TLDR: *Not a game alarm blaring* Mis-sold, miscategorised, and miserable.
[b][u]General Thoughts/Overview:[/u][/b]
Now look here, Gentle Reader. Before we begin, I’ll express my frustration with this “Action Adventure from an indie Dev” by starting with a statement I hope we can all agree on.
Words mean things.
But before we get into this rant, let’s set the scene.
The Invincible (INV) is [strike]an action adventure[/strike] a walking simulator in which we crawl through an oddly barren alien world, for no reason but to experience the story. We are Doctor Yasna, astrobiologist, and we’re going to biologise the crap out of this here desert planet.
And that’s it. We walk around, we look at things, we click on things, and Yasna prattles on about things unendingly. Except when someone else is prattling.
So let’s take a look at the good and the bad.
[b][u]Pros:[/u][/b]
[list][*] The artwork is decent. From environments which are bleakly pretty, like the miles of Sahara by the sea, to the retrofuture tech feeling both old and advanced. Everything fits the theme.
[*] The music is fitting, and give the game a solid emotional depth and verisimilitude, adding to the tone and bolstering the feeling of isolation somewhere alien, riffing off of the artwork to tie the small but important details together.
[*] The premise, if done very differently and explored more scientifically, could have some great stories attached. I’d love to see this get a second chance, but done with the game being put before the visuals.
[/list]
[b][u]Cons:[/u][/b]
[list][*] NOT A GAME, DO NOT SELL IT AS A GAME. WALKING SIM.
[*] The voice acting, writing, and scientific illiteracy are all stark and bleak. If you’ve never encountered a story like it, never heard people having a conversation, never encountered memory loss, and never had a rational thought, you might get something from it. Otherwise it’ll bore your socks off and wind you up with ham-fisted over acting and irrational character choices.
[*] The pacing for this is just so out. Both in terms of audio tone, gameplay, and scale of movement. Everything is just drawn out needlessly and presented in a really infuriating way. Walking sims should invoke curiosity, and awe at environmental storytelling, not make you wonder why everything is so slow and bland.
[/list]
[b][u]Suggested improvements:[/u][/b]
[list][*] Fix the damn bugs. Controls vanishing or not functioning, clipping, audio talking over itself or skipping… so many annoying but not game breaking bugs.
[*] Insert meaningful choices, or don’t give choices. Just don’t waste our time with the tepid half measures.
[*] Add a proper saving system. I don’t want to replay this rickety create of hot garbage, but leaving it half achievemented will wind me up.
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[b][u]Overall Recommendation:[/u][/b]
And that brings me to my rant.
As I said before, words mean things. Particularly, the words telling me the type of game I’m buying, should accurately depict the game. If you tell me I’m buying an action adventure. I expect action, and adventure, and clicky buttons. I don’t expect to be bored half to sleep holding down the w key. If I buy a walking simulator, I expect a dialogue and intrigue heavy game where my traversal reveals the story to me, and I DO expect to be bored half to tears, that’s the point. Action-Adventure implies pewypewy guns, swishyswishy swords, twangytwangy bows, and in this case of a solid retro scifi vibe, zappyzappy lasers. Labelling this as an action adventure because of one, slow, mouse controlled, gallery shoot -[i]which you can ignore[/i] – would be like labelling it an FPS.
Similarly, if you tell me I’m buying something from an indie dev, I have different expectations regarding polish to if you tell me the game is backed by a double or triple A studio/publisher… This game is backed by 11bit studios, a damn near hundred million dollar company. Sure the devs were a small team, but what was there level of independence? How do we judge what indie means when its more vibe based? Is ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ [i]Valve[/i] an indie? They also don’t have a publisher, parent company or board to answer to, but I’m pretty damn sure [i]not a soul[/i] would emphatically and honestly describe Big Gaben’s Counter-Strike 2 as “Indie”.
Words need to mean things. Tags are important. The main thing that makes steam the absolute goat when it comes to gaming platforms is its ability to connect players to the games they’d like to play. If you start by [i]lying[/i] about the game you have, you’re not going to find the audience who will actually like it. You'll just get angry nerds ranting in negative reviews.
So, no, I don’t recommend this in general. Sure, I probably should have dug a bit more [i]before[/i] I slapped my money on the table, but that would involve personal responsibility when I can be angry instead.
I do recommend this to people who like walking simulators. I recommend this to people who enjoy sci-fi stories and aren’t fussy, and I recommend this to people who want a slow paced story driven experience, notice I said “story driven” not “character driven”.
I do not recommend this to people looking for an action adventure. I do not recommend this to people after strong characters or a particularly intriguing plot, and I don’t recommend this to scientifically literate people.
My ranting and distaste aside, I got this at 90% off and I still feel ripped off, and that’s possibly a more damning incitement than all the other meaningful words in the world.
[url=https://store.steampowered.com/curator/44852412/]My curator page[/url] with reviews by genre. In case you want to find more games, or even reviews, like this one.
