Invisible Inc/Formerly Incognito

Citizen · Post by **Citizen** » Thu Apr 17, 2014 7:55 pm

I picked this one up today for $16.99 early access. It'll be like $20 when it's done. No big savings, but I've been watching it for a few months and wanted to try it.

http://www.invisibleincgame.com/

I'm sure you guys know about this but incase anyone doesn't - its made by the same guys that made Don't Starve, which is why I felt okay about paying early access money. The game feels like a cross between XCOM with some Jagged Alliance and The Matrix (if it were a single player game). After the tutorial and 1 mission I really like it. The levels are randomly generated so there is no memorizing and playing on autopilot.

Basically you get inserted into a corporate building with instructions to get to the top floor, at which point you'll be advised further. I had 2 agents - a stealth agent and a wifi hacker type. Both agents had dart guns and judo skills, but head on combat is a last resort, since deaths results in "the agency" having to cover up the dearly departed. My wiFi hacker dude also had trap setting skills in the form of electric pads on a door which zaps corporate guards. The corporation has lots of anti-theft devices ranging from roaming guards, cameras, laser trip wires, sound bugs, roaming robots and I'm sure things I haven't discovered yet. It's turn based so every turn that you're in the building the corporation ramps up the threat level, which makes things much more difficult, but I haven't seen just how difficult it can get.

Anyways, I got to the 3rd floor of my first mission and was instructed to steal a USB drive that was in the pocket of a worker. I hacked my way through various sound bugs, cameras and doors and even robbed several safes (you steal credits and can spend them later). When I got to the workers door, I set my stealth agent to be on over watch and had my wifi dude use his hacker matrix skills to make a ping noise which drew the guard to open the door -- the one with stealthy on over watch.

Bango.

One dart in the snout and he is nighty night for 3 turns.

Plenty of time for me to get to the elevator and evac (I guess on the roof?)

So stealth boy takes the USB drive and gets in the elevator and leaves. I moved Dr. WiFi up and pinned the worker to the ground (that keeps him asleep longer for some reason). My plan was to move Dr. WiFi out on my next turn. But on the next turn the threat level ticked up, one of my hacked cameras came back online and Dr. WiFi found himself being recorded while sitting on top of a knocked out science worker. That alerts a roaming robot guard who enters from the far end of the room and starts shooting at the Doctor. The doc takes cover and has to waste a turn. On my next turn I dart out heading for the elevator and take one round of fire, I'm hit for 1 hp, but I have 2 left so its okay since the elevator is in sight.

I'm 2 tiles from rounding the corner and safety when the freaking science guy wakes up. I guess science guys carry guns because this one starts shooting at me. Now I'm down to 1 HP and it's still the corporations turn. And of course....the robot turns the corner and I'm pretty much dead, but the robot misses his shot and the doctor escapes to the elevator and then the roof.

My stealth guy leveled up, although not sure how that works yet. I also got dinged some points for I guess being recorded. Pretty unique game with some snazzy 1950's type spy graphics. I'm hoping the final version lets you customize your teams a bit.

I bought the game with my Amazon account, but the cool part was that that ended up giving me a Steam key that can already be activated. There is a steam page, but it seems hidden as I can only find it via my game library.

http://steamcommunity.com/app/243970/screenshots/

Madmarcus · Post by **Madmarcus** » Fri Apr 18, 2014 5:44 am

Thanks for the info. I hadn't heard of this and it looks interesting.

coopasonic · Post by **coopasonic** » Fri Apr 18, 2014 9:14 am

Madmarcus wrote:Thanks for the info. I hadn't heard of this and it looks interesting.

Same on both counts. Definitely interested.

Defiant · Post by **Defiant** » Wed Aug 20, 2014 6:09 pm

The game is available as Early Access. I'm liking the game - it has a shadow watch (even a little covert action) feel to it, though with even more emphasis on stealth.

What I don't like about it - controls are a bit iffy (too many times, I accidentally clicked and unintentionally moved my character), and sometimes it's a little confusing as to what my goal is (it always says find the elevator, but the one time I did instead of exploring, it just took me to the roof and ended the mission. Which was.. anti-climactic)

IceBear · Post by **IceBear** » Wed Aug 20, 2014 6:32 pm

I apparently own it but don't recall buying it... Must have been in a humble bundle or something

tgb · Post by **tgb** » Wed Aug 20, 2014 6:35 pm

I'm intrigued and have had my finger poised over the "buy" button since watching a Let's Play yesterday. My only concern is that it might be more of a puzzle game, with one real solution for each level.

Not that there's anything wrong with that, but it's not what I'm looking for,

Defiant · Post by **Defiant** » Wed Aug 20, 2014 6:40 pm

tgb wrote:I'm intrigued and have had my finger poised over the "buy" button since watching a Let's Play yesterday. My only concern is that it might be more of a puzzle game, with one real solution for each level.

Not that there's anything wrong with that, but it's not what I'm looking for,

From what I understand, the levels are procedurally generated. Not sure how non-linear the layouts are since I haven't played enugh (and haven't really done much except find some safes to rob, and occasionally knock a guard down and steal a pass key or some money) but at the very least the guards introduce some non-linear-ness.

tgb · Post by **tgb** » Wed Aug 20, 2014 6:53 pm

There goes another $15.

Defiant · Post by **Defiant** » Wed Aug 20, 2014 6:55 pm

Oh and also there's a story mode and endless mode (though Endless either isn't ready yet, or maybe not available until you finish a campaign?)

Lordnine · Post by **Lordnine** » Wed Aug 20, 2014 10:17 pm

First impressions: I like this a lot.

Second impressions: This game does not mess around with difficulty.

Defiant · Post by **Defiant** » Wed Aug 20, 2014 10:27 pm

Lordnine wrote:First impressions: I like this a lot.

Second impressions: This game does not mess around with difficulty.

You got that right. They really need to have different difficulty levels.

Also, from what I can tell, so far the goals of the missions I've been on is to reach the elevator, but you want to get as much cash/items as you can pick up (from guards, safes, etc). That gives you the freedom to do as much or as little as you want, provided you can find/reach the elevator.

But yeah, the difficulty level is tough. Also, although it's a turn based game, there's pressure to try to complete the mission as soon as possible. With each turn the counter goes up - even if you were completely hidden - and once the counter reaches 5, the threat level goes up. Each new threat level might activate new cameras or new guards (I think the highest threat level might be 6). I really don't like that it goes up even if you aren't detected (though being detected is worse, of course). Once you've got three or four guards on your trail, it gets really difficult (Each of your two starting characters only has a single weapon that takes three turns to charge, only works from behind, and only KOs a single guard for a couple of turns...). It's not clear to me if your agent turns transparent while they're ducking, whether they're truly invisible or just hard to see from some angles.

jztemple2 · Post by **jztemple2** » Wed Aug 20, 2014 11:29 pm

I bought this game back when it was Incognito; in fact I just played for a little while on Sunday. I just played now after the update and wow, there are a lot of changes. I guess it's a good thing that Klei Entertainment picked it up; their last game I got in Alpha was Don't Stave and they were very proactive in getting community input and incorporating the requested changes. It's not a bad game and has some possibilities.

tgb · Post by **tgb** » Thu Aug 21, 2014 7:00 am

Is there any hotkey to switch between agents? I can't find one, and agent selection seems a little iffy to me at the moment.

Sepiche · Post by **Sepiche** » Thu Aug 21, 2014 10:14 am

tgb wrote:Is there any hotkey to switch between agents? I can't find one, and agent selection seems a little iffy to me at the moment.

Tab IIRC.

tgb · Post by **tgb** » Thu Aug 21, 2014 10:43 am

Sepiche wrote:
tgb wrote:Is there any hotkey to switch between agents? I can't find one, and agent selection seems a little iffy to me at the moment.
Tab IIRC.

Thanks.

Scoop20906 · Post by **Scoop20906** » Fri Nov 28, 2014 8:03 pm

I bought this a while back and played it and didn't enjoy myself.

Fast forward today and I fired it up while hanging out with the parents and the game is MUCH improved. It really scratches that tactical, turn based itch and as I am learning how to play and improve my strategy the more I am liking it. But when one of your agents goes down you basically need to start over so I'm thinking it has that rogue-like vibe to it. The levels are randomly generated and it actually works.

People should give this a look. Has anyone beat story mode yet? I can't even get past the third mission.

tgb · Post by **tgb** » Fri Nov 28, 2014 8:55 pm

I've been meaning to reinstall it ever since they added difficulty levels.

Scoop20906 · Post by **Scoop20906** » Fri Nov 28, 2014 8:57 pm

As far i can tell there is only easy and normal. Easy seems way too easy (less guards maybe) so I have been playing at normal. There also is something called iron man mode too.

jztemple2 · Post by **jztemple2** » Thu May 07, 2015 8:58 pm

Just saw on Klei's Facebook feed that if you had the game on Early Access you can now download the launch version. For other folks the game will be available on May 12th.

tgb · Post by **tgb** » Thu May 07, 2015 9:57 pm

jztemple2 wrote:Just saw on Klei's Facebook feed that if you had the game on Early Access you can now download the launch version. For other folks the game will be available on May 12th.

Does than mean the Steam version is updating, or do you have to opt in for a beta or......?

[edit]Never mind. I see Steam downloaded an update while I was out this afternoon.

jztemple2 · Post by **jztemple2** » Fri May 08, 2015 12:55 am

Just played for a little while, going through the tutorial and the introduction of the campaign. I hadn't touched the game in over a year, really since it was Incognito, and there's a lot of polish to it now. The opening cinematic of the campaign really gives it a good backstory to explain what's going on. Just to make it clear, the game is officially Invisible, Inc, and is available on Steam at that link.

Scoop20906 · Post by **Scoop20906** » Fri May 08, 2015 8:29 am

I've been playing the last few updates and enjoyed the game mini story mode quite a bit. Cant wait to try this out tonight.

Citizen · Post by **Citizen** » Fri May 08, 2015 11:22 am

I played the release version for about 20 minutes last night. It's changed a lot from Incongnito. Both my agents died horribly and it was game over. I like the brutality.

jztemple2 · Post by **jztemple2** » Fri May 08, 2015 12:55 pm

Citizen wrote:I played the release version for about 20 minutes last night. It's changed a lot from Incongnito. Both my agents died horribly and it was game over. I like the brutality.

The new "Rewind" function is a nice alternative to the original permadeath aspect of the game. For beginners or people getting back into the game, you are allowed up to five "rewinds" that take you back to the start of the previous turn. This is optional and players can choose to go Ironman mode with no rewinds.

Freezer-TPF- · Post by **Freezer-TPF-** » Sat May 09, 2015 10:31 am

Looks great. Reminds me of Shadow Watch. Love the art style. May grab this one soon.

tgb · Post by **tgb** » Sat May 09, 2015 11:06 am

I was thinking this morning that the art and animation reminded me more of Evil Genius. I wonder if the same people are involved.

jztemple2 · Post by **jztemple2** » Tue May 12, 2015 1:52 pm

Launch trailer. Be aware that the cutscenes shown are all part of the introductory video sequence. Their positioning with actual snippets of the gameplay is a bit misleading. Still a great game

Scoop20906 · Post by **Scoop20906** » Tue May 12, 2015 3:00 pm

I did pretty well on my first story play through on medium difficulty. I got to the final mission but got cut to pieces because I didn't have the firepower with the upper level guards. Pretty fun so far.

jztemple2 · Post by **jztemple2** » Tue May 12, 2015 8:46 pm

Kotaku in-depth review, covers the game very well. Excerpt below:

Let’s get straight to it: for some of you, Invisible, Inc. will be close to the perfect video game.

There’s an easy way to determine if you’re one of those people. Ask yourself this question: “Would I enjoy a game that takes (most of) the best parts of XCOM, Splinter Cell and roguelikes and combines them?”

Say “no” and you might still find this to be a very good video game. Say “yes”, though, and holy shit, you’re in for a good time.

MonkeyFinger · Post by **MonkeyFinger** » Tue May 12, 2015 10:42 pm

Now that it is available on Steam, I go to pay for it and they are declining my card... my verified-with-the-company perfectly good card I've been using there for years.

jztemple2 · Post by **jztemple2** » Wed May 13, 2015 12:45 am

I completed the campaign on the second try, abet at the "Beginner" difficulty. I won't give anything away, but be sure to let the credits keep rolling once they start, there is an additional cutscene that nicely rounds things out.

MonkeyFinger · Post by **MonkeyFinger** » Wed May 13, 2015 10:04 am

Played through the tutorial and just started a campaign late last night... wasn't expecting that opening! And yes, definitely getting Shadow Watch vibes from it, which is very cool as I played the crap out of that game back in the day.

Zaxxon · Post by **Zaxxon** » Wed May 13, 2015 4:16 pm

Does this lend itself to short bursts of play? Window-switching? My extended playtime is down for awhile, but I'd like to check it out if it'd work well in 10-20 minute bursts.

jztemple2 · Post by **jztemple2** » Wed May 13, 2015 5:42 pm

Zaxxon wrote:Does this lend itself to short bursts of play? Window-switching? My extended playtime is down for awhile, but I'd like to check it out if it'd work well in 10-20 minute bursts.

I'd say yes, although to complete a level takes maybe 20-30 minutes if you are more of a newbie. You can save and exit in the middle of a level if you wish.

Zaxxon · Post by **Zaxxon** » Wed May 13, 2015 5:45 pm

Awesome; thanks.

Scoop20906 · Post by **Scoop20906** » Wed May 13, 2015 5:47 pm

Yeah, you can save at any point. Levels are't so large that when you come back you have no idea what to do next. The game does a great job of presenting you information without removing the fog of war. The only problem is if you hear a guard stamping around in an unseen area they don't visually represent it after it happens. I think that is fair but if you are returning from a save you might forget and bump into one.

Great game.

Stuie · Post by **Stuie** » Fri May 15, 2015 5:58 pm

This game looks fantastic (having watched more twitch stream hours than I care to admit). Only the struggles with my wallet and my backlog are holding me back.

Freyland · Post by **Freyland** » Tue May 19, 2015 1:06 am

I feel the game lacks reward. There's all this tension and risk, and at the end of the mission I feel like, "We risked our lives for just this?!?". And I'm just playing on Easy. I don't mind a difficult game, but I'm finding my motivation for succeeding to be fading.

Scoop20906 · Post by **Scoop20906** » Tue May 19, 2015 2:12 pm

Are you referring to the story mission? I agree it did feel short.

Freyland · Post by **Freyland** » Wed May 20, 2015 1:50 am

Nope, each mission in general. Also found it annoying that you can't even reload weapons between missions. I get that the emphasis is not on shooting things, but it seems like Mon3ter would easily be able to provide that if you did have a weapon.