.
A copy of Invector: Rhythm Galaxy was provided by the publisher for the purpose of this DigitalChumps review.
