The Invincible review – “Not everything everywhere is for us…”

What lies beyond our solar system has been one of the greatest mysteries of our time. Our fascination with the ‘final frontier’ is fueled by the media with shows and films like Guardians of the Galaxy and Star Trek as well as the discoveries made by the Hubble and JWST telescopes. It is dreamt that, one day, humanity will be able to freely explore and settle among the stars.

Based on the novel by Polish author Stanislaw Lem, The Invincible explores one of the many ‘what if’ scenarios that people could face in space. While returning from an expedition, the Dragonfly, a small research craft, makes a stop at a mysterious planet called Regis III. Their task is to try to make sense of the planet’s strange environment and lack of life on land. What they discover calls into question everything that we think we know about evolution, human decency, and what happens when you stick your nose somewhere you probably shouldn’t.

Before diving into the features of the game, I feel it’s important to understand the book behind it as well as its author. Stanislaw Lem, born in 1921 in Lviv, Ukraine, was a renowned writer of science fiction and essays on various subjects ranging from philosophy to futurology, and beyond. His best-known work is the 1961 novel Solaris.

The Invincible follows the story of the crew of the heavily armed interstellar spacecraft called Invincible which lands on Regis III to investigate the loss of its sister ship, Condor. The novel explores the ideas of technologies like microrobots, artificial ‘swarm’ intelligence, and “necroevolution”, the evolution of non-living things, a term coined by Lem himself. The Invincible is a slow-paced novel with a heavy focus on the narrative and the research being conducted by the crew as they try to understand the strange planet they’re on. Things take a turn for the worse, and the question becomes whether they should salvage what’s left and leave Regis III behind or continue trying to solve the planet’s mysteries.

The gameplay of The Invincible takes a similar approach, with more emphasis placed on what was learned by the Dragonfly’s crew. The game takes place shortly before the events of the novel. You play as Dr. Yasna, an Astrobiologist for the Interplanetary Commonwealth, who has to put the pieces back together after a sudden bout of amnesia. Events throughout the will trigger Yasna’s memories, helping her to solve the mystery of Regis III and Condor. Yasna’s revelations and discoveries lead to even more questions, some that humanity may never be able to find the answers to.

There are different choices you can make throughout the game that can somewhat alter the course of the story. I say somewhat because, ultimately, you’ll be led to the same point regardless. There are multiple endings to uncover, however how you get those endings is entirely independent of the decisions made throughout the game, being based solely on how you choose to handle the endgame scenario.

There’s not much action in The Invincible. Much like in Death Stranding, you’ll do a lot of walking followed up by interacting with different objects and gadgets. Throughout the game, you’ll hear the dialog between Yasna and her Astrogator, Novik, who remained aboard the Dragonfly after having suffered injuries during a previous mission. Gameplay is very laid back, meant more for the inquisitive mind than for those looking for a thrilling space adventure. I highly recommend reading the book before jumping into the game as it will kind of give you an idea of what the game will be like.

Regis III is a desert planet that, like I mentioned before, has no life on land. What has become of the planet’s fauna and flora is one of the mysteries Yasna tries to solve. Still, the planet possesses a unique beauty. I was able to capture a lot of great pictures of the landscape and the sky with the game’s photo mode, including images of the planets close to Regis III as well as the planet’s vast ocean and other features.

To me, the game’s design lives up to the expectations I had after reading the novel. Getting to see a visual representation of what Lem described helped me gain a better understanding of the story. On the flip side, having read the book helped me to understand what was happening in the game, though some might consider it to be a little spoilery. More so, I was eager to see what Condor and Invincible might look like, as well as other vessels and structures. While Lem is no longer around to express his opinion, I’d still like to think the team at Starward Industries did an excellent job recreating this world.

I love how the developers try to immerse you in the game, particularly with how you interact with and use different things. Instead of a single button press that takes you through the full animation of, let’s say, turning on a radio, you’ll press different buttons, flip switches, and turn dials in sequence. While some may find this tedious, I found it fun as it made me feel more like an active participant. I’d love to see a translation of the game to virtual reality.

The game could have used some polishing, or at least could do with some post-launch patching. There are a lot of moments where the game’s performance suffers, particularly towards the back half. I started to experience major stutters as well as audio bugs that threw off the experience. I also had issues when trying to interact with some things. I could be looking right at a button that it indicated I needed to press, but it wouldn’t actually prompt for the button press. Thankfully, none of these issues were game-breaking, but I’m surprised these still have yet to be addressed since they’ve had over a month to do so since the game launched in early November.

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