The Invincible

It's important to highlight that of all the potential tags for this game, 'Walking Simulator' is by far the most important. This isn't necessarily a failing, but be aware that the entire game is seriously on rails, in many areas it's not even possible to interact with various plot points in an unintended order. In particular I was disappointed with several scenes where the dev's don't even try to contrive a reason to railroad the player, the player character will literally just vocalise how she shouldn't leave an area yet until you've 'done xyz.' Because of this there's almost no real reward for actually exploring the areas or being thorough, with the exception of a few photos lying around that you can technically miss the game is loathe to not lead you by the hand to every possible item or point of interest.

Sadly the inclusion of achievements, almost the entirety of which are based on choosing a certain 'branch' in the plotline, ruins any sense of immersion (as it does in many games). Nearly every major choice you make is punctuated by an achievement toast message detailing the choice; and in doing so highlighting that there was a different option you didn't take and therefore content and a separate achievement that now feel missed rather than chosen against.

Both graphics and audio deserve praise however, in particular not just the level of fidelity but the overall graphical style feels well integrated without coming across as cartoonish. Even the giant silver 60's spaceships of the Condor/Invincible seem immense and powerful rather than a comical tribute. The soundtrack never truly takes a front seat but is well crafted and fits the tone well, and all voice acting is of a consistently high level. In particular no character ever feels badly scripted or becomes grating, which is an advantage considering how you are in nearly constant voice contact with someone at all times. As a side point, the fact that you are almost never given a moments peace does unfortunately remove the 'alone on an alien planet' vibe that they obviously want to invoke.

The storyline is well presented, and it's obvious that the developers have a lot of love for the original work, it's a shame that in the final scenes they've chosen to fall back on a tired cliche of having to 'explain' the plotline to a 3rd character who is conveniently both smart enough to understand, but too stupid to figure it out for themselves. This allows for an 'as you know' type plot/information dump just in case the player hasn't worked out what's happened by themselves; but results in the ending feeling clinically dissected rather than emotionally resolved.

Overall a decent game to pick up if you enjoy interactive storytelling, perhaps wait for a sale first if unsure. Avoid if you value interaction on any level more than a timed choice at a few dozen precise moments.

I really wanted to like this game. And there was a good game somewhere in here, but not quite the one I have actually played.

What I did like:
- the mood, including the soundtrack, the noises of the environment, the loneliness and moodiness

- the world - the colours, the shape of the land

- the mystery, the alienness thereof


What I did not like:
- the talkiness - the protagonist talkes all the time over radio with someone, which sometimes requires dialog choices, timed ones even, even while things are happening in the world, or while you also need to interact with things in the world. This requires the player to split their focus - in a game where there is otherwise no need to hurry

- talkiness again - since the protagonist is so talky, we are somewhat forced to perceive the world through her lenses - and I for one was not particularly fond of her style, personality, tone

- somewhat disjointed story progression - sometimes when major events occurred the characters were talking about things I found less interesting; important plot points were dismissed in one or two dialogue lines, followed by a long dialogue about the feelings of the characters; jumpiness - at times it felt that I missed lines of dialogue, or that I was supposed to be familiar with something I was not properly aware of

- and technical issues:
* dialogues triggering about something before said something actually came into view
* major clunkiness after a certain point even though my system did have the minimal requirements;
* the fact that it gives you the illusion that it's an open world, when in fact there is a quite narrow path you can ACTUALLY walk on. This was incredibly annoying, because for instance you need to move from point A to point B, and between the two points you have a row of obstacles (say, equally high rocks). One of these obstacles is surmountable, but you will only figure it out once you're close enough to see the arrow indicating a passage. The game is full of invisible walls.
* the moment when I gave up playing was when I could not get out of a vehicle even though I was supposed to - the thing I was supposed to click on to trigger the action did not appear


I loved the first hour of the game, got stuck during my second hour, managed to get unstuck but bumped into massive clunkiness during the third, after which I stopped and watched the rest of the game on youtube.

even if you have above recommended resources, you will not be able to finish the game. Suddenly it starts to fill up the video memory and you will get stuck when you are enjoying the game. Don't buy until fixed.

I really loved this game, kinda sad ending tbh. I recommend you buy this if you are into space and exploration.

Amazing atmospheric linear story game. If you liked Firewatch this is for you.

"...as if it was indeed invincible."
This story was my first encounter with Stanislav Lem's books: I heard about the game and that it was "based on Lem's iconic novel", which I read first before jumping into the game. Now, "based" is a really convenient word for the developers to use, because it does not specify the scale of how true the game is to the source material. And need I need to tell you that my experience was underwhelming, to say the least, since it's a negative review?
If I had to use a rough analogy for a better understanding I'd say that The Invincible game is akin to a flawed human body: flawed skeleton, flawed entrails, yet the outside looks fresh and pretty.
The skeleton, in this case, is the gameplay which is basically a time filler: the navigation in this game is very poor at least, and it's very clunky as the character cannot sprint for longer than 5 seconds before getting all winded. The walking itself stutters every now and then due to the character constantly hitting invisible walls or starting some contextual animation like climbing a 30cm boulder. Now mind you, I'm okay with games that mostly consists of walking if it's presented properly AND if there's something to mix it up with, but all I had was cutscenes and even more unskippable animations.
Speaking of cutscenes, the "entrails" of the game, aka its story is also something that probably won't get your attention when playing. First of all, it's a prequel (and that's not even a major spoiler as it is revealed in the first 30 minutes of playing the game) that reiterates the most important points of the novel, but in a manner that will rather put you to sleep than make you care about what's going on on the screen. Lem's writing was really engaging, it was something that pushed me towards reading the book until the very end in anticipation. And it baffles me how a product that not only has bare story, but also visual and even some interaction value fails to even as much as maintain the same level of quality, instead providing some dry dialogues.
As for the visuals, that's one of few things I can commend along with the game's soundtrack, although I'd like to deduct some points due to the game performing poorly despite having nothing but empty landscapes you cannot interact with.
I hate to say that I'm disappointed given my respect to the source material, but I also have to admit that those are 2 completely different things we're talking about. Finishing the game was more of a chore than an actually engaging experience. It's one of those stories when you wait for something interesting to finally appear only to see the credits roll all of a sudden. I expected a good game, not Firewatch REDUX.

Listen, I've never read a sci-fi novel (sad, I know,) but I am definetly picking up The Invincible! This game has fantastic writing thanks to the original book, and the VA's just cement your interest and connection to the characters. As well the art design leaves everything BREATHTAKING! The mystery, the characters, the world, the aesthetics... it's all top tier, damn near perfect. Only thing that is holding me back from saying it is perfect is the glitches. But honestly they're so small in the scheme of things.

The metal alien architecture reminds me so much of Subnautica BZ. Feels like I'm right at home. Half expected Al-An to just start walking about.

This game is so good at atmosphere it left me feeling sick to my stomach. In a good way, though! Because, my days, it really does stick with you.

And yes, it does seem tech-demo-y. But really, its works out to be
one of its charms.

I really like it. 9/10.

I liked the setting and artwork, which was classic 60's style Sci-Fi directly from the source material. The comic book concept was a nice touch to summarize the story and refresh your memory after long times between playing. Game-play could be a slog at times. But the story engaged me and I pressed on because I really wanted to see how it ends. Full price seems a bit high, but I definitely recommend on sale.

A really absorbing, absolutely stunning visual experience. Very much a walking simulator but one of the more interesting ones I’ve played.

RRP is a little high IMO but it’s well worth playing and there are multiple endings which might extend the value for those so inclined.

Ostensibly, The Invincible is "Firewatch but it's on an alien planet", but I ended up being disappointed. Firewatch was great, so it's a tough comparison, but The Invincible never came close to the same feeling of immersion and intrigue.

The Invincible is a decent sci-fi story in a high-fidelity presentation. But it's more like a slightly interactive movie than a game. There is almost no player agency or freedom.

The game felt ponderously slow, with far too much meaningless interruptive dialogue. It always felt distractingly obvious how the whole game is completely linear and you (as the player) don't have any freedom to explore.

On many occasions, there was an object with which it was clear the player must interact. However, the interact button was disabled until the current voice dialog finished. So, I just had to sit and wait through the voice dialog, doing nothing, until I could continue. This kind of non-gameplay gradually built a feeling of torpor and frustration, killing any sense of excitement or thrill from the plot.

If you love anything to do with Science Fiction stories, or if you're closet astronaut with dreams of exploring space etc. then this is the game for you.

The story is very detailed and keeps you guessing what might happen next, and the good thing is that you can choose the direction that your journey takes by making some crucial plot decisions during the game play.

The visuals, art style and audio really turn this whole game into a work of art, and the developers, artists and sound engineers have done themselves proud. You do really feel that you're playing a part of an interactive Sci-Fi movie.

If you're looking for lots of monsters/aliens to shoot and destroy then this probably isn't the kind of game for you, but if you just love anything Sci-Fi and want a visual and audio feast to match a brilliant story then get this game, you will not be disappointed.

It's a walking simulator, so expect a lot of walking (sometimes driving). It's really slow paced. The story, the art, the voice acting and the overall atmosphere are great. Controls are a little bit clumsy but I didn't mind it in this type of game. There are occasional glitches, I had to reload checkpoint once because I got stuck under a terrain item and once because some interaction points stopped working. But overall it was an enjoyable experience.

This was a superbly well-written "adaptation" of a sci-fi classic, actually taking place slightly before (and reinterpreting some of the events of) the novel. From the clunky gadgets to the tripod-like robots to the ray guns and flying saucers, I'm really amazed by cohesive and nostalgic the art direction was: I haven't read much Stanislaw Lem, but I read a whole lot of Heinlein as a kid and this story and set dressing would fit right in to that style of atomic spaceships and astrogators and cold war paranoia.

From a gameplay perspective, this is a walking simulator's walking simulator, but I think that fits well with the mood of the story. It's a contemplative tale about loneliness and slowly building horror and distrust of one's own mind (much like Solaris, or Stalker), and while you don't make a ton of decisions each one you do make felt momentous (do you want to launch A HUNDRED NUKES? is one of them). Each of the systems you uncover fits well within both the narrative and the gameplay, and I appreciated how free-form some of the elements ended up being (like the metal detector you get early on, which I used for more than just the moments of the game that called for it. It helped show the truly staggering scale of the, uh, main antagonist?)

I definitely recommend this game if any of the above spoke to you, or if you ever read The Green Hills of Earth at an impressionable age and can't get the "Hear the jets!" poem out of your head.

Short but sweet. Don't go in expecting anything necessarily exciting, but the game still manages to keep your attention with some beautiful visuals and complex characters. Additionally, this is not science fiction like many have come to expect from the genre, but is instead of an older breed of hard sci-fi that you don't see much any more.

This isn’t just a game; it’s a love letter to Stanisław Lem. Well, not entirely—it's also a game, and a good one at that: an engaging, narrative-driven walking simulator, to be specific. If you’re a fan of Lem’s works or sci-fi in general—especially hard sci-fi—this game is 100% for you. I promise you won’t regret it.

For others, the captivating yet deliberately paced gameplay might not be to everyone’s taste. Personally, the game hooked me from the first minute and didn’t let go until the very end—10 hours straight in one session. Before playing, I hesitated, unsure whether spending the entire day on it would be worth it, but the sci-fi theme completely won me over, and as you can tell, I didn’t regret it.

As for drawbacks, the main issue I encountered was various visual glitches. For some reason, the game starts acting strange graphically when running at high screen refresh rates. Other than that, it’s a well-crafted game within its budget, with no hard flaws.

For me, it’s an 8/10, and now I’m off to read the book sequel!

I've actually read the book and while no game can capture everything about a book's nuances and writing this game does a pretty good job at nailing it. Great game so far. No quick time events to worry about and the VO work and world design is stellar.

Okay, first of all, the controls are annoying. She is incredibly slow and takes forever to do anything. She can barely walk three steps without becoming exhausted. It just gets extremely annoying.

Rich story with good development and pacing, great voice acting, magnificent design and art (maybe my favourite aspect)... It's essentially an interactive movie... not an action game. Good length.

High quality execution, I did not come across one bug. I have an old PC with there were a couple frame rate stutters in parts but not enough to be annoying.

Surprisingly good execution, I loved it and would buy anything similar. Highly recommended. Great to play on a big screen with others that enjoy a story that you can interact with. Good solid sci-fi that makes you think about the nature of things.

As a fan of Lem's books and story-heavy and scifi games, i really enjoyed this

I'm played this game on and off over a year, after trying the demo when it was available. The universe is very immersive and really enjoyed the choices offered in the game. Definitely recommending this gem to friends and foes !

On rails walking simulator. I feel misled by the trailers for the game. Spent several hours in the game, and "nothing" happens. Lots of inane conversation over the radio with zero consequences. Examples: "What do you want to name the probe? "What do you want to name this rock formation?". All answers are multiple choice -- and worse, no matter how you answer the questions, it's pointless because you're not making any decisions. It's just prattle. So this is basically an on-rails walking simulator with very little story. On the bright side, the art is good. As a game, it's a waste of time.

Close to giving it a thumbs down. the game does have alot of minor bugs and sadly i ran into alot of progression related bugs.....

However was a interesting story, gameplay isent really there as its a walking simulator and alot of dialogue.

As a lover of sci-fi and immersive narrative experiences, I adored this game. The voice acting is excellent and the choices you make do matter in the story. You'll be rewarded with a comic book-style summary of your story.

I was not familiar with the source material, and I went in not knowing what to expect, and I recommend doing the same. So, don't look anything else up. Just get it and jump in.

Love how the game unfolds its story, lovely graphics and scenery. The length of the game is perfect, reminds me of firewatch where you always have radio contact with a person som it doesnt feel so Lonely walking around in the empty world.

Cons:
-Sprint is limited
-not that good frames on the steamdeck
-the paths sometimes look wierd(climbing the steep paths instead of climbing what looks possible)

Very enjoyable. I do not think I would recommend this universally, but if you are in the mood for a well written scifi from the 1960s, then give this a go.

Nice walking simulator with amazing visuals and a story that keeps you wanting to know more. Unfortunately I didn't like the endings very much, but I still enjoyed the playthrough and would recommend the game.

Not recommended. Game was extremely clunky for me and it became tedious to finish. Perhaps for fans of the novel, otherwise just skip it.

plot is cool af but unreal engine is usual suspect of poor optimisation, had to play on mid settings with 15-30 fps, not really enjoyable but story is fine

Interesting setting and story, but
holy shit it is absolutely insufferable with inexplicable timers on seemingly random simple dialogue options, that sometimes start running out while an existing dialogue is still ongoing (despite not being interruptions).

While talking with a friend about some other choices I could've made, i learned that apparently this game uses a kind of ridiculous time-travel-movie level of a 'butterfly effect', where some results change drastically based on choices that shouldn't affect them in the slightest.

Also the game can obnoxiously set you on a path that you didn't mean to go, while you were only exploring your options, with no way back.

Boring. Navigation is awful and very clunky. Walking is super slow. You have no autonomy in where to move your character, they can only go along a specific route. Climb a 6 inch rock? Nope, not if it isn't programmed in as the game's route. Climb a 4 foot ledge directly next to that 6 inch rock? Of course, that's the only way you are allowed to go. And don't get me started on driving in the rover, visibility is awful, controls are awful. The whole game was frustrating and boring, it's really just a story that is being read to you, very very slowly.

Ah, The Invincible—the game where you’re a scientist armed with atompunk gadgets, searching for your missing crew on a creepy alien planet. Sounds thrilling, right? Well, buckle up, because it’s less "thrill ride" and more "Firewatch... but in space... with existential dread and slower walking."

The visuals? Stunning. The soundtrack? Absolutely haunting. The movement speed? Oh, slower than molasses in a Siberian winter. You’ll spend more time walking than investigating, and by the time you reach your objective, you might feel like you’ve aged in real life.

But wait, there’s more! Invisible walls block your path, because apparently Yasna can outthink robots but can’t step over a rock. And let’s talk about the endings—11 of them, they say! But don’t get excited, they’re just slightly different flavors of “nothing really happens, roll credits.”

It’s gorgeous, atmospheric, and deeply philosophical... if you can survive the glacial pacing. 10/10 for the vibes, 3/10 for walking simulator rage. Would recommend if you enjoy pondering humanity’s place in the universe while staring at loading prompts.

Great game with excellent voice acting, intense narrative and immersive visuals. The 1960s-inspired art style is absolutely gorgeous.

Performance was a letdown though, had issues with frame drops after a certain more dense part halfway through the game, and a lot of textures pop-in which was very distracting an immersion breaking.

If these performance issues are addressed, I’d rate it a solid 8.5/10. As it stands, based on my experience, I’d give it a 7/10. For reference on performance, my specs are: RTX 4070, Core i7-12700, and 16GB of RAM.

Per aspera ad astra ( Through hardship to the stars )

But not all stars should be revealed. Not all mysteries should be solved.

Not Everything Everywhere is For Us

Great atmosphere and art style! I like the retro soviet kind of style.

This game doesn't require "effort"... its more like a movie. Its absolutely stunning. We need more games with the Retro Futuristic / Atompunk theme, especially space games. This one is well worth the price tag.

I love that this game exists because it pays hommage to a type of sci-fi that is sadly not very popular anymore back from when the genre was actual about science, scientists, exploration and asking big questions about humanity without being cynical about it, always giving some spark of hope that humanity might overcome its weaknesses. Not just another flavor of the broader action genre. The kind of sci-fi that inspired the older Star-Trek series.

The game itself looks great, tells a fascinating story and is entertaining to the very end, even if it feels a bit rushed in the final 15 minutes or so.

Highly recommend it to anyone else who can appreciate the experience of exploring a strange planet without action being a major focus.

I loved the game, good story line and everything, but I find it really and I mean really short I have played the whole story only in 13 hours of gameplay, I don't know if that is just me used to play 50-100 hours to finish up a game but I think more can be added to the story of the game.

Amazing story-telling, voice-acting and visuals.
It sadly has technical problems with constant massive stuttering on some maps.
Still an impressive experience, and now I need that novel it's based on.

OK, I am giving a thumbs up, but that's because we only get up or down.
It is a Good story - but I'd not call this a GAME. This a a visual novel with very few choices that matter to the grand outcome until the end (if then). It is so on rails as to leave little to actually "Explore".

That said, it is gorgeous, the soundtrack is great and ominous. The slide styles blend into the comic (I got the deluxe version with the soundtrack and comic extra - prob not worth it). It is fun. But game? Nah. Pretty Visual Novel - yes.

Mint writing, pacing and world design. The sound design and voice acting are also on point.

Gorgeous story with 11 endings, beautifull views, and the vibe, the immesion that the sounds create is just amazing its definetly worth the time and money. Even with some visual bug that I had I still recommend you to feel these emotions that I have felt for last week. Gonna order a book rn

While not perfect, it's a captivating story with beautiful art direction.

This a narrative game, with 40's style retro space aesthetic. It's based on a novel, and throughout the game there's comic book version that opens up as you progress through the game.

This is a disappointment. I found the first act is really interesting, but act 2 and 3 just meanders and doesn't know what to it's trying to do. And the abrupt ending had me laugh out loud just how bad it is.

A narrative game needs something good to make it worth while. Normally that's the story, but even a bad story uses amazing visuals to made it worth it.

The Invincible has neither, and I can't recommend this game.

Очень приятная история об одиночестве и тяге к познанию, которую немного портит геймплей. Впрочем история, персонажи, актёры, дизайн мира и окружения более чем заслуживают того, чтобы вы потерпели этот немного неуклюжий геймплей.

Excellent story. This is basically a visual novel, so the player interaction is largely walking and talking. So you walk some, and then you talk some. Then more walking. Then some talking. All that being said, I played it for eight hours straight. Just a very good sci-fi tale.

interesting story, well told, amazing retro sci fi setting.

Visually nice, but not no meaningful gameplay. If you're looking for a graphic novel with minimal engagement or a slow walking/driving simulator then fill your boots. But really not what I was looking for.

The Invincible is an intriguing game, it reminds me of The Martian movie, although there is a philosophical story behind. But as in the Martian movie, you will be walking alone a lot through a beautiful alien planet. I guess that will not be everyone's cup of tea, but if you like games like that, I recommend it

Excellent score. Amazing story and great graphics. A one of kind type of game in my opinion.
My only downside is that the story could have been longer.

The Invincible is a visually stunning and atmospheric game that offers a compelling narrative experience. While it may not appeal to everyone due to its slow pace, fans of narrative-driven adventure games and sci-fi enthusiasts will likely find it a worthwhile journey.