Invisible, Inc.

[RooksBailey]

Wow, this sounds like a potentially great game.  Sort of like Frozen Synapse, but with more of a Shadowrun Returns look.  It is an "early access" dealie - so I won't touch it any time soon  :) - but I do hope it makes a proper v1.0 because it sounds like it is going to be a fun game:

http://store.steampowered.com/app/243970/

Invisible, Inc. is a mercenary espionage agency operating in the late 21st century. Powerful corporations have taken over the world, enforcing an uneasy peace after long decades of war. The armies may have disbanded, but a shadow conflict rages on in corporate towers and industrial parks of a ravaged world. This is where Invisible thrives.

You are the Operator, and you direct Invisible's agents in the field. Infiltrate procedurally generated corporate facilities in tense, turn-based missions where every move could be your last. Find profit in chaos as you guide your team around the world in search of lucrative contracts. Infiltrate the corps directly when they are least expecting it, and use the proceeds to upgrade and outfit your agents.

Play in either endless or campaign modes. You'll need deadly tactical skills to survive long enough to uncover the secrets behind Invisible's founder and her mysterious AI assistant.

It's your move, Operator.

[-budd-]

saw that a few days ago it's on my list to follow. Thought about just posting about it because i knew it was up your alley 8)  ..your right it's too early......but hey if it goes 75% off ...well then its not early

[RooksBailey]

saw that a few days ago it's on my list to follow. Thought about just posting about it because i knew it was up your alley 8)  ..your right it's too early......but hey if it goes 75% off ...well then its not early

Hey, thanks for keeping me in mind!   :)  Guess I just beat you to the punch.   :P  ;D  But you're right: I have really developed a taste for these cyberpunk-themed, covert op games.  I guess it is because I find them really refreshing.  I am tired of playing "the man of destiny!" in every game.  I like these noir-inspired games where you are the shadowy underdog.   

I agree, if this game goes on sale, then I am willing to take a risk.  I was digging a little into this and discovered this is the same dev who made the successful game Don't Starve.  So I doubt this is going to be a fly-by-night scam.  He has even set a realistic "early 2015" release date, so no false promises of "it's almost finished!"   

Based on the initial scuttlebutt in the Steam forums, the game is already fun to play.  But, again, I will definitely be waiting a bit. 

Let's play vid:

Haven't finished this whole LP yet, but what I see already impresses me.  There is a lot more detail to the gameplay than what I expected!

[Boggit]

It looks fun. It kind of reminds me of Evil Genius.

[Boggit]

saw that a few days ago it's on my list to follow. Thought about just posting about it because i knew it was up your alley 8)  ..your right it's too early......but hey if it goes 75% off ...well then its not early

I agree with you, but 20% off on early access is not a big enough discount to persuade me at this stage.

[Nefaro]

You are the Operator, and you direct Invisible's agents in the field. Infiltrate procedurally generated corporate facilities in tense, turn-based missions where every move could be your last. Find profit in chaos as you guide your team around the world in search of lucrative contracts. Infiltrate the corps directly when they are least expecting it, and use the proceeds to upgrade and outfit your agents.

Play in either endless or campaign modes. You'll need deadly tactical skills to survive long enough to uncover the secrets behind Invisible's founder and her mysterious AI assistant.

This is what I wanted out of the new Shadowrun stuff.  Maybe this one will deliver the full-on experience, even if it doesn't have quite such a fun and dynamic background setting.

[RooksBailey]

This is what I wanted out of the new Shadowrun stuff.  Maybe this one will deliver the full-on experience, even if it doesn't have quite such a fun and dynamic background setting.

Me, too!  But while the two base campaigns were entirely scripted, there is an "endless" mod for Shadowrun that is getting very good reviews:

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=297402271

Shadowrun Unlimited

Shadowrun Unlimited is designed to be more than a simple campaign; it's the world of Shadowrun.

-Replayable Runs with random elements, assigned randomly by fixers from their "pool" of runs. Fixers may offer many jobs, but only offer a few at a time. Shadowrunners don't always get to pick exactly what jobs they want to work.

-Sandbox style gameplay.

-Players gain Street Cred for completing runs, along with Karma and Nuyen rewards. Street Cred allows the player to access higher level fixers and merchants.

-Completing runs will cause the player to gain both Heat and Notoriety. Heat causes Lone Star to spawn with greater frequency, and Notoriety will cause them to attack on sight (once a certain threshhold is reached). Heat can also be increased by setting off alarms during runs.

-Players can rent a variety of Safe Houses. Safe houses allow the player to rest and recover their health, as well as lower their Heat rating. More expensive safe houses provide access to cheap support items, more efficient healing, and eventually character buffs. Players can purchase an upgradeable safe house and customize it as they see fit.

-Assault Rifles, SMG's and Shotguns are illegal. If the Lone Star stops you with one of these weapons they will attempt an arrest, violently. This can be avoided buy acquiring a forged Weapon Permit.

-Players can buy DocWagon contracts, which allow them to respawn inside the same zone upon death. The better the contract, the more respawns that are allowed, and the cheaper the service charge. This is however optional for new characters that are having trouble making ends meet.

-Characters with high Charisma are able to negotiate for a little something extra when they are offered a job.

-Designed for new characters. Slower paced gameplay, with money "sinks". Don't expect to max out your character in one sitting, and getting started in Seattle isn't going to be easy. But once you get your feet wet, you'll be making steady money.

-A Taxi System that can be used to travel between all the hub zones.

-NPC runners are hired, and follow you throughout the world until the job is complete (or they are defeated). Players no longer hire runners on a per-map basis. Getting runners killed will increase their future hiring costs, but performing successful runs with them will level it back out.

-A Commlink System that allows players to call their contacts, such as fixers, runners, and of course the taxi. Runners hired over the phone will arrive at the players location within a few seconds. *The Commlink is accessed by clicking on your character, outside of combat.

-There is a basic journal system built in. Whenever you activate your commlink, a brief message will appear guiding you in the right direction.

-A day and night cycle to help bring the world to life. Watch the sun rise and set as you sit idle. Transitioning zones speeds up the process. Some encounters will only happen during certain times of the day.

-A branching story that will take players down different paths depending upon the choices they make. These choices will exclude other options, and create proper repercussions to decisions. And once this story runs it's course, I will begin building another. No need to import characters into a new UGC, you can just wake up in your Safehouse and kick off your next adventure.

-A global Matrix that can be accessed from any jack-points in the world (aside from run maps). Deckers can now hack into the Matrix before a run starts and open MagLock doors, disable security cameras, and more before the team arrives at the run location. When not hacking the Matrix for a run, deckers can earn extra cash by delving into data nodes and retrieving files. There is a certain fixer hanging his hat Downtown that is willing to pay for stolen data files.

-Six special matrix programs, that act like matrix-only attributes. Masking, Exploit, Spoof, Delete, Edit, and Browse. They expand the potential of the matrix, as well as expanding decker growth potential beyond the two skills. Players can now upgrade their Deck Storage to allow for more data files to be downloaded when raiding Datastore.

-A unique system hidden in the world that allows players to weaken their characters in exchange for special rewards, effectively allowing infinite karma spending.

-Integrated Tracker's Street Samurai's Catalogue. Fleshed out the rest of the items such as spells and cyberdecks to fall in-line with the same financial scale as Tracker's cyberware.

*This UGC is not "finished". The current story is not complete, and the world is not completely "fleshed out". This is completely playable, but is under a constant state of development with on average, a large update every week (not including bug fixes). This game will probabaly never be "done" as I will always be expanding upon it, so don't be afraid to jump in now.

*If you like this UGC don't forget to give it a thumbs up! And if you have an ideas, or would like to lend a hand, look at the discussions below and... well you should be able to figure it out. ENJOY!

*Special Thanks to the developers who help bring Shadowrun Unlimited to life:
Tracker- for the "Street Samurai's Catalogue"
backburnercomics- for "Memphis Motors"
Mad Hatter- for the "Nature Pack"
Asmodean13- the "Arbor's Embrace story"

Haven't tried it yet because I am still having fun with the campaigns, but I definitely am going to give it a try.  I just hope this mod isn't damaged by the upcoming "Dragonfall Director's Cut" re-release which is going to impact some mod functionality (for good and a bit of ill).

[Nefaro]

This is what I wanted out of the new Shadowrun stuff.  Maybe this one will deliver the full-on experience, even if it doesn't have quite such a fun and dynamic background setting.

Me, too!  But while the two base campaigns were entirely scripted, there is an "endless" mod for Shadowrun that is getting very good reviews:

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=297402271

I plan on trying that eventually.  Figured I'd give the UGC people time to shake down their creations first.



Looks like 'Das' just put up a Let's Play for Invisible, Inc. earlier!   

Yep... I purchased in no time.

[-budd-]

looking forward to your opinion on the game.

[tgb]

It looks fun. It kind of reminds me of Evil Genius.

That was my thought exactly when I saw the artwork.

[Tpek]

I bought it and tried the Tutorial already.
Didn't have enough time yet to fully explore the game though.

So far it seems like squad (2 guys) turn based stealth game.

[Jarhead0331]

I've heard it is unforgivably difficult.

[Nefaro]

I played the Tutorial and one mission.  Initial impressions.. this game is fantastic!  O0

It is obviously pretty challenging, but that makes the stealth strategy much more enjoyable when you're slipping through by the skin of your teeth during a sizable number of turns every mission. 

It's not cut & dried, either.  There is room for different approaches to situations.  In my first mission, for example, I had to keep two guards tazed in the same room while keeping my faster agent (of the two) moving back & forth between looting nearby safes and helping to stun whichever guard was gonna get up next.  Your starting tazer-style weapons have a 3-turn cooldown while guards are only stunned for 2 turns.  However, you can have an agent standing on the same space as a stunned guard keep their stun timer from counting down.  So this helped manage them, even though I still had to scramble to keep them both down before they shot me.  In the end, the place hit Security Level 4 and a bigger badder faster guard showed up in a nearby room so I had to boogie out of there, as two plus one Mongo was too much for my newb runners to handle. 

I didn't manage to loot everything in the joint, but I got enough money and new items to make it profitable before escaping.  So beware getting a completionist itch on each run, because you probably need to prioritize and get out before it gets overly hot.

I can see a lot of strategy on offer here, of the turn-based tactical type with a stealth focus.  My brief experience thus far has also impressed me with the quality of the presentation.  It didn't feel like an Alpha or Beta.  If the dev plans on spending another half year adding content to it, as stated, this may well be my new favorite digital drug.  I'm already satisfied with my Early Access purchase.  Nef gives it two Hell Damn Yeahs!

[-budd-]

Better not talk it up too much or Rooks will fold 8). I also read some complaining of the difficulty on the steam forums, it sounded like they were of the completionist bent. nothing wrong will a little challenge as long as its fair.

[Nefaro]

Better not talk it up too much or Rooks will fold 8). I also read some complaining of the difficulty on the steam forums, it sounded like they were of the completionist bent. nothing wrong will a little challenge as long as its fair.

It is definitely challenging.  Then it gets bumped up further when you start running into heavily armored guards & bots that have some immunities.  In those cases avoidance is your only hope unless you've been lucky enough to find/buy armor piercing bullets or other equipment to get around it.  Within the tight office confines it can be very tricky especially since the alert level is constantly increasing over time.  The longer you take on a mission, the more difficult it becomes.

Nevertheless, this is already a very entertaining game in it's current state and I've experienced no major bugs in the first four missions.  The main game mode has a 72 hour countdown until some big final mission.  You choose your missions in the meantime, attempting to gather money and equipment for this final run.  Once you've completed this main mode, it reportedly unlocks the Sandbox mode for extended plays.  The devs have stated that they are going to add in an Easy difficulty level option.

They still need to add more inventory management features, because there is currently no way to trade items directly between your characters.  I noticed a 'Drop Item' command while in-mission but I don't yet know whether it can be picked back up or is lost when you do so.  So make sure that when you loot or buy something while in-mission that you have the proper character getting it.  For example, I had one agent with a pistol with very limited ammo but when my other agent found extra ammo in a safe and picked it up, I was in a quandary as how to get it to the other guy.  That is the only big example I've noticed of it being an incomplete game. 

Also of note:  If you want to change the screen resolution setting, you must first select the Full Screen option, then change the screen resolution, and then click 'Apply' (NOT Accept at the bottom right) to get it to work.