The Invincible has been revealed as the first game from Starward Industries, a new game developer studios formed by developers with experience working on The Witcher 3, Cyberpunk 2077, and Dying Light.
In The Invincible, players are dropped onto the planet Regis III, an apparently-deserted world that doesn't offer much at first glance. Your initial goal was to participate in a scientific expedition, but disaster has struck and you're going to have to track down your fellow crew members using highly-advanced technology from the future.
Naturally, this game isn't quite what it seems at first glance. The Invincible uses a retro-futuristic "atompunk" aesthetic, so your tech has the aesthetic of what people in the 1950s thought the future might look like. It looks pretty ridiculous compared to what we can do today, but that's okay — this style has its own special sort of charm that fans of the Fallout games will surely recognize.
As you explore Regis III, you'll dive into a non-linear story where your relationships and choices will determine the success of your mission. Can you save your crew? That's going to be up to you and how well you make use of the tools you're provided.
"We’re going to deliver on a promise of bringing to life an immersive, beautiful retro-futuristic world, and involve gamers in crafting their own story in non-linear gameplay," Starward Industries' Game Director Marek Markuszewski told TheGamer. "It’ll be a unique, one of a kind experience, no matter how clichéd it sounds now."
Can The Invincible Repeat the Success of The Witcher?
A glance at these screenshots may reveal a subtle sense of familiarity. Retro-futuristic tech has been an ongoing theme in Western culture for a long time, but this story isn't entirely original. In fact, it's largely based on the 1973 sci-fi novel The Invincible by Polish author Stansislaw Lem.
The story of The Invincible sounds pretty intriguing at its face. (Skip ahead to the next paragraph to avoid spoilers!) The crew of the titular ship is sent to a planet to discover the fate of its sister ship. Upon landing, they discover a race of autanomous, self-replicating machines, presenting a challenging problem for the crew of the ship — and for humanity at large.
Clearly, Starward Industries is using the same formula that brought CD Projekt Red so much success: find an interesting author who may not be well-known to Western audiences. Stanislaw Lem was a prolific writer with a specific focus on futuristic technology and sci-fi; in a sense, he can be likened to the Polish equivalent of Isaac Asimov.
Can The Invincible replicate the formula that helped so many of these ex-CD Projekt Red developers turn The Witcher into one of gaming's biggest franchises? We'll have to wait until we see more, but the tidbits of the game we've seen thus far certainly look promising. For now, you can add The Invincible to your wishlist on Steam and you can learn more about this new game developer at starwardindustries.com.
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