The Glade 4.0

Play it.

More to come when I'm not on my way to bed after the entire evening disappeared out from under me.

_________________
"Aaaah! Emotions are weird!" - Amdee
"... Mirrorshades prevent the forces of normalcy from realizing that one is crazed and possibly dangerous. They are the symbol of the sun-staring visionary, the biker, the rocker, the policeman, and similar outlaws." - Bruce Sterling, preface to Mirrorshades

So, I finally have gotten a bit of free time to start playing Invisible, Inc. So far, I'm impressed. It's a tactical turn-based stealth/heist game that just oozes scrumptious style that reminds me, at times, of the fantastic The Incredibles title sequence, at others, of the best in Team Fortress 2's character design -- it's like what a 60's mod culture would make of a sleek and stylish cyber-noir if they had any idea what cyber-noir was back then.

The game itself is tactical small-squad gameplay to rival X-COM: Enemy Unknown, only instead of being a tactical portrayal of an action or sci-fi thriller invasion movie, it's a tactical espionage portrayal of a heist movie. And it just works. The levels are tight and feel hand-crafted despite the entire campaign being procedurally generated missions. It's a roguelike-alike the same way FTL is, in that vein. The campaign proper looks to be fairly short -- not having covered it in its entirety, it kicks you off with 72 hours of in-universe time before your infrastructure gives way and you need to make your final play. Judging by the transit times between missions, that probably translates to 7 or 8 missions max, putting a time pressure on you to gear up as much as you can in the meantime. And each mission also has a strong press-your-luck risk vs. reward element, as the guards and security measures slowly but constantly ramp up in danger, attentiveness, and protection, meaning you're constantly trying to judge whether or not you can spare the time to make a detour to raid that extra safe in the next room over...

It's on Steam and runs on Windows/Mac/Linux, so you have zero excuse not to play it no matter who you are. I just want to devour the entire thing whole. Here, watch the animated introductory cutscene that kicks off the campaign, and fall in love with the style.

_________________
"Aaaah! Emotions are weird!" - Amdee
"... Mirrorshades prevent the forces of normalcy from realizing that one is crazed and possibly dangerous. They are the symbol of the sun-staring visionary, the biker, the rocker, the policeman, and similar outlaws." - Bruce Sterling, preface to Mirrorshades

Must have.

_________________
Well Ali Baba had them forty thieves, Scheherezade had a thousand tales
But master you in luck 'cause up your sleeves you got a brand of magic never fails...
...Mister Aladdin, sir, What will your pleasure be?
Let me take your order, Jot it down -You ain't never had a friend like me
█ ♣ █

okay this is pretty sweet.

Played the first real mission. I definitely need some work.
It would be very easy to stay up until 2 am playing this, but I am going to restrain myself. After all tomorrow is Friday.

The campaign has fully scalable difficulty and the missions are procedurally generated. So yeah I'm sensing much replay from this.

_________________
I prefer to think of them as "Fighting evil in another dimension"

Yeah. I started off with the easy (or is it beginner) difficulty, and it's been pretty safe for me so far. I've never used anywhere close to 5 rewinds, and I think I'm a mission or two from the end, now. I'm geared up a bit, and doing class 3 missions, now. I've got something like 14 hours on the clock once I finish the mission I took a break on.

Things definitely started getting interesting when they introduced Daemons, though. Tougher guards are popping up with regularity, too, so it's good that I didn't get into the habit of zapping everybody I saw early on.

I will definitely be turning the difficulty up a notch or two, though. The last mission I was on, I looted the thing dry (there were two things I didn't hack because I didn't need to to get past them based on the layout), and only had to subdue one guard who was alerted to my presence when I stole the mission objective a room away from him. When he's marching towards the only door to the closet the big safe is in, you're not left with many options. Now that I know to expect that, though, I could probably have lead him further away before looting it, so I could get my guy to cover instead of having to lie in ambush on the other side of the door.

Game continues to be solid. I'm 4 hours invested over the last two nights, according to Steam. Stupid busy schedule.

_________________
"Aaaah! Emotions are weird!" - Amdee
"... Mirrorshades prevent the forces of normalcy from realizing that one is crazed and possibly dangerous. They are the symbol of the sun-staring visionary, the biker, the rocker, the policeman, and similar outlaws." - Bruce Sterling, preface to Mirrorshades

This would make a sweet rpg setting...

_________________
I prefer to think of them as "Fighting evil in another dimension"

I'd play it.

I'd also watch an animated feature movie of this, easy. Keep the animation style, the characters. Some of the voices could be recast and I wouldn't cry, but damn. I just want to see more cutscene action and scripted banter.

_________________
"Aaaah! Emotions are weird!" - Amdee
"... Mirrorshades prevent the forces of normalcy from realizing that one is crazed and possibly dangerous. They are the symbol of the sun-staring visionary, the biker, the rocker, the policeman, and similar outlaws." - Bruce Sterling, preface to Mirrorshades

That's my feelings on the subject, especially after actually "finishing" the game

_________________
I prefer to think of them as "Fighting evil in another dimension"

If anyone still wants to pick this up, it's on for 11.99 for the weekend sale (till Aug 10th) on Steam.

This game is spectacular.

The ending wasn't great.

_________________
Well Ali Baba had them forty thieves, Scheherezade had a thousand tales
But master you in luck 'cause up your sleeves you got a brand of magic never fails...
...Mister Aladdin, sir, What will your pleasure be?
Let me take your order, Jot it down -You ain't never had a friend like me
█ ♣ █

True, but the second doesn't affect the first. I was like "Well that sucked... *shrug*... Let's try expert mode."

_________________
I prefer to think of them as "Fighting evil in another dimension"

Oooh. $4.99 DLC. That's an easy sell.

_________________
"Aaaah! Emotions are weird!" - Amdee
"... Mirrorshades prevent the forces of normalcy from realizing that one is crazed and possibly dangerous. They are the symbol of the sun-staring visionary, the biker, the rocker, the policeman, and similar outlaws." - Bruce Sterling, preface to Mirrorshades