The Invincible Review

Games based on novels are unfortunately pretty sparse, and that’s a big shame, especially when considering the soaring heights that the page has made in the interactive space.

The biggest example of the slim phenomenon is perhaps The Witcher, the fantasy RPG series that grew from Andrzej Sapkowski’s grandiose novels - but it doesn’t seem that novels have made much of a splash beyond that.

It’s a shame, what with the sheer sum of gamers who wouldn’t think to pick up a novel and find their next favourite story - and in some cases, the interactive medium is the best place to bring to life a narrative that needs to be brought to public attention.

This once seemed like the opposite of the attitude held by the estate of iconic Polish writer Stanislaw Lem, a writer famed for his prophetic sci-fi that, armed with his most popular story Solaris, rocketed to the hall of legends to stand beside genre giants like H. G. Wells and Isaac Asimov. Solaris might have been a big deal, but he has deeper cuts that deserve more than they get - which might be why the Lem Estate was so interested to hear Starward Industries out.

The Invincible is the company’s boldest step yet, taking the short novel of the same name into the world of video games to an audience that, in many cases, might not know its source material. That certainly doesn’t make it any less compelling, welcoming players to the eerily empty Regis III with a retro-futuristic aesthetic that defies current sci-fi trends.

There’s a lot riding on The Invincible, not only for Starward, but for novel adaptations as a whole - and though The Invincible has the nerve to stray from its source material in some respects, it delivers a reflection of the story that Lem could be proud of.

Read the full review on GGRecon.com.