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The science fiction genre is complicated to bring to video games. Some recent ones stagnate with a generic style, and others add too much to overwhelm the player. And then there are games like The Invincible. It relies more on its narrative and characters rather than an end-of-galaxy alien threat. The Invincible isn’t hard to keep up with and introduces you to everything gradually without distracting you from the plot. It is the perfect game for science fiction lovers and those looking for a story-driven adventure where every choice you make matters.
The Invincible Review: A Stellar Adventure
Coming from the work of Stanisław Lem, The Invincible presents an atompunk or retrofuturistic game world. You are part of a crew of a small ship that goes to explore a planet. While it may sound like your classic space adventure, everything inside the game is full of intrigue at every step. Discovery is up to the player. This title presents you with so many decisions that you are the story’s author, and you decide how far you want to go and how much you want to learn about this planet. All thanks to one of the best “choices matter” systems I have experienced in recent years.
Story: Stranded in Regis III
The Invincible is a game that takes you to an atompunk or retro-futuristic world where Yasna, the astrobiologist of the exploration ship Dragonfly, must rescue four members of her crew who are trapped on the planet Regis III. The game uses an old narrative book technique, which is “I woke up in an unknown place, I don’t know how I got here, and it’s up to me to discover everything.” It sounds played out, but the difference is that after five minutes in, the game is already letting you choose which path to take and, from there, a story that you build, depending on your choices.
When I refer to the fact that the story depends on your decisions, it is important to remember some of the pioneers in this video game narrative. For a comparison, Telltale Games or the Mass Effect saga come to mind. In titles from those franchises, you always have choices that are usually clear when you decide them. For example, you get the “Bob will remember this” message or a moral system bar that helps you decide what to do. Not here. You build the story organically. For instance, when I had the choice of sliding down a slope or descending safely with a rope, I chose the latter. My playthrough changed completely. This is something that, besides giving life to your story, gives Yasna personality.
Speaking of Yasna, she is an extraordinary protagonist because you get to develop her the way you want. During your playthrough, you will communicate with Novik, the ship’s Astrogator. In all dialogues, you decide how to answer. You can be professional, or you can stop caring about courtesy to your commander and express yourself casually. This changes your interaction with Novik and makes you feel you are the character. In moments of amazement, I responded with dialogue that conveyed that emotion. In moments of loss, I shushed him because I didn’t feel Yasna wanted to talk. You decide the narrative, but you also dictate how Yasna reacts. It is your story and your character.
Regarding decisions, one thing I feel that many games marked as “choices matter” fail is when they don’t deliver on that. That’s not the case for The Invincible. Since there is no notification to let you know what will happen, it is up to you to choose everything, and everything is relevant. At a crucial moment, I decided not to help a person and keep my oxygen. After a few hours, I learned that the person died because of my choice, and the worst part was that there was plenty of oxygen that I could have grabbed. The decisions you make show you the result with a kick to the guts and make you feel guilty or relieved, depending on what you choose.
Concluding with the narrative part, I want to emphasize that the game rewards your curiosity. While in some other games of this genre, taking a different path gives you a few more additional playtime minutes, here, it gives you hours. At a critical point, I could choose to leave the planet or stay. I chose the latter option. I wasn’t expecting the game to add five or more hours to my playthrough, and it made me think, “How short would the game be if I had escaped?” Thanks to this, I can’t wait to unlock the eleven endings of the game.
Gameplay: A Spatial Stroll
Anyone playing The Invincible will think it is a walking simulator game, yet you shouldn’t leave with that first impression. Although there is a lot of walking, the most important part is how interactive it is. Although you are on a huge planet, the playable sections are compact but well-crafted. Your player feels realistic thanks to the gravity effect of the planet and the button inputs required for almost everything, from turning a handle to pressing a button or seeing the logs of different robots. While it’s not a walking simulator, it feels more like a first-person point-and-click.
Moving on to the gameplay systems that will be of importance to players, especially since the game has adventure elements or is categorized as one, they are simple but functional. Yasna has gadgets to help her explore the planet. You have your telemeter that functions as a spyglass. A tracker that helps you find other humans or machinery, and a detector that shows metal structures. All of these made me feel like an explorer and not a Space Rambo. There is no combat, weapons, or an out-of-place talent tree. It’s you and your gadgets against Regis III, and everyone is relevant to the plot.
One of my favorite devices was the detector. It allows you to see metal structures, of which there are many in the game. One big mystery is how there seems to be a metal city that protrudes into the planet’s surface. Some of the structures change into the shape of plants. While the story drives you to use it to progress, there are sections where it’s good to use the tool without being prompted. At one point, I used the detector to find the ancient crew and got an achievement. This is good because, despite the linearity of some sections, the gameplay remains dynamic and gives way to discoveries.
Speaking of discoveries, since Yasna is a full-fledged astrobiologist, you can discern her research experience through her speaking and see more evidence of her expertise in her journal. This one works as a map but has other details. It is, so far, the most interactive map that does not require you to go to a point in the world and activate a thing to discover areas. Yasna records every part as you walk and makes notes in her journal that serve as your following objectives. It’s an organic and immersive part that leaves a clean HUD for me to focus on the planet’s landscapes.
Last but not least, these narrative-heavy games tend to show much information that we sometimes forget. The Invincible has a way to prevent those in the game from missing the story. Every time something noteworthy happens, comic book panels are generated, which you can view anytime from the menu. Your decisions and other events that advance the plot are recorded. Frankly, I enjoyed pausing the game and seeing what I had done in an iconic comic book art. This is the icing on the cake that shows me the care the game takes to make us feel like we are the masters of our story.
Graphics and Audio: Atompunk at Its Finest
One of the somewhat forgotten aesthetic styles in science fiction is the Atompunk; one of the most iconic series that use it is Fallout. The use of old machinery operated in a futuristic setting denotes the iconicity of this aesthetic. In The Invincible, this style is marked from the first hour of the game. With bright colors where a range of oranges and greens predominate, you can see that the developers took inspiration from recent games like The Outer Worlds or even Prey.
While the visual style is iconic, it is also a representation of what happens in the plot. This style always contrasts the old and the new and translates to questions like, “Are we moving too fast?” “Are we ready for change?” The game relies on this idea, showing that maybe humanity is not ready for some things, and we advance so much that we don’t know how to deal with them. For me, the style embodies the saying “curiosity killed the cat” because the more I played, the more I realized that my desire to explore was not the best for the characters. Sometimes, it might be better to stay with what we’re familiar with.
The closest I can find to the music of The Invincible are the tracks from the movie Ad Astra. This music is timeless and generates emotions from loneliness to discovery. A combination of tones coming out of a synthesizer accompanied by percussions that hit at the right moment to increase the gravity of the plot or decrease in moments of peace where it’s you and the planet. Each track accompanies Yasna and the player and varies depending on the moment you are in. It was an audio delight that made me sad, joyful, and despaired in certain moments.
Conclusion: A Perfect Sci-Fi Adventure
The Invincible is, for me, one of the few games that made me take control of my story, from something as simple as choosing which path to take to see if it’s worth it to rescue an entire crew. All this is accompanied by memorable characters and gameplay that never gets boring, thanks to the immersion of Atompunk-style analog elements and the sense of space exploration that never ceases. Despite the simplicity of some of the mechanics, I was always glued to my screen, deeply immersed in the experience. The story sends mystery after mystery that always pushed me to want to discover them all, even if it was perhaps not the safest path.
While there are small details like clipping issues or subtitles that don’t match the audio, I never found myself bothered by these things. It’s a game that, for these times, is more polished than many AAA titles and has a complete, dynamic, intriguing, and memorable story. The Invincible is a cinematic adventure brought to a game where you feel like the writer and director, and it is one of the best gaming experiences I’ve had this year.
The Invincible is available on PS5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC (Reviewed).
Review copy given by Publisher.
The Invincible (PC Reviewed)
A story-driven adventured tailored for classic sci-fi fans.
Pros
- An interesting and highly replayable campaign.
- Top-notch art style.
- Memorable music.
Cons
- Minor performance issues.
- A few gameplay bugs.
