The Invincible
I finished The Invincible yesterday. Another pretty lengthy game. This is an adaptation of the novel by Stanislaw Lem. I never read the book, so I couldn't tell you whether it's a faithful adaptation or not. You play as Yasna, who is a biologist and has woken up on an alien planet with her crew nowhere in sight. She was on a research mission, and she begins a journey to find the rest of her crew by exploring the planet. There's also a mystery here as something serious has affected the crew's minds and answers slowly begin to unfold as the game goes on. She is all alone too with the exception of the astrogator, Novik on the comms guiding her.
I would very much put this game in the category of “walking simulator.” I think some games are inaccurately described as that, but not this one. This one fits that description. There aren't any puzzles. You're just navigating your way around the planet by clicking on interactive hotspots. You also eventually get to drive around in rover, which is pretty cool, but had terrible visibility. Otherwise, the game is all about the narrative and exposition through dialog mostly between Yasna and Novik, but I did find myself captivated by the story. You can tell by space equipment and machines that it has this retro sci-fi style to it. And the rival organizations of the Alliance and the Commonwealth is reminiscent of that cold war era, which makes sense since the book was written in 1964. So, the developer didn't try to update the story.
Nonetheless, I think it's the kind of story that still holds up today and the mystery pulled me in. At times it's a little suspenseful, but certainly not scary. I never really got stuck except for maybe getting a little lost and there was one time there was an interactive object that wasn't easy to spot, so I had to look up what I was missing because I couldn't progress. There was also a lot of standing and just listening to the dialog because if you moved, there might be a new bit of dialog that started up, cutting off the current dialog. So, I made sure to just wait until the characters were done talking before continuing to move. The voice acting was quite good.
My one criticism again is it being autosave only, and it didn't always save often enough for me. Some scenes can run pretty long, which was pretty much the same issue I had with Neofeud, but this wasn't quite as bad. Also, I know there are multiple endings. I definitely got a bad ending, which is a bummer, but I didn't bother to go back to change it because I didn't want to sit through a bunch of dialog again.
Overall, I really liked this game. The graphics and immersiveness of exploring an alien planet were the highlight for me. I really enjoyed that, and there was quite a lot to explore with varied environments. I enjoyed the story as well. There's nothing like a good mystery. Here's a screenshot. Using a tracker to locate missing crew.
Next up is a pixel point-and-click called It's Grim Up North. I know nothing about this game. I think you play as an old man, and it looks like there's some monsters you fight? So, maybe it's a good game for spooky season.
I would very much put this game in the category of “walking simulator.” I think some games are inaccurately described as that, but not this one. This one fits that description. There aren't any puzzles. You're just navigating your way around the planet by clicking on interactive hotspots. You also eventually get to drive around in rover, which is pretty cool, but had terrible visibility. Otherwise, the game is all about the narrative and exposition through dialog mostly between Yasna and Novik, but I did find myself captivated by the story. You can tell by space equipment and machines that it has this retro sci-fi style to it. And the rival organizations of the Alliance and the Commonwealth is reminiscent of that cold war era, which makes sense since the book was written in 1964. So, the developer didn't try to update the story.
Nonetheless, I think it's the kind of story that still holds up today and the mystery pulled me in. At times it's a little suspenseful, but certainly not scary. I never really got stuck except for maybe getting a little lost and there was one time there was an interactive object that wasn't easy to spot, so I had to look up what I was missing because I couldn't progress. There was also a lot of standing and just listening to the dialog because if you moved, there might be a new bit of dialog that started up, cutting off the current dialog. So, I made sure to just wait until the characters were done talking before continuing to move. The voice acting was quite good.
My one criticism again is it being autosave only, and it didn't always save often enough for me. Some scenes can run pretty long, which was pretty much the same issue I had with Neofeud, but this wasn't quite as bad. Also, I know there are multiple endings. I definitely got a bad ending, which is a bummer, but I didn't bother to go back to change it because I didn't want to sit through a bunch of dialog again.
Overall, I really liked this game. The graphics and immersiveness of exploring an alien planet were the highlight for me. I really enjoyed that, and there was quite a lot to explore with varied environments. I enjoyed the story as well. There's nothing like a good mystery. Here's a screenshot. Using a tracker to locate missing crew.
Next up is a pixel point-and-click called It's Grim Up North. I know nothing about this game. I think you play as an old man, and it looks like there's some monsters you fight? So, maybe it's a good game for spooky season.