Invisible Inc is the stylized stealth game from Klei Entertainment that just came out of early access and was one of my most anticipated titles from last year. Klei is definitely creating a M.O of amazing and stylized titles and Invisible Inc is another win for them.
A Cyberpunk Sneaking Mission:
Invisible Inc takes place in a cyberpunk future where mega corporations rule. You are an operator with Invisible Inc — A group that performs espionage missions around the world with a select crew of agents and an AI helper named Incognita. When the headquarters is attacked, the few remaining agents and their leader are forced to flee and figure out what’s going on and strike back.
Since the Early Access version, you can now set different starting conditions that affect the difficulty of the game including an endless run mode. A standard play of Invisible Inc happens over a 72 hour period of in game time. You’ll pick targets on the global map to hit with your team with each one taking away from your 72 hour window based on their distance away from your ship.
The campaign is set around a linear time frame, but with procedurally generated missions based on the player’s choices.
The targets themselves are facilities owned by the different corporations and will have resources that you need like upgraded equipment and possibly finding other agents.
Keeping with the theme of the game, each corporation specializes in something that determines their security and the opposition against you. As the game goes on, the threat level will increase which in turn will add new threats whenever you go on a mission.
You can buy items and upgrade your agents using credits. There are also augments that you can find and install that act as permanent upgrades that offer a variety of unique conditional abilities. Once on a mission, you’ll have to use stealth and strategy to complete your task.
I Go/You Go Stealth:
Klei is making a name for themselves with unique takes on the stealth genre; first Mark of the Ninja with a real time 2D platformer system and now Invisible Inc with turn based stealth.
The name of the game is moving as quickly and stealth fully as possible through procedurally generated levels. Each mission of Invisible Inc has three objectives: One tailored to the mission, steal anything useful and escape. Your agents have action points or AP that dictate how much they can do in a single turn while guards are either set to stationary or patrolling patterns.
Every turn that goes by will slowly raise the level of security of the level. At each level up, the mission becomes more dangerous with higher tier guards, harder security and more to deal with. This forces you to weigh the risks of staying for more loot or getting the hell out of there.
Besides guards, you can use Incognita to hack security, tap into cameras and more as long as you have enough power. This can give you the edge and allow you to get around some of the security measures in place. Just like your agents, you can upgrade Incognita with new hacking tools.
The stealth system is very unique compared to other titles thanks to the risk/reward of staying longer vs. the security level. Starting out, your only options for dealing with guards are either to evade or stun them with a tazer like device. But as the game goes on, guards will become armored, robotic enemies and the introduction of lethal and non lethal ranged weaponry will appear.
If one of your agents gets spotted, you’ll only have one turn to get them out of sight or take out the spotter before they are KO; lose them all and it’s game over. Depending on the difficulty setting, you may have the option to rewind your turn to correct things but there is also an ironman mode for those really brave.
Figuring out sight lines and safe zones is a challenge, as everyone only has one life normally
Like Klei’s Don’t Starve, there is a meta-game progression in the form of unlocking new agents and tools. You’ll receive experience after winning or losing a campaign that allows you to level up and unlock new content.
At the start, you’ll only have two agents and two hacking tools available but overtime you’ll unlock the entire roster including variants of the agents.
In terms of design, not much has changed dramatically from early access; outside of balancing the various agents and mods that you can find which actually takes me to my problems with the game.
Not so Perfect Heist:
The main problem Invisible Inc has is that the difficulty curve is off; with the beginning harder in some aspects compared to the end. When you start a new game, your tactics are very limited and this can make the procedurally generated levels extra hard.
If you get a level where the exit is surrounded by enemies with overlapping detecting sight lines, all I can say is good luck doing that with your starting team. There were times where it felt like I was losing through no fault of my own and simply due to bad luck. What ends up happening is that if you can survive to the point where you have upgraded agents and items, the game becomes a lot easier.
Expert players have found optimal augment builds and item combinations and the difference between an upgraded and starting agent is night and day. This in turn presents a problem — How do you ease up on the starting conditions without further making the game easy for expert players? The answer is that you really can’t; not without further throwing the difficulty curve out of whack.
A lot has to go right in order for you to succeed at Invisible Inc. You need to survive long enough to get upgraded, find enough credits, buy items, get augments and hope the level generation doesn’t screw you. That’s a lot of things that have to go your way and it doesn’t take much to end up in trouble. In this regard, Invisible Inc reminds me of Dungeon of the Endless and how it was very easy to end up in a negative feedback loop through no fault of the player.
Improving agents via stats, items and augments are vital in order to have any chance against the progressively stronger enemies
There are some situations that I ran into with multiple guards that I couldn’t see a way to get through it stealthfully; at least on a first try without the use of rewinding my turn.
Your possible tactics at the start are just too limited while at the mid and late game, they will open up with a lot of varied options for you. Speaking of tactics, the game’s difficulty progression model also means that if you can’t find a means to get around armored enemies, you won’t have much luck in getting past things after day 2.
Because of all that, expect your first few hours of Invisible Inc to be filled with frustration as you attempt to learn how to avoid detection, what augments and items to go for and unlocking new agents and tools that better fit your playstyle.
One last possible annoyance is that the campaign or story mode of Invisible Inc is on the short side. No doubt due to the procedural and rogue-like nature of the game. A typical campaign run can usually last about 2 to 3 hours give or take. This does present Klei with the option of expanding the game with supplemental content to flesh out the options with future DLC.
I would love, love, love, (yes I typed that three times on purpose) for them to go the X-Com Enemy Unknown route and add supplemental content to increase the number of events and mission types as well as expand the endless mode to give it its own unique flavor. This is a game where there is so much potential for new content thanks to the groundwork of the original design and campaign.
Incognito:
To Klei’s and Invisible Inc’s credit, the unique design and aesthetics are strong enough to mitigate some of the frustration of the game. Klei has created a very interesting world and one I’m sure people won’t mind going back to again and again. Just like with their previous titles, Klei has an impressive foundation that gives them a lot of leeway on how to improve and expand things in the future and I already shared my dream idea for the game further up.
There really isn’t anything like Invisible Inc on the market and it’s another winner from Klei Entertainment.
