A Scientist On The Hunt For Survivors in The Invincible
During the Summer Games Fest 2022, we got a wicked trailer for this weird sci-Fi looking game called The Invincible. It was so mysterious and didn’t give up to much information, so my interest was piqued. So over the last week, I got some hands-on time with a preview for The Invincible from Starward Industries. First, I should state in terms of how far into the game the part we get to play is. I am not sure, but it feels very early on. Maybe even the opening hour of the game.
We play as Yasna in search of a missing convoy, and immediately we are given a choice to sneak around to its last known location or to barrel on through with a Rover. I decided to sneak around because I was unaware of what was ahead. The first thing I saw was how good The Invincible looks. Of course, the level of detail in the Mars-like Regis III environment, but outside and inside, the rover looked like something pulled straight out of nineteen fifties sci-fi, and visually it just rules.
When you come to the convoy’s last known position, there are these mysterious cavernous holes drilled through the sides of mountains, and doing some further investigating. You find some dead crewmates as well as an old out-of-commission robot. Think of the giant walking aliens from War of the Worlds but smaller, more mechanical, and not as deadly. But you are able to gain access to its memories through these slide pictures, and you discover what happened to the crew, and what happened was that this robot wiped them all out with the last picture it took being you walking up to it. It is a scene that is a little too drawn out but does a great job of building the tension and making you feel very uncomfortable and unsafe.
After seeing your picture, I headed down one of the hollow holes that were caused by that giant robot’s lasers, coming upon some more crewmates and a human-sized robot stuck carrying around a case seemingly filled with organic material from this planet. The mystery, for me, gets really interesting a little deeper into this tunnel. As an Astrobiologist, Yasna is also studying the planet, as we come to these metallic looking plants using this scanner that lets us sort of ultrasound view the roots, leads us to see these plant roots lead to these gigantic underground structures, which I am really hoping we get more of and maybe even get to explore later on in the game.
But after that, our character almost passes out from, well, I’m not sure, but when Yasna pulls herself together, she stands. The robot carrying the research material is walking back towards that bigger death robot and gets absolutely obliterated as the robot turns its sights on us getting ready to fire…then just stops in its tracks.
Afterward, we find ourselves going through the hole that the giant robot just blasted into another rock, only to come on more crew members. As we continue to search the area, we come to learn more about the plant life of the planet, which is very tied to the flies on this planet, which look like a sharp jack from the ball and jacks game.
Where The Invincible really intrigues me with its mystery is at the climax of this preview. We are on this transport, seeing if it can help us get somewhere when we come across a container housing some of the flies. Yasna wants to open it up and see them up close. As she does, we hear over her radio that a black hole has opened up in her area and to see what is going on. As we open the door, an apocalyptic swarm of flies comes rushing up as Yansa seemingly blacks out.
Overall the preview was around an hour, and while thoroughly enjoyable, it will mostly strike harder for fans of games like Firewatch and Everybody’s Gone to the Rapture. Being more of a walking simulator with a story to tell and a mystery to unravel. There was this constant feeling of unease and discomfort about Yasna’s situation. Almost like there is an ever presence of underlying horror in The Invincible, I am excited to figure out what is going on.
For more previews, interviews, and features, stay locked to DreadXP and check out the trailer for The Invincible.
