Based on the 1964 Polish novel of the same name, The Invincible is a tour-de-force of adventure storytelling. In the game, you play as Yasna, a survivor who wakes up on a mysterious planet with little to no recollection of how you ended up there. What then transpires is nothing short of magic as you get sucked into this mystery and embark on a journey of an alien world.
Gameplay
What Starward Industries has done with The Invincible is nothing short of incredible. At its heart, the story-driven adventure is centred around solving puzzles and exploring. It is the narrative that really drives you through, as it’s a big, empty, albeit linear experience. You get very little in terms of UI and even less support with finding your objective. Combined, this makes for some frustrating (but brilliant) exploration. You feel like you are embodying Yasna due to the first-person perspective, exploring the world and trying to uncover just what happened to you.
This won’t be a game for everyone. However, it doesn’t feature combat and can feel slow in places if you like a little more action in your narrative-driven games. That isn’t to say it’s boring; I was hooked for hours without even realising how much time had passed. This is a slow burn, but it pays off. The cinematics are done in a comic-book style, which provides a little context to what is going on but could give a little more contextual background without being a data dump. I didn’t really mind the lack of details; I was playing a character with full-blown amnesia, and this added to that realism. As you progress, you will get a little backstory in the form of flashback memories.
I would have liked the game to provide more of an open-world experience so I could truly explore, but the linear path is big enough that you can still get lost and struggle to find the way to go. While some may find this frustrating, others will enjoy the challenge. Where the sense of realism and immersion is broken, however, also lies with this linear path. In one area, the rocks, for example, can be climbed, but the same patch of rocks just next to it cannot be. This is frustrating. However you look at it, it’s inconsistent.
Movement and Puzzles in The Invincible
Movement in The Invincible can also feel a little slow; move too quickly for too long, and Yasna will get fatigued, meaning you’ll be doing a lot of slow walking, even if you know where you’re headed. I would have liked slightly more endurance to make the running last a little longer for gameplay’s sake, even if it breaks the realism of the concept of exhaustion.
The puzzles and challenges along the way are fun and engaging, albeit not overly difficult – tuning a radio is as simple as turning a knob, for example. But, in a game driven by its story, I think these moments work just fine to keep the pace.
Visuals and music in The Invincible
Everything about The Invincible is masterfully created with more care and attention than I’ve seen in a game for a long time. From the beautiful landscapes of the alien world to the people and robots you find along the way. Even the fauna has been meticulously created here. I think the most impressive is how lived-in and real everything in this sci-fi setting feels. Because you play in first-person, you see the chips of paint on your equipment. You see the cracks and dirt of your spacesuit helmet. It’s rare a game outside of the VR space transports you so completely into the world it creates, but The Invincible manages it.
The overall aesthetic can be described as retro-futurism, a sort of NASA-punk vibe. It has all the charm of classic sci-fi movies from the fifties.
This immersion only increases with the atmospheric and beautiful score by Brunon Lubas and is further developed with brilliant voice acting and accompanying sounds. Devices beep, winds howl, and the more you delve deeper into this alien world, the more you feel like you are genuinely exploring it.
Final Thoughts on The Invincible
If you’re after something a little slower, something that will grip you and take you on an exploration and story-based adventure, then The Invincible is for you. It’s a wonderful example of science fiction done right, and although some aspects of a novel don’t necessarily translate to a game, The Invincible is a wonderfully gripping experience. I love the retro-futurism aesthetic and how you get drawn into this story and root for Yasna finding out exactly what happened.
You can find out more about The Invincible on their website.
