Developer: Starward Industries
Publisher: 11 bit Studios
Platform: PC, PS5, Xbox Series X/S
Tested on: PC
The Invincible – Review
The Invincible is a Polish ‘hard science fiction’ novel published in 1964. Hard science fiction means the media is more concerned with realistic depictions of science and nature, usually taking a dramatic, plot-heavy approach compared to an action flick. This might sound like an obscure thing to base a video game on, but apparently, Starward Industries begged to differ. The indie studio worked for several years to perfect their adventure game with the same title as the book it took inspiration from. And this unique approach definitely works to The Invincible‘s advantage.
Story
The Invincible takes place an undisclosed amount of years into the future when mankind is busy already exploring the stars and planets. Astrobiologist Yasna is a crew member on one of these charters who is wrapping up her tour of the galaxy. She’s already in the hibernation pod when it all goes wrong and she wakes up on an uncharted planet named Regis III. Separated from the rest of her crew and only able to sometimes contact them on the radio, Yasna starts to travel by foot and rover to reunite with her friends, while also finding signs of life on the planet. Who has been there before her and what happened to them? And does it mean anything for humanity?
Staying true to the book it was based on, The Invincible neglects to have much gameplay in favor of letting the narrative be the main focus. The story is quite deep and poses philosophical questions about human nature, evolution, and whether our urge to explore and claim everything we set our eyes on is a good thing or not. While sometimes the flow can be extremely slow, we found the base plot of this game to be compelling enough to keep us going and something that will stay in your head for weeks after playing. There are multiple endings dependent on your choices near the end of the game, though some do a better job of tying up loose ends than others.
Graphics
The Invincible has very impressive graphics, which is kind of a must for a game such as this since you’ll be spending the majority of your time walking around looking at things. Regis III is designed with the utmost attention to detail. The vast landscapes of the alien planet manage to make us feel small when walking around in the unexplored wilderness. Despite being set in the future, the technology we come across is very retro atompunk, in line with the book. This sets the game apart from a dozen other walking simulators where you’re also stranded on random planets. The character models also look nice and there’s an effective use of visual effects such as lighting or rain. During the opening cutscene as well as on several lore documents you find throughout the game, there are these lovely comic-style illustrations that are a reference to an earlier comic book adaption of The Invincible.
Sound
From start to finish, The Invincible is fully voice-acted. So yes, even if you abhor reading, this game will be right up your alley. The latter may be a bit ironic since it’s based on a dense novel! The voice actors are great, with maybe one or two exceptions in certain scenes. That being said, the most important is the main character Yasna, who pleasantly chats her way through the planet investigation. It was surprisingly fun to listen to her. The banter she has with people through the radio is also a lot of fun. The soundtrack is also great, with different tracks that always hit the right atmosphere and even managed to pull on the heartstrings once or twice during a particularly emotional moment.
Gameplay
The Invincible is advertised as a narrative-driven adventure. While not technically incorrect, that’s just a fancy way of saying it’s a walking simulator. Aside from some basic ‘puzzles’ (more on those in a minute), the majority of the game comprises of you walking around and interacting with the environment or an item here and there. The game has a runtime of about seven hours give or take, depending on how fast you rush through things or if you let the plot and scenery sink in. We highly recommend taking it slow, since that’s how this story is meant to be experienced. The game gives you very clear instructions at all times and is mostly linear, guiding the player along a specific path with objectives and a map.
Some interactivity comes from the dialogue, where you often have various responses to pick from. This way, you can shape Yasna’s personality and the way she reacts to the situations around her. Later on, you also make some more impactful narrative choices. How you interact with Regis III and the lifeforms you encounter change the ending. Do you go into it with a curious mindset and try to show humanity to everything, or are you going to act hostile to anything unknown you encounter? The power you have is minimal but works to keep the flow of the story engaging.
Yasna is equipped with a scanner you can use to study the world around you. This scanner also becomes vital to some of the puzzles you encounter. Mainly, they require you to find specific items or scan something for additional information. Overall, these small interludes are not enough to really balance out the long stretches of walking or dialogue. They sometimes feel thrown in at the last second just to give players something to do, which is a bit of a shame. If you can’t stand a pure walking simulator where you do nothing but move from point A to point B and experience a story, this game is not for you.
Conclusion
The Invincible brings us an interesting delve into humanity, exploration, and the hubris of mankind. Once you accept that there is little to no gameplay, you can start to enjoy the gorgeous graphics, engaging narrative, and beautiful soundtrack. While sometimes the plot drags on a little too slowly, at the end of the day we’re happy we got to find our place among the stars.
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