I have this thing going for stealth games. From the original 1998 classic Thief: The Dark Project to the recent Styx: Master of Shadows, Dishonored and everything in between, I've always been a junky for the genre. To me, there's nothing more satisfying than slowly and meticulously work my way through excellently crafted levels, all the while going parkour, stabbing, hijacking, hacking, breaking necks, tranquilizing, hiding bodies and just generally performing covert shenanigans I'd never be able to in real life, due to my size and overall clumsiness.

Unfortunately, the stealth genre has failed to innovate in the last years except for a few titles that got me impressed (Mark of the Ninja; Deus Ex: Human Revolution) - the latter not even being a pure stealth game, given that you can choose other play styles. Nowadays stealth is something many games contain, destined to be a gameplay aspect which, in most cases, is badly implemented. Not many games are wholly dedicated to the art of coming and going unseen lately. We have been tossed away, far from the shadows.

Enter Invisble Inc. from Klei Entertainment (Mark of the Ninja; Don't Starve, Shank). It promises uncompromising stealth bonanza, a lot of customization options, procedurally generated maps and a tense atmosphere. Yes, it has a lot going on for it but how does it stack up? Does it deliver or will it quietly (and cautiously) disappear?

Invisible Inc.'s presentation hits the ball out of the park. The main menu oozes style and personality, inviting the player to the tense cyberpunk atmosphere.

Story

One thing I love about Invisible Inc. is that it keeps things simple, and that's not different as far as story and plot are concerned. This simplistic approach to storytelling won't win any awards for depth or character development but, following the game's motto, less is more and this time story is serviceable and objective, fulfilling its purpose which is to draw in broad strokes a background theme in which the player characters will be situated. Please do not expect stellar twists and turns or great conspiracies. This game is all about atmosphere and its gameplay mechanics, as we'll see later.

Basically, it goes like this: the year is 2074 and megacorps rule the world. The Agency and its spies work for these corporations. The Agency gets attacked and is overrun resulting in only two of the spies surviving, along with their leader (a charismatic and determined granny) and the powerful A.I. system, Incognita. There was little time left to evacuate the precincts of the Agency and thus the agents are underpowered and underarmed. What's worse, Incognita needs a powerful computer complex to run appropriately and thus will run on backup power only for a limited amount of hours with which what's left of the Agency must prepare before the final showdown.

The story is mostly told via voiced dialogues and briefings. It's always kept at a minimum, never distracting the player from the task at hand. It's interesting to note that this objective approach helps reinforce the suspenseful and urgent atmosphere. You're always on the run, always in danger. I think the game is really fortunate in portraying the tense moments the Agency is going through and what's better, it does not rely on cutscenes or endless dialogues, much to the opposite.

It's striking how Invisible Inc. empowers the players with the ability to craft their own story through their adventures. Thanks to the procedurally generated levels, high customization and minimalist approach to storytelling, every playthrough - victorious or not - feels unique and I'm sure different players will have distinct tales to tell about his or her misadventures sneaking through the many corporations corridors. But I'm getting ahead of myself; naturally, those points will be covered soon.

Gameplay

Right after starting the game for the first time, the player is quickly introduced to the basic mechanics via a pretty straightforward tutorial disguised as first stage. Basic maneuvers like finding cover, using melee and ranged weapons, hacking, using items and others are taught. This tutorial is not particularly lacking but there were some relatively basic things I had to learn on my own through trial and error during my playthroughs. One specific case that comes to mind is when I had to deal with remotely operated laser sensors (which limit access inside and outside a room). I thought once hacked, I would be able to drag KO'd enemies and lock them there. To my dismay, even after hacking and possessing the generator which controls these laser sensors I noticed the guards passed through these barriers carelessly. After more trial and error I noticed there are different kinds of laser barriers: Laser beams will kill on contact, infrared beams increase the alarm level, and the other infrared emitters which look like red walls will KO the players agents or their enemies. This is only one case. But since Invisible Inc. is a roguelite after all, I think this trial and error metagame is quite tolerable and did not spoil my fun in any way. As a matter of fact, some players will find great pleasure in discovering the game's quirks.

After the brief tutorial, the campaign begins. The player is then able to choose from a plethora of options in order to customize the experience. To keep things simple, there are stock modes - beginner, experienced, expert, expert plus, time attack, endless, endless plus - which load default configurations that result in drastically different playthroughs. In endless mode, for instance, there is no time limit and no end mission, but the difficulty constantly rises the longer the campaign ticks. In time attack, for example, there is a limit of 2 minutes per turn, forcing the player to think fast. This by itself offers an amazing replaying value.

There is also the option of completely customizing the campaign, choosing how many hours until the final attack takes place, if levels can be retried, amount of guards per level, starting money, rooms per level and many other options that empower the players to have the experience that suits their tastes best.

Invisible Inc. is definitely not lacking on the customization department.

And so the campaign begins. The player gets to choose the starting agents and two programs for Incognita. Some of these programs are activated during the levels to generate power which will be used to hack devices, drones, vaults, safes and so on. Once again great variety is achieved because each character gets unique starting items, implants and attributes, making the mixing of different characters and programs extremely satisfying. Combine that with the different game modes and procedurally generated levels and you get an amazing replay factor.

After that there is an introductory text and the player is brought to the world map to choose the missions. These are divided into credit vault robberies, cybernetic augmentation labs, security facilities heists (for weapons), prison breaks (to rescue hostages or more agents to play with in that session). There are missions to discover new sites of interest and also others in which high security cards are stolen, with which players can unlock even better vaults in the other levels. The variety is really good. Agents will fly all over the globe in order to infiltrate these facilities which are procedurally generated levels and every time a mission is chosen a set amount of hours is subtracted from the timer, meaning that not only do the players have to choose wisely their targets, they also have to take into consideration how long it will take to get there because as time goes on, missions get harder and also the maximum amount of missions must be squeezed into a limited amount of time, so that the Agency is best prepared for the grand finale. While playing the levels, the world clock is paused.

The agents will fly all over the map infiltrating facilities in order to prepare for the final showdown.

Once a mission begins, the turn-based action takes place in an isometric perspective. The agents must complete the objectives or give up before getting caught. Successful or not, a teleporter must be reached in order to finish the level and go back to the world map.

At the beginning of each turn the agents get AP (action points) allocated according to their speed stat. These APs are used to move and perform actions such as walking, sprinting, taking a peek, using items and so on. The agents must explore the unknown with extreme caution, lest they be caught unaware - the game, even in the lower difficulties, is pretty challenging. Enemies can sense sound and movement so sprinting only when necessary and optimal use of cover is essential. Obstacles include an assortment of enemy guards, traps, surveillance cameras, the laser barriers mentioned above, drones and so on. One thing I found particularly lacking is that after some time these obstacles start getting repetitive because really there's not that much variety. The player might get bored easily with the lack of options here but the mechanics are so tight and the tactical aspect so solid I really did not care so much about that. I'm sure further improvements such as DLCs and mods will contribute do adding new challenges.

There are lots of ways to dispose of or go unnoticed when dealing with the enemies. In this the game triumphs because it allows the player's creativity to run wild: sneaking, making sounds, hacking devices (using incognita), shooting, tranquilizing are only a few of the tools the agents can use to complete the missions. Should a guard detect the player's agents, there are not many options: get to cover immediately, shoot the guard or melee him. That's a very delicate situation because if adequate cover is not available one square away, the guard will shoot; if the agent has no ammo (very scarce) left, no dice; and the guard is not in melee reach and another undetected agent can't sneak behind the guard in one move, bye-bye! Downed agents can be revived if surviving agents have med gel available; if not the downed agent will be gone for good. After each turn the security level rises one point. For every five points a new threat is brought to the level, such as more enforcers, more activated cameras, more firewalls against hacking attempts and so on. That makes pressure on the player so a balance of quickness and caution must be reached, making for an interestingly nervous, nail biting gameplay. If the player screws up, there's still the possibility, if so chosen before starting the campaign, of using rewinds or level restarts. Rewinds takes time back to the beginning of the last played turn, letting the player take another chance, this time knowing what will happen beforehand. Level restarts lets the player replay the same level from the beginning.

One nice touch I'm really fond of is that there's no randomness involved in anything but level generation and site generation on the world map. When shooting, getting shot, meleeing or hacking, the chance of success is always 100%. That means when something goes south, the player is the only one to blame and that's awesome!

After the teleporter is used, a nice summary is shown, along with the score and how many credits were stolen. The credits can then be used to improve character stats - anarchy, which allows using some items and stealing more credits; strength, for carrying more items and dragging bodies more easily; speed for more AP per turn and hacking, so using consoles provides more power. Credits are also used to buy items, weapons and new programs for Incognita.

The players will be caught in tight situations and then their creativity will put to the test.

Graphics and presentation

Sleek. That's what comes to mind when I think about Invisible Inc.'s graphics and interface. Every single detail shown serves a purpose and even though minimalist, it's striking how informative and objective the interface is. All actions are at most two clicks away. Vision cones, icons, types of doors, items, it's all distinctive and readily recognizable by their colors, which is great for tactical awareness. Controls are really simple: left mouse click to select or to issue a command and right click to move. Controlling the camera is equally simple and if needed, keys can be rebound. It's all easily accessible via mouse nonetheless.

The visuals are not demanding but yet they really impress. Simple and clean, the models fell cartoonish in a good way. As is the norm with Klei's games, much thought and character has been put to the artistic aspect of this game. Animations are fluid and the agents move like professionals. Each agent has personality and the game gives this really good cyberpunk vibe. There's no eye candy though and graphic junkies might be inclined to look elsewhere.

One quibble I had is that the one level won't look much different than another. The design and layout will always change but the props, textures and objects are not very diversified and after some time I definitely got a sense of déjà vu.

Sound

While the music in this game does not stand out, it really helps set the mood. The downtempo electronica makes things tense and when the agents reach the objective and it's time to escape, the percussion and synths pick up to translate the urgency and danger of the escape. Serviceable, it does not disturb concentration while offering a nice atmosphere. Sound effects are simple but serve their purpose well. Voice acting is very well done; the actors offer a solid performance and help making the characters more believable. Overall, in the sound department, the game impressed me for not being overly intrusive while offering a nice background.

Conclusion

If you're looking for a very well thought of stealth game with solid mechanics, no reliance on randomness, sleek presentation, moment to moment storytelling, well realized art design and great replayability, look no further! With an excellent cyberpunk vibe, a touch of RPG elements, procedurally generated maps, tense atmosphere, turn-based action, tactical problem solving and friendly interface, this is a really safe bet. Be aware, though, that you might be bored by the repetitiveness of graphic assets and obstacles, which with some mileage might become old. DLCs and mods might solve this though. Players that prefer to go all out, guns blazing, might be turned off too - this is game is full of suspense; it requires patience to be enjoyed. Also note that as a roguelite, bear in mind that you will lose a lot and trial and error is part of the gameplay and there's fun to be had discovering and exploring the game's intricacies. Yes, Invisible Inc. delivers and it's so much more than I bargained for! Now who said there was no innovation in the stealth genre?