Klei Entertainment is back once again this time with something a little bit different for the PlayStation 4. Invisible Inc. is a tactical/strategy turn-based stealth action game that got a lot of buzz when it released on PC and now here it is with the new Console Edition. Invisible Inc. is a game that welcomes both the hardcore players of the genre as well as those who aren’t as experienced as it offers different difficulties to suit your needs. I myself am not really experienced with these kind of games so I opted to play on the Beginner difficulty.
Like I said the game offers the choice to tailor the difficulty to what suits you and this includes much more beyond do I play on beginner or expert. You can change how much money you start the missions with, the amount of guards, the amount of power you start with and so on. It really does go in depth so you have control over everything. The game revolves around a pair of spies that you’ll be controlling as you infiltrate randomly generated levels. Most of the time you’ll be trying to hack or steal something and make your way to the exit all while trying not to be caught. You’ll start off with a map of the game world and will have to select missions that are placed around the globe. The game gives you a 72 hour time in game time limit before the final mission begins. Up until that time you the player must complete other missions and try to collect as much intelligence and as many weapons and upgrades as you possibly can.
This setup allows you to decide how you want to spend your time. Do you go after missions that reward you with better gear? Should I take on this other mission to save an agent that got left behind instead? The choice is entirely up to you and it really just depends on what you need most at any given time. You also have to take into account how far away a mission is. If you do missions that are 8 hours away from your location versus those that are closer to you then you’re going to have less time to do quite as many. You really have to gauge the mission rewards and decide if that extra time is worth it. There are several different corporations in the game that you’ll be infiltrating and they all offer different ways to secure themselves. You’ll start the mission in a room and will have to explore all of your surrounding rooms. As every turn passes you’ll see a meter in the top right part of the screen that will gradually fill up. This indicates the security level and it will increase after every five turns bringing additional security and making this harder the longer you take. Again it’s up to you the player to decide if you want to get in and out quickly or spend more time searching for additional items with the risk of getting caught.
I mentioned you have 72 hours until the final mission begins and after you play a few missions 24 hours will have passed. Every 24 hours that passes leads to the game increasing in difficulty. Missions will start to feature more enemies, armored enemies, more cameras, etc. By the time the final mission rolls around you’ll want to have upgraded your agents with better weapons, gadgets, and more. As someone who really doesn’t have a lot of experience with these kind of games I really enjoyed just how approachable Invisible Inc. was and how it provided me plenty of ways to complete the missions and gain upgrades. Klei really did a great job making this for both newcomers and hardcore players alike.
Graphics and art style wise Invisible Inc. delivers in spades. Everything has a very futuristic feel to it including the characters and the environments. My big issue with Invisible Inc. comes from this area though and that is the size of the text in the game. The text is very small in this game so unless you’re sitting very close to your screen you’re probably going to have a problem reading certain things. This isn’t just a problem when reading text but when trying to read things in the UI itself. I was told by the developer that chances are slim for this to be patched as it would require the entire UI to be rebuilt. It really is a shame that more thought wasn’t put into this when moving the game from PC to PS4. The game also suffers some frame rate issues but nothing to major. Sound wise Invisible Inc. has plenty of sound effects and the music fits the game well. The voice acting is really well done and features some well known actors.
I like to mention trophies as well for those who are interested in them. Invisible Inc. does have a good amount of them including a Platinum trophy but you are going to have to have a lot of dedication to earn this one. You’ll have to beat the game on the hardest difficulty and under certain circumstances for certain trophies. Be prepared for a tough list.
Other than the small text issues Invisible Inc. really is an awesome tactical turn based strategy game. It offers so many ways to tailor the itself to your playstyle whether you are a novice to the genre or a hardcore player. It has plenty of content and even comes with the expansion on PS4 for even more value. Give this one a try for sure.
Verdict:
+ Great pixel art style
+ Offers plenty of options to suit your playstyle
+ Lots of different ways to approach missions encouraging you to come back and play more.
– Text is too small and should have had more thought put into it
– Minor technical issues
Score: 8/10