Invisible, Inc. (2015)

Defeated by a game.

Its unusual for me to admit being beaten by a game but this one did it.

In essence it's a procedurally generated turn based x-com like game. All set in a corporate espionage theme with good looking visuals and proper sound design.

At first you get a world overview where you can pick a mission. Each mission is generated and results in you getting some kind of benefit - cash, equipment etc... Once the mission is selected you go into tactical part of the game where you control two characters (at first) and you need to complete the selected goals.

The game is split into different days, where each day brings more challenging missions - though I've never been over day two so no idea what the ending is like.

So what's wrong with the game? I'm not really sure but while day one is always a walk in the part - the second one just ends my game on first mission as the difficulty rises so significantly. Additionally all your abilities have a limited use and cool down. And as game is designed to be as non-lethal as possible you can't just permanently put your enemies down. Instead all you can do is stun them but for only 3 turns.

All this coupled with alarm levels advancing with each turn and random levels makes for a very unsatisfying game play.

I've get it a several goes but got beaten pretty much at the same time. I don't think I ever completely understood what the game expects me to do and there was a sense of lost at all times.

In the end after a couple of frustrating defeats I gave up and not going to try it again. Ever. Not for me.

Note: I did all of the above on the lowest difficulty...

Like many Klei games, Invisible, Inc. is a mashup of genres and ideas in order to deliver something unique. And like many Klei games, it often falls just short.

Invisible, Inc. is part roguelite, part stealth game, and part XCOM. It actually reminds me most of FTL: Faster Than Light in terms of its overall game loop: each run involves you selecting from a number of possible missions which deliver random but predictable rewards.

You're under a strict time limit so you can't do everything, and this restriction forces you to come up with an ideal team composition using only the cards you were dealt.

At its highest points it makes you feel like a genuine spy and delivers all the tenseness and stress of a good spy thriller. At times you'll feel like a complete genius; thanks to its turn based nature you're able to perform some really neat feats that Sam Fisher would never be able to do

But the more you poke and prod at the game and its rules the more disappointing it becomes.

Missions and levels are procedurally generated, but they do little to hide the flaws of this approach. Nearly every level contains at least one hallway to nowhere, or an empty room guarded by a stationary guard facing a wall, or two doors next to each other leading to the same room (and one of them is locked but the other isn't)

There are several types of missions, but they all boil down to the exact same thing: enter place, sneak to mission device, interact with mission device, leave. The game does very little to mix this up and hopes that its procedural engine is able to generate enough micro stories to fill in the gaps.

The one exception to this is the final mission. Like FTL the entire game is leading up to the final mission, and like FTL the mission itself contains elements you haven't seen in any of the levels prior. It can be frustrating, especially as many of the "new" mechanics (like needing to physically hack an object for 4 turns, when all prior hacks are done remotely and instantly) are just clunky ways to increase difficulty

There's a great game waiting to emerge from Invisible, Inc. Hopefully we'll see a sequel one day that expands on what this game started.

Invisible, Inc. combines procedural generation and permadeath from roguelikes with stealth gameplay. One of its most important aspects is that there is very little unfair randomness: everything after a level starts is deterministic. No dice rolls for damage! This has allowed the devs to fine-tune the gameplay so that your success is always based on your decisions. As expected from a roguelike, situations arise which at first might seem impossible, but if you are clever enough you can survive them, which is an incredibly rewarding feeling.

I've seen people complain about the relatively short campaign length, but I think they're missing the point - the game is about making the most with scarce resources, and time is one of those. Replay with a higher difficulty if you thought it was over too soon. Furthermore, there is an endless more for those who want to play longer.

This is one of the best games I've ever played.