Putting the 'role' back in role-playing games since 2002.
Donate to Codex
Good Old Games
  • Welcome to rpgcodex.net, a site dedicated to discussing computer based role-playing games in a free and open fashion. We're less strict than other forums, but please refer to the rules.

    "This message is awaiting moderator approval": All new users must pass through our moderation queue before they will be able to post normally. Until your account has "passed" your posts will only be visible to yourself (and moderators) until they are approved. Give us a week to get around to approving / deleting / ignoring your mundane opinion on crap before hassling us about it. Once you have passed the moderation period (think of it as a test), you will be able to post normally, just like all the other retards.

Invisible Inc.

Gord

Arcane
Joined
Feb 16, 2011
Messages
7,049
Invisible Inc has tons of story. All of it is in the cyberpunk worldbuilding and colorful characters. Did you stop to read the text?

Ok, me using "backstory" in that sentence was probably stupid, since I'm not talking about the setting, which seems a decent enough cyberpunk one.
Clearly though one doesn't play the game for the game's story unfolding while you are playing it, since there is basically none. Not necessarily a problem - but that's one potential motivation gone.

The gameplay doesn't change all that much? You're probably used to playing on the easy settings and stayed with what you know and didn't learn new approaches. At the highest difficulty settings, when you're tight on credits and equipment, each character plays completely differently.

Maybe, but if I never reach that point because I get bored long before, something's obviously not working for me.
The game was fun to play for a couple of hours and I still fire it up occasionally when I feel that itch, but I just can't muster enough interest to keep playing for more than very short bursts.
Guess I just had hoped for something more given that it seems to have a good rep with many people here.

Maybe I'll try the expansion if it's on sale for a good price, but so far the overall impression is a bit meh...
 

spectre

Arcane
Joined
Oct 26, 2008
Messages
5,381
Maybe I'll try the expansion if it's on sale for a good price, but so far the overall impression is a bit meh...
If you don't like the base game, the expansion won't really do anything for you.
The new programs and agents are nice for everyone, rest of the content is mostly for vets who want to see new stuff and added challenge.
It also adds a bit of clutter in the items and mods, which is a shame because the base game was quite elegant in this regard.
 

Gord

Arcane
Joined
Feb 16, 2011
Messages
7,049
I don't completely dislike it, I just lack the motivation to go on.
Then again, that's probably not that different...
 

Jason Liang

Arcane
Joined
Oct 26, 2014
Messages
8,336
Location
Crait
I think your criticisms are valid, if quite pessimistic (i.e. you don't seem to enjoy the many things Invisible Inc does do very well).

The game's content and scope is quite limited, even for a rogue. And the gameplay stagnants eventually for most players. It isn't endlessly replayable.

But I think most players find this game enjoyable for about the first 30 hours. It doesn't sound like you got there.
 

Gord

Arcane
Joined
Feb 16, 2011
Messages
7,049
I can appreciate the concept of the game - it has a tight and focused design and what it does, it does well.
If it is able to motivate other players for longer time, then that's great for them, for me it was just lacking something after I had finished it for the first time.
I guess I will take it out once in a while and play for as long as it keeps my attention - which is not that different from other roguelite/-likes in that vein.
 

spectre

Arcane
Joined
Oct 26, 2008
Messages
5,381
I would agree, the game's not really good for a whole day session for gaming, but for me it works well when I only have 1-2h of free time. It's often possible to speedrun a full playthrough, or at least get something done.
The game was good for around 200h, counting early access, but near the end I was mostly there to complete the achievements. Not a bad result.
 

Nostaljaded

Savant
Joined
Jun 4, 2015
Messages
359
Trying out Invisible, Inc. and I wish I had given it a go before. I'm only a few missions in, but this is an immensely refreshing take on the turn-based genre.
Quoted here for new players' easy future reference.

Recommend to get the 'UI_Tweaks' mod for QOL improvements (from either Steam workshop or Klei forums)

Here's my other concurrent mods:
Archived_Portraits
Guard_Portraits_Fix
Rescueable_Archive_Agents

Tip: Avoid setting the 'Rewinds' > 5 on gamestart to retain the game challenge while still catering for mouse mis-clicks.
I played @ 3 whenever the itch returns.
 

mwnn85

Savant
Joined
Aug 14, 2017
Messages
210
I quite enjoyed this - well worth a go.
There's similarities with Shadow Watch but I thought this was far better.
I think it's the best game that Klei have made so far.
Difficulty cracks up nicely as the levels progress, the threat level gets higher and more enemies/obstacles are introduced.
Quite tense - do you chance acquiring all the loot or bolt for the exit?

Downsides: it's far too short and ends rather abruptly with a disappointing non-ending.
Was expecting some resolution to the story; I really expected to have to fight the machine next.
But's it's just a big sandbox like FTL, designed to be replayed across the difficulty modes, over and over
Didn't bother grinding to unlock all the characters.
The concept deserves further expansion/revision.
 
Last edited by a moderator:

SausageInYourFace

Angelic Reinforcement
Patron
Joined
Dec 28, 2013
Messages
3,858
Location
In your face
Divinity: Original Sin 2 BattleTech Bubbles In Memoria A Beautifully Desolate Campaign Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag. My team has the sexiest and deadliest waifus you can recruit. Pathfinder: Wrath
For me this is definitely in my top five games for the lonely island.

I can (and do) replay this over and over; even though (or maybe because) I'm a scrub and have never finished it on the highest diffculty. The random generation always leads to new challenges, you never know what the game throws at you and you need to adapt. The new features added by the DLC only add to that. Different kinds of agents lead to different playstyles with different priorities.

On my last playthroughs I experimented a bit with Archive Prism and Archive Monster. Her build-in cloak and his teleport should in theory be a very powerful combination but I was struggling to make a lot of use of it. The teleport thing is not quite as useful to me as it appears and relying on Prisms Cloak is amazing in early game but will fuck you over on higher difficulties, when it fails as soon as a random guard runs into you and you are all out of rewinds.
 
Last edited:

circ

Arcane
Joined
Jun 4, 2009
Messages
11,470
Location
Great Pacific Garbage Patch
Cumbersome interface and can't see shit syndrome despite being able to remove walls and see some kind of tactical view, and the levels are just boring. I want exploration and shootans, not just sneaking and stealing shit. Not my bag. Nice art direction doe.
 

SausageInYourFace

Angelic Reinforcement
Patron
Joined
Dec 28, 2013
Messages
3,858
Location
In your face
Divinity: Original Sin 2 BattleTech Bubbles In Memoria A Beautifully Desolate Campaign Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag. My team has the sexiest and deadliest waifus you can recruit. Pathfinder: Wrath
I had another pretty fun run on Experienced today, relying heavily on Archive Prism and her Holomesh Cloak. Its an incredible piece of hardware if you are careful (and a little lucky sometimes) as you can just freely explore the map and do all sorts of shenanigans right in front of the guards. I usually pick Dynamo with Archive Prism just to make sure that on the higher alarm levels I at least have enough Power so that her cloak doesn't bug out on me in a bad moment.

I got lucky this time and got high-end cloaks for my other characters, including the augumentation that allows you to stun everyone around you once you activate the cloak. Thats some incredible powerful shit once guards gang up on you, particualrly since it ignores armor. I had Prism walking around with her holocloak and two additional cloaks, with the cloakstun and in the end even the thingy that gives you additional AP when cloaking. That was a pretty crazy setup.

My run was nonlethal, until I got Draco. That character can be pure cheese if you know what you are doing. I got lucky on one run and had a room with two turrets. Since I didn't have any lethal weapons, I just stunned a whole bunch of dudes, dragged them in front of the turrets, lured some more dudes into the room (and the room next to it) and then - activate! It was fucking hilarious seeing all those suckers getting executed. It would have worked perfectly to level up Draco in one go BUT I fucked up, I didn't know that if you already scanned the unconscious dudes you can't scan them again for the levelup once you killed them. Kinda makes sense but thats shit you only discover when its too late.

One thing that still happens to me is that I either forget to bring stuff (forgetting vault card during a vault run) or I forget stuff on the map (like the mobile servers you can deploy, or the vault access cards). A game with such sleek design really should have a big button appear once you do something like deploying a server, its just too easy to forget details like that when you've been playing for a couple of hours. Like, I bought a 1500 bucks worth high-end mobile server to deal with my power issues and then lost it right away the next mission.

Still managed to beat it in the end and never have done it so smoothly before, I even did it nonlethally. Had almost all the guards in one spot and floored them with the cloakstun and had the last two running there run into shock traps. Felt like a mastermind after that, last map and not a single fucking guard standing anymore. Didn't even need a Rewind. I feel like the mid-game "boss" map that the DLC adds is much harder to manage than the last map since at that point you might still be trying to find all the gear you need.

I beat in on Experienced a couple of times now, I guess its time to move on to Expert but I still feel like I need those 3 Rewinds every now and then.

Anyway, still a fucking great game is basically what I wanted to say.
 
Last edited:

eXalted

Arcane
Joined
Dec 16, 2014
Messages
1,213
I beat in on Experienced a couple of times now, I guess its time to move on to Expert but I still feel like I need those 3 Rewinds every now and then..
You will probably have 2-3 really short failed runs on Expert and then you will "get it" and realize how cheaty are those 3 rewinds.

I really struggle to not run Internationale, because Wireless Emitteraugment feels OP in a game that's a race against a clock.
I had the same problem but restraining myself from using her really leveled up my knowledge of the game.
 

Ironmonk

Augur
Joined
Sep 29, 2014
Messages
463
Location
Mordor
Its a very good game, and even the modding community still is somewhat active, with a few updates once in a while
 

Ironmonk

Augur
Joined
Sep 29, 2014
Messages
463
Location
Mordor
That I don't know... my guess is that it's not possible... but you can google if its possible or not, to download mods without owning a game on steam.

A fair warning though... in my case, I really hated the game in the first 10~20h... only after that I really started to love it... So, even if you don't like very much at the beginning, that might also happen to you later on.

Anyway, as any other game, mods should only be used after a couple of playthroughs.

Its very sad the devs didn't use this game framework for more games, they could do wonders if they built upon it :negative:
 

Jaedar

Arcane
Patron
Joined
Aug 5, 2009
Messages
9,837
Project: Eternity Shadorwun: Hong Kong Divinity: Original Sin 2 Pathfinder: Kingmaker
Should I toss some coppers here? It has a DLC.
Invisible inc is very cool, although the endless mode starts getting pretty tedious after day 10 iirc.

Iirc the dlc was ok, but nothing special, but I had already played the base game into the ground so I might have judged it harshly.
 

0wca

Learned
Joined
Jan 27, 2021
Messages
504
Location
Not here
LOVED this game. One of the very few niche turn-based stealth games that are actually good. Tons of replayability too on account of the customizable difficulty.
 
Joined
Feb 28, 2011
Messages
4,099
Location
Chicago, IL, Kwa
Klei doesn't make bad games. Some people dislike Invisible Inc. due to its stealth focus (you can't just blam-blam-blam your way through like in NuXcoms), but if that doesn't bother you it is absolutely worth the price.
 

Theodora

Arcane
Patron
Glory to Ukraine
Joined
Feb 19, 2020
Messages
4,620
Location
anima Bȳzantiī
Klei doesn't make bad games. Some people dislike Invisible Inc. due to its stealth focus (you can't just blam-blam-blam your way through like in NuXcoms), but if that doesn't bother you it is absolutely worth the price.

They're the best argument against developers 'sticking to their lanes', yeah.

Should I toss some coppers here? It has a DLC.

Would be shocked if you didn't get your money's worth from it.
 

As an Amazon Associate, rpgcodex.net earns from qualifying purchases.
Back
Top Bottom