This is a combined review of Invisible, Inc. and the Contingency Plan DLC.

As my games library has grown larger and larger, I've come to appreciate games which do one thing really well more than big, sprawling titles which try to do lots of things well and only partially succeed. This game is a perfect example of the former.

The core game mechanic - sneaking around, hacking and stealing - is brilliantly executed. New agents, abilities, items and programs become available as the game progresses, each combination with its own optimal strategy. Like any good turn-based game, Invisible, Inc. will get you thinking all the time. No two levels are the same, even if you play through the game multiple times, so it's always a good idea to explore, observe and analyse the situation. And no matter how well you plan, most levels have at least one hairy moment which forces you to improvise, sometimes diverting agents well away from their intended locations to help each other out. The alarm tracker increments every turn, building the suspense and forcing you to move quickly, but my experience is that rushing through levels is hazardous to agents' health.

The game has a great failure spectrum. It would be pretty annoying if getting spotted meant an instant game over, but that's far from the case. If you make too much noise, a guard will come to investigate, but you can try to hide or ambush them. If you get spotted, you have one turn to take cover or knock the guard out. If a guard still has eyes on you after that turn, your agent will be shot, but you can revive them with another agent or just drag them to the exit. Even if you don't manage that, as long as one agent escapes the level, your agency will live to fight another day - and you can recruit more agents as the game goes on. There's also a rewind button, with a limited number of uses by default, which takes you back to the start of the previous turn if things really get out of hand.

The experience system is also well designed. Every time you play the game, you'll make progress towards unlocking new things for your future playthroughs, even if your agency is eliminated. If you try a particular difficulty setting and realise it's too easy or difficult, you can retire that save file, bank the XP and start afresh with new toys to play with, which is not something I've seen in any other game.

The story is fairly simple but interesting enough and the voice acting is excellent. And I know it's a matter of taste, but I think the game looks and sounds fantastic, the character designs in particular. With Contingency Plan installed, the length of the campaign is good for about 15 hours of gameplay, but you can make the campaign shorter, longer or even endless in the settings. I've finished the game three times - once on each of the three standard difficulty levels - and I'm now deep into an endless game, so don't be put off by reviews saying it doesn't have replay value.

The only things I'd change about the game are very minor issues: there could be a tutorial on how to throw items, there could be more storage space for items not currently equipped on any agent, and some of the agents could do with a bit of buffing to bring them up to the level of the others, but that's about it. It's no exaggeration to say I love this game. Highly recommended.

What I liked:

• Unique stealth based turn based game(Think Mark of Ninja meets XCOM)
  
• Fair and challenging gameplay

What You Need to Know:

• This game can be played multiple times with new tools, upgrades, and agents unlocked each playthrough, some locked behind harder difficulties
  
• This is not an action killing style of game. You knock out guards, killing makes it harder, and requires cleaning up, losing money.( You can kill if you want, it will just be harder, gotta buy ammo for guns)
  
• Only moving takes up your action points, or peeking around corners which is vital to not screwing up
  
• You can customize the difficulty to your liking. if you want to be able to rewind your turn, restart levels, set alarm status, money earned, and more
  
• The story is not the strong suite here, much like most of Klei's games. But they know how to make the best games in their respective genres. (Mark of Ninja, Don't Starve, and now this)
  
• For a stealth game, it's really good, but very challenging as the game goes on, but once you understand the game you will get better and play more.

A+

Price:$8 with DLC
Completed in:7 hours

Games similar:

• X-COM
  
• Shadow Run

Hidden gem of a game, easy to pick up, fun to play on all difficulties, gently challenging throughout learning to play (even after 100+ hours).
Highly recommend to anyon - im normally an FPS player, this is my first turn-based game and I feel like it has set the bar really high.

Invisible, Inc. is a roguelike, turn-based, strategy stealth game. Moving past the buzzwords, it's a game where you move your units through randomized levels by observing the patterns of enemy movement and then avoiding them on your way to the exit point of the level. If you're lucky, you'll find some items or cash along the way. As you go further in the game, you face more and more dangerous enemies. Eventually you get spotted, die, and have to start again from the beginning. You do that last bit a lot, actually.

I've noticed a lot people assuming that the game is similar to Shadowrun Returns or XCom due to the isometric perspective. It really isn't, and if you go in trying to play it that way you will end up being frustrated. Invisible, Inc. is a stealth game and a roguelike. Combat is difficult and usually not an effective way to deal with enemies. Also, it is a roguelike, to the extent that word still means anything, and you will most likely fail a lot as you learn how to play, and sometimes just because the random number generator screwed you over. How much you enjoy it will depend on your tolerance for that sort of thing.

Also, this being early access, there's always the question of whether the creators are going to actually finish the game. Klei is a pretty well established company at this point, and they previously did a public beta similar to early access with their game Don't Starve. Personally, I think they're trustworthy based on that track record. Not that I'm an expert or anything.

It's like XCOM and FTL got drunk and started making out, and then Mark of the Ninja walked in on them, but everyone was cool about it

All right, so I do recommend the game, but I'll say right away that it's easily not for everyone. In short, if you're expecting a well-pieced together story, you won't find it here, but if you're after a rogue-like turn-based dungeon crawler, then this game will be right up your alley.

The presentation is probably the game's biggest strength. It's put together well in shiny visuals, clean UI, and a fun gameplay concept that takes isometric turn-based combat and makes it stealth-oriented, where you're better off avoiding the enemies rather than engaging in fights. The game is fun, if you enjoy turn-based tactics that let you plan your every ally's move.

The gameplay concept is solid, but some of its execution was a fair bit annoying to me personally. A lot of the challenge presented felt simply artificial and unfair. The raising security level each and every turn forces you to rush each mission. Exploration is simply not rewarded under this system, because the longer you stay on your mission, the more security measures will be added after every few turns, which will eventually put you in a tight spot. I never came across any way for me to freeze or reduce the security level. It's just a rush against time, but on turn-based basis.

I was also not fond of the fact that I couldn't buy any equipment for my party in between missions. The only time I could do it was if I happened to find an automated shop during missions, when I had virtually no money to spend. Of 4 agents I had in my missions, 2 were running about without weapons and just being used to sit on the guards. This brings me to another annoyance. If you don't have a weapon, you have no way to deal with the guards. No idea what sort of agents these are who can't even take out a guard from behind unless they have a tazer. Things start to get more complex when you meet enemies in armour, who are invulnerable to most weapons, and your only chance is to play a cat and mouse game where you're constantly running away.

But, I really did like being able to improve my agents in between missions by upgrading their stats, even if stats themselves did feel a bit unbalanced. Speed felt like the most useful stat by far, since it gave you more action points, with hacking being a close second, since everything requires hacking. But strength and anarchy felt next to useless. Strength only lets you carry more items, and anarchy makes you steal slightly more money from the guards.

And lastly the story, well, it was mostly on the background. The most of it you'll see is in the opening and ending cutscenes. But the rest of the game you're just dungeon-crawling really. It was pretty neat to get to pick which mission to do from a wide selection. It's very non-linear and each mission simply increases your assets - either you rescue an extra agent to add to the team, or you find some new shiny gear to use. Though because of that, it also meant that there were no story-related reasons to do any mission. You could expect the same approach in each one and merely doing as many as you can to pass 72 hours in-game before having to do the final one with what you've got.

I was also hoping there'd be some more character development. All the agents in your team were just mute puppets for you to control. They never showed any personality or had anything to say aside from a witty one-liner at the start of each mission.

Having said this, if you are a dungeon-crawl fanatic and like challenge, you should enjoy this game very much. It has higher difficulty modes, as well as an endless mode too where you have to survive for as long as you can. Overall, it's a worthy game to try and I have had my fair share of fun with it, even though the main campaign is rather on the short side.

This is like XCOM except it won't waste your time with huge maps and long drawn-out firefights across a ravine. It feels a lot more like dancing, as your squad scampers around guards and rooms, trading places / items / roles.

Very emergent qualities to the mechanics too -- you might make some noise to bait a guard outside, and he'll open a door and wander into your melee overwatch ambush... but then he left the door open, which means a hacked turret has line of sight to another guard in that room, and so the turret kills him -- the noise alerts other guards and raises the global alarm level, which shuts down your turret and spawns 2 more guards, etc. Things happen because of things, and almost every situation is avoidable if only you had planned ahead a bit better.

Anyway, this is an exceptionally well-done game. Highly recommended. (DISCLOSURE: I completed the campaign on all 3 base difficulty levels. I didn't pay for my copy of the game. I know one of the developers.)

Nobody does stealth like Klei!

If you enjoyed playing Tenchu: Stealth Assassin on PS1, you need this game.
If you enjoy XCOM (the original or the reboot), you need this game.
If you've ever seen an episode of Mission:Impossible, you need this game.
If you enjoy "Rogue-likes", you need this game.

Invisible, Inc. puts you in a dangerous, near-future, 1984-esque big brother world of mega-corporations gone bad, with nothing to survive on but your wits and the specialized abilities of your hand-picked team of professional spies.

The game plays like a "run and hide" XCOM. The goal here is not to storm the battlements, mow down the guards, and plant a flag over their corpses. You're outnumbered, outgunned, and certain death waits around every blind corner. In true espionage fashion, if your team has to pull their guns, it means you've screwed the pooch, your team is compromised, and now you're in a desperate firefight to sprint to the exit before the corporate army seals off the building.

At the beginning, you pick two team members, whose special abilities will dictate your play style through an increasingly punishing randomly-generated corporate maze. You can bring a sniper, sure! But maybe a computer expert would be less noticeable than gunshots ringing through the halls. Or you can bring a stealthy lockpicker, but then who's going to judo chop the guards when they show up wearing body armor? Along the way, you may have the opportunity to rescue captured agents and increase your team's size. The agents available to be rescued are randomized, creating a different play experience each time.

The graphics and sound create an inviting, futuristic pulp-fiction atmosphere. The music is appropriately dangerous, and fitting to the Mission: Impossible play style. There are a ton of options to make the game easier or harder in whatever way you choose, so you can pick your own challenge level, from a casual romp through a save-scumming corp beatdown to hardcore, ironman, no going back, the-T-1000-is-after-you mode.

Get it. You'll be happy you did.

What people need to understand about Invisible, Inc. is that it has a rogue-like/lite format. Complaints about the campaign being 'short' or the story not being very elaborate completely miss the mark. Would you consider those things as negatives for games like FTL or Binding of Isaac? No. The campaign is simply half a dozen or so levels strung together with an endearing B-movie cyberpunk spy narrative. It adds charm and atmosphere but is hardly necessary for the enjoyment of the game's mechanics. Like Klei's other games, Don't Starve and Mark of the Ninja, the emphasis is on the core gameplay and not the needless fluff you find in most AAA games today.

The levels are randomly generated so you won't get bored challenging yourself on higher difficulties or endless mode to see how long you can survive. There's also the right mix of characters, abilities, items, and hacking powers to keep things interesting when you customize your squad. Additionally you are able to tweak various difficulty settings to tailor an experience that's the right mix of fun and frustration.

If you are a fan of turned based tactical squad strategy games that deliver a high amount of replay via randomization then you'll love Invisible, Inc.

A corporate pacification squad prepares to break down the door and rush in assault rifles blazing. Your escape route is clear, but Banks still needs one turn to hack the brain of the Plastech CEO you were sent to interrogate. What do you do?

After being beamed to the mission site, you are faced with two doors leading to the opposite sides of the building - one is watched by a guard and the other is clear. Send your team through the unguarded route and you risk being trapped at side opposite to the escape elevator when your intrusion is noticed. Have Nika knock out the guard so you can split up and he'll wake up in a few short turns, starting a facility-wide manhunt. What do you do?

While ransacking a Sankaku tech office, Dr. Xu has been caught alone by an armed security drone, programmed to kill. The rest of the team, too far away to help, will be sighted by a patrolling camera drone next turn, revealing their location to every Sankaku security personnel within six city blocks. You only have enough power to hack one of the drones. What do you do?

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=495237730

I don't think there's ever been a game more consistently suspenseful as Invisible Inc. Even when you dance around guards and fill your accounts with corporate capital uncontested you aren't allowed to forget for a minute that it only takes one miscalculation to launch you into a freefall. The biggest credit for this goes to the alarm mechanic. Invisible makes detection a matter of unavoidable, gradually advancing doom rather than a fail state or an excuse to turn itself into an inferior action game.

The alarm level creeps upwards with your every turn and every mistake, introducing new security measures and guards into the level, and not a single one of the many gadgets and programs available to your agents can do so much as slow it down. It will only stop when the sirens are blaring, private military troops are flooding the building and your agents are darting frantically from room to room, burning through every item and augmentation they have in order to stave off death for just a little while longer.

Invisible isn't a game about avoiding detection, it's about surviving it.

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=495237777

The core of the game, sneaking from cover to cover and ambushing guards, is immediately intuitive. Instead of of deriving false depth from superfluous mechanics it sets up complex situations and tough choices with just a few precision-designed rules. Things are mixed up by the equipment salvaged from the field, ranging from movement-boosting stimulants to electric door traps. Customization isn't the right word here, though - your resources are always scarce so you must take whatever you can find and build your strategy around that. Plans only last minutes before being replaced by mad improvisation.

Let's go back Dr. Xu and his predicament. Maybe he found a rudimentary invisibility rig in the previous mission, not powerful enough to get him out of the drone's field of view but allowing him to run up to it and temporarily disable it with his EMP tool, an augment only he has access to. Or perhaps Decker can use a stimulant to gain just enough action points to reach the room and gun the drone down. Or maybe there's no way out, but Xu survives his injuries and can be recovered from a detention center later on.

Oh, and the corporations aren't short of tricks either. The reason Xu got caught? He opened a safe after you triggered a countermeasure program that sets an alarm to all containers on the level. And what if the program was activated by you stunning that same drone that's now threatening Xu so he could sneak to the safes undetected? This is where Invisible Inc. really shines - being a host to a multitude of tactical causes and effects without ever being overwhelming, and never letting you settle into a comfortable routine like many of its peers, even classics, do.

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=495237816

The soundtrack punctuates the action with surprising vigour and demonstrates some of the best use of reactive music since Proteus. When the tension rises, so does the tempo, making sure your heart will pump faster and faster as the alarm tracker keeps filling up. Likewise the art design is just as slick as one can hope for, taking a good step forward from Mark of the Ninja's and Don't Starve's Saturday morning look while still staying recognizably within Klei's house style.

As cool as its presentation is, in terms of UI design Invisible does stumble into an occasional tripwire. Finding the correct button to hack that pesky camera instead of a nearby server computer requires a bit too much fiddling with the camera than I'd like, and the times I've found myself unwittingly knocking out a guard with a conciousness monitor suggests that the varying abilities of guards and drones could be more clearly communicated. These are very minor gripes though, and would be hardly noticed if the rest of the game wasn't so well-crafted.

It is tempting to call Invisible an almost-perfect clockwork of a game but that would hardly do justice to the terror and triumph it evokes each mission and each turn. Every drop of sweat and tears I shed over it makes me more convinced that I'm looking at a future classic. It is the kind of a game that will creep into your mind and steal your heart.