Invisible Inc.

[roshan]

Well, in X-Com your soldiers are masses of disposable grunts, not unique characters that you build. That and its Geoscape strategic layer kind of push it out of the RPG category.

Here you are playing unique characters. There's a character system too, and also an inventory system. I'd definitely say it's a tactical RPG, so yeah, it should be on the list.

The creators are probably just trying to avoid the baggage and expectations that comes with the "RPG" label.

 

[Infinitron]

Well, in X-Com your soldiers are masses of disposable grunts, not unique characters that you build. That and its Geoscape strategic layer kind of push it out of the RPG category.

Here you are playing unique characters. There's a character system too, and also an inventory system. I'd definitely say it's a tactical RPG, so yeah, it should be on the list.

The creators are probably just trying to avoid the baggage and expectations that comes with the "RPG" label.

It's already there. Follow and join!
http://store.steampowered.com/curator/6866630/
http://steamcommunity.com/groups/rpg_codex

 

[spectre]

Just finished a "no looking back" playthrough with Arch.Shalem and Dr.Xu. I went trigger happy, killing one or two guards almost every mission, disabling the heart monitor with Xu on every occassion.
I got pretty unlucky at the detention center (got Nika), but the rng paid me back with a Shock Trap III at one of the security dispatches and Hunter and Dagger 1.0 at the server farm.
I also got two Paralyzer IIIs, but no cloaks.

All in all, the cost of casualties wasn't that much. 50$ per corpse isn't a lot, and you usually gain the cash back by just looting the corpse.
It was pretty liberating, knowing that I can simply off the faggot that casually strolls into my starting room and just forget about him.
While I wasn't swimming in cash like I used to with Banks, and the agents weren't maxed out, I still felt comfortable about tackling the last mission.
I brought two charge packs for the gun, hoping to off as many yellow faggots as I can.

I learned the hard way that Xu cannot bypass the advanced heart monitors on some of the guards, both for killing and KO (but to be fair, the tooltip said so).
The layout wasn't great (the mainframe and codes were on the opposite sides of the map, but I trapped the hell out of the whole level with the shock trap III (that thing is sick with recharge 5 and large area of effect).
Most guards were running aroung like headless chickens and Shalem offed the few he could, but I only had 1 point of armor piercing. With hindsight, the regular version would have served me better, but I would be doing far less killing.
The rest got zapped and tranq'd by Nika (had 3x Piercing scanners and 1x Predictive Brawling).


Next up on my to do list: Fire and Brimstone with Central and Nika. Maybe with Time Attack. The girl deserves a second look with predictive brawling, which allows her to rush through the whole level, zapping guards left and right, each hit being essentially a free
Stim shot. She's nothing special when gotten out of detention (unless you found a flurry gun), but she starts with a nice zapper that only burns 2PWR per hit. Her archived version also looks nice, essentially giving her a second Torque Injectors (and this thing can some real sick combos out, keeping the whole level perpetually tranquilized is just one of the possibilities). I'm planning to put the increased resource generation to good use use here and play aggressively.

After that, I'll be focusing on endless mode. It's a whole different ballgame once Archdemons and locked exit teleporters start popping out. Non-lethal and rushing usually goes out of the window and each level becomes a genuine challenge.

 

[Darth Roxor]

^ Yeah, Nika can get pretty amazing when loaded up with guns. My last run that crashed and burnt I got Shalem in the first detention centre, which made me go 'uguu', and only reinforced the disappointment I had when in the next run I got Nika. But then I stuck predictive brawling, ap1 tazer, paralyzer and the ap2 stun gun on her and haha oh wow is all I can say.

 

[LESS T_T]

Alarm systems explained by dev: http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/...Dive_Alarm_systems_in_Kleis_Invisible_Inc.php

 

[Elthosian]

Got this close to beat the game on Expert:

Spoiler

That last mission was intense, but freaking guards swarmed at the security area leaving me with no way to get the hacker guy into the final room, worst part about it was that I had actually gotten him KO'ed once with his body surrounded by 3-4 guards and managed to get him back into his feet despite the situation looking grim as heck, alas that probably was enough for me to run out of whatever luck I still had in that playthru

 

[spectre]

I tried the Fire&Brimstone playthrough. Damn that was annoying. It's not clear from the description, but Faust gives you a 20% chance for a random daemon effect which you cannot really avoid outside of dumb luck.
(some of them got reversed, but I am not entirely sure about the odds, and how much Brimstone factored into this).
My mistake was to assume that it simply installs a daemon on a random device.

Anyways, Faust makes for some pretty lolrandom missions, especially if you get hit by a +1 firewall and a increased PWR cost.
Good luck breaking this shit with Brimstone at 3 PWR.
The money eating effect is also crippling, as you will want to rush the levels and therefore won't be able to clean every safe you find.

If you're planning on such a play to get the achievement, I'd say spare yourself the annoyance and lower the difficulty.
Level rewinds should be especially helpful, given how random this whole thing gets. I'm not really a big fan of that.

For the recommended team, I would go with Central (that +5pwr really comes in handy, stealing will be a major source of income) and Shalom (more guards will be spawned and you can't count on your AP to get you where you want
fast enough, it's best to just off some in advance).
The priority here is to get a better breaker than the crappy Brimstone and Buster Chip, so that you can hack even when hit by a daemon.
Any number of Cloaking Rigs and Stims will also be helpful.

Update on Nika: goddamn RNG, without her, I was swimming in predictive brawlings. Once I started using her, zilch.
She seems to work best with Banks. You will want to start zapping guards quite soon, and Banks has a paralyzer to keep them down and give you a bit more freedom.

 

[Darth Roxor]

Am I the only one who can't imagine playing the game without Internationale?

 

[Jaedar]

Am I the only one who can't imagine playing the game without Internationale?

git gud

 

[Ulminati]

Am I the only one who can't imagine playing the game without Internationale?

Internationale best agent. So many AP saved.

 

[Darth Roxor]

Am I the only one who can't imagine playing the game without Internationale?

git gud

says the one who never starts a playthrough without Xu

 

[fractal]

Finished an Expert Plus Ironman yesterday.

Used Internationale and Xu at the start and picked up Decker along the way.

The starting agents were kind of cheesy, but at the Plus difficulties
* you want to knock out as little as possible (and when you have to, Xu can avoid the alarm increase)
* you need to be extremely careful to avoid running into a hidden vision cone - esp bots and cameras, since patrolling guards can be heard.
Both of these points are addressed by Internationale's wireless scanner.

Xu can be substituted with Banks, but her ability only matters where both the RNG distributed cards to some hard to reach guards and locked doors are placed particularly inconveniently. I had maybe one or two levels where this was the case, and even then it just required a few extra turns (and Anarchy 2 on multiple agents).

For programs I started with Fusion and Parasite. Parasite works very well with Internationale, since you can start hacking cameras that are in rooms that you won't visit in this turn anyway. I picked up Lockpick 2.0 and Dagger in the first few missions, since you need them for situations where Parasite is no longer cost efficient due to too many simultaneous hacks, or you need to hack something right now (drones, recaptured cameras, etc). Hardly had any power problems.

I relied quite a lot on traps when I had to knock someone out, since they bypass armor and have fairly long duration stuns. When I had to knock out someone early on, I tried to use Xu to avoid the alarm increase. I still picked up the flurry gun as a back up option, but only had to use it once.

By the final mission I had reasonably upgraded agents (Speed 4 on Xu and Internationale and 5 on Decker), and each one had a Cloak III, so even in the worst case scenario, I could have just Group-Cloaked and run everyone for 3 turns, which should allow you to cover the Sec Hub -> Mainframe distance no matter how they are placed. As it turned out, I didn't have to use the cloaks at all.

 

[Tzaero]

Shalem, no one likes you, no one wants to save you.

 

[Elthosian]

Am I the only one who can't imagine playing the game without Internationale?

Internationale best agent. So many AP saved.

 

[Galdred]

Shalem, no one likes you, no one wants to save you.

Heh, he is not as bad as New Deckard. At least, his augment is useful...

 

[Gondolin]

Am I the only one who can't imagine playing the game without Internationale?

I'm playing it without Internationale and really missing her. That aug of her is just so useful.

 

[Elthosian]

Just beat the game on Expert, started with Internationale and Nika, with the latter getting the usual +6AP on KO augment, the lvl 3 stealth thingie AND the lvl 3 door shock trap which was pretty much THE reason I managed to finish the last level despite the hacker being again surrounded by 8+ guards (knocking out six tier three armor guards at the same time is GLORIOUS) and Internationale having ended up MIA during the previous mission.

Anyways, excellent game, kind of easy to unlock most of the content but I am sure the customization options will keep it fresh for another two or three playthroughs, can't wait to see Klei improving on this either with a sequel or another TB tactics game

 

[Metro]

At this point I'd preorder just about anything from Klei (since you get it dirt cheap) so long as it's not something shitty like Eets.

 

[Darth Roxor]

Lucked out so hard on expert last mission.

Spoiler

All agents safe and sound in the final room, Incognita about to be uploaded.

Of course, I probably wouldn't have made it this far if I hadn't armed my agents to the fucking teeth. Internationale had tazer + ap1 dart gun + Monst3r's dart gun, Banks had ap1 tazer + ap2 dart gun + flash grenade, Decker had ap1 tazer + ap2 dart gun. It turned out to be pretty fucking important right there in the final home run when I had to break through 3 elite enforcers that were in the way (including 2 that have just spawned into the level via the elevator right next to the console room).

Still, like I said, I lucked out like a motherfucker when it came to the level layout.

I spawned a bit to the left in a place not seen on this screen. There was one laser fence in a completely avoidable place, and two stationary shield-8 guards observing walls along the way. I could just parasite them and move on without giving a damn.

The way to the server room was so easy it was almost suspicious. I could take the route closer to the edge of the map that let me get in almost unopposed - I only had to KO one Omni harbinger, and hack a camera droid that was in the final room. I didn't even have to hack all that much on the way, just a bunch of cameras, so I was swimming in power that I could waste on the camera drone.

The guards spawned in via elevators when monst3r was hacking came in from so far away that I had ample time to run away before they even got here. There were also only 2 Armour 3 guards in the whole level, and I needed to knock out only one of them.

The whole final mission was essentially beeline to the server room while avoiding everyone -> beeline to the security terminal while avoiding half the angry guards and knocking out the other half that stayed behind. I didn't even have to use my token rewind.

IT WAS SO GRORIOUS

 

[roshan]

Holy shit! What.An.Awesome.Game! I was really skeptical before I tried this but can't rave enough. Once I've played through SITS will probably start a game in endless mode. The campaign was so much fun and really satisfying too. I played in beginner, since I'm a habitual reloader and was a bit intimidated by the roguelike elements, but will definitely play through again on a higher difficulty setting. Loved the vibe, the setting (give me more cyberpunk!), the graphics - and as for the music.... just wow. Incredibly strong systems and core gameplay. You can have minor differences such as running different programs, equipping different items and then see very tangible impacts on the gameplay. Itemization (both inventory items and augments) was really interesting, and the inventory system was so well done, really suited the style of game. Internationale's wireless scanner kicks ass. So does Decker's cloaking rig. I actually never used it except once towards the end of the game, once I had the chameleon reflexes implant that gives him an AP boost when he cloaks. I almost slapped myself for not having made use of it for the rest of the game.

Loved all the really tense moments that can result as you play and fuck up. What a pleasure this game was.

 

[Cyberarmy]

It's on %20 sale now at steam

http://store.steampowered.com/app/243970/?snr=1_239_860__1305

 

[spectre]

I just managed to "brute force" last level on my time attack mission, just to see if I could.
It was a very nice a blodbath, I shot twice with the flurry gun, expended 4+1 mags from the Hand Cannon. Two guards were kept under permanent nap when I didn't have enough armor piercing.
It was an effective solution too, as the rng decided to screw me over by putting a guard elevator adjacent to the room where monst3r was supposed to do the hacking, 4 guards total came out of that and I promptly offed them.

Starting team was archived Shalem and Xu, joined by Nika (hooray for rng again). Programs were Seed and Lockpick.
During the first mission I was offered with an interesting choice, seeing that there's a money chip on sale, since I picked the first level clean and sold the ventricular lance,
I had just enough to pay for it and buy +1 stealth and +1 hacking to get a decent mileage out of it straight away. Turned out it was a good decision, it paid back for itself with a bonus after two missions, and continued to give me a steady +1200$ per mission.
I'm saying the decision was good, cause I had no security dispatch missions, all I got was pretty much valuts, cyberlabs and financial executives. I only managed to pull one nanofab mission and one server farm, which had pretty disappointing selections but it was good enough.

Final program loadout was: Seed, Lockpick 2.0, Abacus 2.0, Dagger 1.0, Taurus. Not my dream setup, but worked quite all right.

Shalem got two armor piercing augs, torque injectors, two paralyzer shots (mk. I and II) a zapper and a hand cannon. I was 1 AP short to be able to kill any guard that pops up on the last level, nonetheless,
being able to off 1-2 guards per level and keep another 1-2 on a permanent nap let me pick all levels clean at a minimum cost (~120$ cleanup for 2 guys is basically peanuts.).

Xu got Torque Injectors and the aug that cloaks when stim is used. I only used it once to test it, but it wasn't needed. Wanted some backup if things went south.
He was the dedicated operator for the money chip generating steady flow of cash at Hacking 3 and was used for all the safe breaking. He also got Stim III (my nanofab visit offered me three to sell, guess it was a sign).
While to stim+cloak combo wasn't spectacular, I used the stim to good effect to get good mileage out of the flurry gun. Turns out the cloaking only kicks in when the stim is used on xu, so he kept dosing everyone else
to save pwr.

Nika only got predictive brawling, I hoped to get an AP aug too, but no such luck. Logically, she got the flurry gun, managed to get 3 kills with it. cost me a ton o pwr, but was worth it.
I maxed her strength to be a dedicated zapper, she had Neural Disrupter mk II and III. Shamr I didn't find a +KO aug, but keeping a guy down for 4 turns with two paralyzer shots was more than enough anyway.
Predictive brawling worked great too. Zipping all over the level with 20 AP, who needs stims?

All in all, Sankaku missions were a breeze with such loadout. Any offending robots I could just shoot or disable with xu, getting two shots with the flurry gun solved quite a lot of problems. One agent was always available to sit and
keep a guy pinned.

 

[Metro]

Dunno what is is about this game but I played it around fifty hours before I had my fill (and will revisit if/when they add DLC). Meanwhile I uninstalled new X-Com after three or so hours. Found the base building/management side of X-Com tedious and just wanted to get into the action.

 

[Athelas]

Dunno what is is about this game but I played it around fifty hours before I had my fill (and will revisit if/when they add DLC). Meanwhile I uninstalled new X-Com after three or so hours. Found the base building/management side of X-Com tedious and just wanted to get into the action.

It might have something to do with the fact that this game does both aspects (combat and 'base' building) better than Nu X-Com.

 

[Metro]

Well there's not much building/management here except for items/stats but, yeah, I prefer that approach to the overly elaborate X-Com approach.