Invisible Inc

[Noble Gamer]

Ratings:

Violence:
Sexual themes:
Foul language:
Substance abuse:

Scores explanation:
-You can knock out or kill human and robot enemies, with blood shown on ground only after falling animation. Stealth is heavily incentivized in gameplay, and characters are cel-shaded as opposed to realistic looking.
-Nothing remotely sexual that I recall seeing or hearing.
-No PG-13 cuss words for sure, barely recall any PG cuss words, and the game maybe took the Lord's name in vain once if ever.
-Has some powerups that resemble drugs.

Other things to note:
-The game's story is centered around stealing through corporate-type espionage more than "you are the good guys who protect the world".

Recommendation & brief curator review:

Recommended - Excellent turn based stealth tactics with lots of replay value. It has some violence & drug-like powerups, but otherwise clean.

Review

This is a solid, enjoyable turn based stealth & rogue-lite game that I've played through the Beginner, Intermediate, and Advanced difficulty with Contingency Plan DLC enabled. Although I unlocked all starting characters & abilities in these 3 playthroughs with the game XP I gained, there are other Expert Plus, endless, and time attack modes that I'd recommend and have played personally. The game's tone & style is more like Shadowrun, but functionally comparable to XCOM, yet stealth & hacking focuses make Invisible Inc unique from both. If you like strategy at all, buy this game with the DLC. If you don't have much of an opinion on strategy games, wait for a sale and read up on more reviews.

Your ability to succeed in missions depends on your ability to adapt your strategy to fit your level types (unique by corporation), your agents, and the items you get access to. I do not recommend this game to anyone who tends to plow through game levels/missions with the same exact strategy, expects deep story, or likes structured/static levels. I've called out the game's obvious and not so obvious pros & cons at the bottom.

As a spy agency on the run starting with two agents of your choosing and a limited amount of travel time between mission locations, you choose from missions around the world with different objectives, agent benefits available to gain, and enemy resistances - All procedurally generated with some basic structure. The longer it takes to complete a mission or the more the enemy notices you, the more things happen to make the missions more difficult. Between missions, credits can be used to upgrade agent stats and occasionally the opportunity to buy a single item. During most missions, a specific terminal type (nano fab) is available to purchase items from - Doesn't make much sense why corporations would have this, but it works for the game. Agents can buy or gain special abilities that add to or supplement stats by installing augments. You can purchase programs additional programs for your hacking computer, Incognita, that enhance its ability to hack, gain hacking power, and sometimes even mess with guards (e.g. tag their movement, create sound distractions). Hacking allows for cameras, drones, and other devices to be controlled that can give greater field of view or help make the mission easier as long as they're hacked.

Pros:
Most level procedural generation - Levels are fair for their difficulty & security level and provide ample cover. Missions cannot be retried after the fact, but can only be restarted if on beginner mode or a game update is released.
Stealth incentivized combat - Killing a guard can set off their heart monitor, which can increase the mission's alert level, unless heart monitor can be disabled by an EMP device or the agent has a special ability to negate it.
Gameplay/mode customization - Increases replay value by make missions easier or harder as you see fit with somewhat grainular configuration for level & enemy configuration.
Agency perma death and agent captures - Makes the tension palpable for getting caught or killed. If all of your agents get captured, your playthrough ends, and you earn game XP for starting unlocks. Death or capture of agent(s) results in them becoming available at prison missions, where you can rescue them. Mission can be aborted only if one or more agents can escape the level.
Art style - Cel shaded style fits the game well, and has earned a nomination for Best Character Animation in a Video Game from the International Animated Film Society. Its their only VG category, so it speaks volumes!


Cons:
Lacking explanations of a couple items - The tutorial helps, but there's some nuanced functions of items & augments that aren't put for their in-game descriptions, nor in the unofficial wiki. Join the forums or a subreddit for this info. For example: Do EMPs disable firewall shields for a guard?(no) Do they disable heart monitors for guards?(I think so?)
Story - Its good enough, but far from stellar with an un-original ending. In my 3 playthroughs, I've only gained one additional data log by hacking certain devices with more backstory, that supplement the infrequent cinematics. Although there's many more data logs, the game failed to motivate me to get them.
Proc gen of some stationary enemies - Every few missions, enemies are positioned in a way that it is impossible to get past them without them noticing your movement. This is where you getting cloak items & augments are imperative. You'd be dumb not to get them in a stealth game.
Can't access temp agent's items after mission - With the DLC, another psuedo agent for the agency will join you for the double mission half way through the playthrough. If you give them items, and don't give them back to a regular agent, you cannot get them back after your mission. This is dumb because the psuedo agent is regularly used for in-between mission dialog and occasionally sells items to you between missions!
A couple agents are OP - Agents that can hack power terminals remotely, unlock lvl 1 doors, and kill without raising alert level all devalue agent variety. For a real challenge, try Random selection of starting agents and hacking programs.
Some Endless mode daemons - After a certain number of days into endless mode, every mission starts with one of three daemons. Although I like that this makes endless proportionally more difficult over time, many people don't think the three possibilities are balanced in the penalties they give to the player's agents.

MOD: Edited for conformity's sake.

                     Christian Gaming Community Reviews
                   Reviewing from the Christian Worldview:                    
                 -----------------------------------------
                  Retro, Rare, or Classic Underrated Gems, 
                Family Friendly Games, Couch/Local-Op Play, 
                  Pro-Family or Biblical/Scriptural Games, 
                      Online Teamwork/Cooperative Play,
               and Popular Games With No Overt Moral Context 

[† Jack † Jesus Saves †]

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