As much as I love the thrills of gunning down hordes of enemies, or pushing a top-spec machine to the limits to get the fast lap time. Sometimes I love to just lose myself in a game’s tale and no genre achieves this I think quite like a walking sim. Where you are just a passenger, taking in the sights of the world and tale it tells; with often “little” gameplay elements to make sure you’re still there. The Invincible by Polish studio Starward Industries is the latest walking sim that has got its hooks into me.
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And what a tale it is. The Invincible is an adaptation of the 1964 Polish novel of the same name by Stanisław Lem. This celebrated hard sci-fi tome may not seem like the most readily adaptable work, but Starward Industries have produced something that captures the profound and the philosophical elements of its source.
Literary Heavyweight
The story opens with a ship called the Invincible landing on the alien planet of Regis III, a seemingly uninhabited and bleak rock. They are there to investigate what happened to their sister ship – The Condor as well as her crew.
While it may first strike you as a grand tale, The Invincible is, at its core, a very personal undertaking. The story is as much about losing friends, as it is about interstellar spaceships.
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The game sees you playing as astrobiologist Yasna, who wakes up mysteriously on Regis III with a broken comms. unit and a light case of amnesia. So, you’ll have to study her notes to start filling in the blanks. Thankfully, Yasna does remember the important things quite quickly.
Which sees you being able to focus on the real task of finding your missing crew and getting off the planet with them.
The story of The Invincible is gripping stuff. You find out the fate of your missing crew members, and later discover that all isn’t quite as it seems on Regis III. The Invincible takes more than a few twists and turns as it resolves itself.
The Invincible also tackles heavy topics like the evolution, humanity and the relationship man have with machines. Like its novel roots, the game does throw up some truly thought-provoking ideas.
An Invincible
Gameplay is your standard walking sim fare with a few interesting elements thrown in to mix things up a little. You have a few tools and gadgets to help you on your missions. There’s also some orienteering to be done as you’ll need to use maps and landmarks to help navigate your way around.
With you mainly spotting, talking or most often flipping switches and buttons, and that’s about it in terms of “interaction” beyond just walking (sometimes driving) for each major point.
To its credit, the game is well paced and signposts things in subtle ways; that you need to do or should be doing. So, you never find yourself being really stumped, although there are points where you have to interact with a point of interest and if you miss it, the game will hold you in the area until you do.
The Implacable
The Invincible is a visual joy, having a very retro 50s and 60s pulp sci-fi vibe. A notable level of detail has gone into the tech you have access to that sells the retro-futuristic style magnificently. Everything has an analogue feel to it, in a wonderful clunky way.
And then there is Regis III itself, which has some stunning sky boxes and biomes you’ll stumble across as you wander its at first barren plains. Although you’ll spot a few little issues on your adventure like pop up and low textures at times, that do impact the experience a little.
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The audio of The Invincible is also top tier. There is some outstanding voice acting on whos, and this quality helps to breathe life into the game. The voice acting makes you honestly care about the voices you’ll hear on the line, out in the void of space.
The soundtrack also feeds off the space vibes very well, often delivering a soundscape full of wonder and glee at times.
The Invincible is a hard sell to those looking for a game with a killer gameplay loop. It’s more of a game for those looking to go on an adventure. Solid writing, relatable characters, and some outstanding performances all blend together to create a journey worth undertaking.
That The Invincible may be based on a tale that’s now five decades old, it has concepts and thought-provoking ideas still ringing as true today as they did back in the 1960s.