The Invincible

Based on the 1964 hard sci-fi novel of the same name, The Invincible tells a mature, thought-provoking story about a research team’s discoveries on a distant planet. While the gameplay isn’t much to write home about, the smartly presented experience is nevertheless out of this world.

An undercooked ending doesn’t capsize the rest of the experience, though, which is ultimately a perfectly calibrated sci-fi adventure with an inimitable aesthetic sense. As a game, The Invincible may not be entirely unassailable, but its credentials are as solid as one could ask for.

The Invincible has just about everything one could ask for in a sci-fi thriller: robots, the unknown, a foreboding sense of unease. Add to that some absolutely breath-taking visuals and you’ve got an adventure that’s hard to put down. Starward Industries has created something rather wonderful here, and I can’t wait to see what they do next.

The Invincible is a great walking sim that tells a solid science fiction story, with a likeable protagonist and some strong writing.

The Invincible proved to be a successful homage and an adventure capable of capturing the complexity and restlessness of Stanislaw Lem's work. Despite some negligible frivolities, the attention to detail and the depth of the story fully repay the gaming experience, offering all lovers of narrative adventures (or those who want to approach the gaming model) a title to take into serious consideration.

The Invincible isn’t really a game you play for its core gameplay. You play it to experience an interesting story that takes place on an alien planet with technology plucked right from the early 1900s.

The Invincible is a novel brought to life, blending its story and stunning visuals with engaging exploration. The Invincible goes back to the roots of sci-fi, offering something both classic and new when it comes to exploring the relationship between humanity and the final frontier.

If you like walking simulators and deep stories, this game is right up your alley. The atmosphere and the visual style will engulf you completely, making it feel natural to ponder the philosophical questions raised by your trek through Regis III. But I can’t forget or forgive the deliberately snail like pace and cheap shots meant to extend a 4-hour experience into one that take 8 hours to finish. Despite the short length, the experience would have been much more enjoyable if it wouldn’t have been so diluted.

I enjoyed exploring Regis III and uncovering the various mysteries that it holds. However, while the gameplay is simple and basic, The Invincible excels in its fantastic writing and performances from main characters, Yasna and Novick. As I played through the game, I was driven deeper and deeper into its narrative until the big reveals were finally unleashed.

If The Invincible stands out for its superb artistic direction and its palpable suspense, it is content to be quite good on other levels. But the immersion is such that it could almost create an illusion. The problem is that it doesn't always stand the test of bugs, details and other gameplay limitations. Despite real potential, The Invincible is therefore far from a Firewatch. But if you like science fiction and exotic adventures, you will be able to be charmed by this experience which remains gripping and which is still worth a look.

The Invincible is one of the best Walking Simulators in the recent years, but its solid story telling gets overshadowed by its many technical issues and disappointing ending.

The Invincible is exactly what it wants to be: an extremely focused narrative adventure. The story is great and the characters interesting. Expect a linear narrative at its heart, with multiple endings.

The effect is simple but potent: this feels like a real place, and you feel like a real person. [Issue#392, p.108]

The Invincible brings Stanislaw Lem’s work to life in a faithful adaptation that plays out as if it were ripped directly from retro-futurism art of the 1950s. Starward Industries have gone to great lengths to craft an experience that is visually appealing and makes great strides to maintain Lem’s philosophical concepts while being grounded in hard science fiction. But where the game excels in some areas, it loses its way in others, falling victim to pacing issues and hollow choices, resulting in hurried endings that may leave you feeling lost in space.

The Invincible might have its minor problems, but they don’t do much to draw from the fact that Starward Industries has proven that the direct adaptation of The Invincible was always destined to be a video game.

The Invincible has a wondrous story to tell and dazzling graphics to match, but it's held back from greatness by gameplay that struggles to ever break away from the genre structure of old. Mostly walking and talking, it never feels anything more than serviceable. Still, there's an interesting narrative to experience, and with your own decisions changing events, The Invincible should still be played by sci-fi fanatics.

The Invincible offers up plenty of sci-fi intrigue, but even as a fan of walking simulators, the gameplay just falls too short of the mark. I still enjoyed my time on Regis III, but there were definitely ways to improve the experience.

The Invincible is a walking simulator that pays a good tribute to the work of Stanisław Lem thanks to an interesting story that dares to address philosophical issues, a protagonist with charisma and a fascinating science fiction setting. Unfortunately, this good work ends up being weighed down by an extremely slow, sometimes frustrating development that is not capable of offering us anything minimally stimulating as players, with overly stretched parts and mechanics that rarely add up to the whole. Even so, it is not a bad game and if you are passionate about the genre in its purest conception, the original novel on which it is based and you want a slow experience away from the freneticism and spectacle that usually reigns in the industry, here you will find a purchase that you may want to take into account.

The Invincible absolutely looks the part, jampacked with stunning alien vistas and a brilliant retrofuturistic aesthetic, but its premise can't quite maintain the momentum of suspense and intrigue generated in its opening act.

The Invincible deploys its source material brilliantly in terms of style, aesthetic, and story, however a lot of slow parts, empty spaces, and over-simplistic mechanics and puzzles mean it never really hits truly stellar heights.

The Invincible crash lands out of excellence as it’s overall technically flawed. However, the contents of the story, the themes it explores and the general art direction make for a great sci-fi title. If you can get over the less-than-stellar controls and bloated plot, you may just witness a shooting star, but maybe don’t make a wish on it.