Invisible Inc. Review: A Secret Message for Woke Gamers

By: Matt Alexander

Do you get it? It’s a pun. Because it sounds like “invisible ink”. #paranomasia

Sigh …

Moving on, “Invisible, Inc.” by Canadian developer Klei Entertainment is delightfully bro. It’s Mission Impossible for PC nerds (it’s also on PS4 and Steam). The story plays out thusly: Corporations have taken over the world in 2074. Your spy agency, Invisible Inc., gets busted by the Feds/corporatists/baddies. Now you have to regroup, recoup, and rebuild. Get ready, because you have just 72 hours to re-insert your now-portable supercomputer, Incognita, into the enemy mainframe in order to prevent world corporate domination.

Most of the missions involve stealing money, technology, or intelligence. The style is thrilling espionage with slow turn-based strategy. You will probably die a lot, because you can’t play as James Bond and sex your way out of problems. Nevertheless, you get the hookup from various hackers and contacts, and the many agents you gather along the way have their own tricks to play on the unsuspecting guards. The format can be a bit overwhelming, especially if you aren’t playing with a mouse, but the basics are, well, basic.

There are many difficulty levels, but even Easy mode can prove challenging. That’s when “Rewind” becomes useful, a function of your friendly neighborhood AI uses to set time back a few turns before you ran into the wrong end of a security guard’s gun. The level designs and colors are crisper than a fried motherboard, and the original music keeps you engaged with its high pace (in contrast to the gameplay; my grandma could hack computers faster!).

The attention to detail is a plus, and will provide delight on multiple playthroughs; since you can only choose so many missions and you have to choose which agents you use, the replayability is high.

“Invisible, Inc.” is a fun story for strategy buffs and newcomers (non-nerds) alike. Try it if you dare, but whatever you do, don’t let the corporations get all corporation-ey. #TimRobbins

8/10 BroFists (6 + Incognita + spy tools)