[HN Gopher] A small studio made a game based on a Stanislaw Lem'...
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       A small studio made a game based on a Stanislaw Lem's novel
        
       Author : mgl
       Score  : 82 points
       Date   : 2024-07-09 21:31 UTC (1 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (invinciblethegame.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (invinciblethegame.com)
        
       | mgl wrote:
       | Not everything everywhere is for us https://youtu.be/UA8DFsJg9Tc
        
       | gambiting wrote:
       | And it is honestly incredible. The Invincible is my favourite
       | book of all time, and I remember thinking as a 14 year old
       | whether someone could make a game out of it - and concluding that
       | no, there's not enough "action" to make an interesting video game
       | around the story. Boy, was I wrong - the game not only portrays
       | the setting perfectly, the necessary creative liberties it takes
       | to engage the player are "worth it" and I can only imagine S. Lem
       | would have agreed to them(well, other than one of the
       | endings....but it can't be perfect I guess).
       | 
       | I'd write a lot about what I enjoyed, but nearly all of it would
       | be spoilers. Go, play the game - or better yet, read the book, it
       | has recently received a modern English translation, much better
       | than the previous English-translated-from-German-Translated-from-
       | Polish edition. And there is a fantastic audiobook on audible.
        
         | nfriend wrote:
         | > And there is a fantastic audiobook on audible.
         | 
         | Unfortunately it seems like the audiobook has been pulled from
         | Audible! (Unless I'm just searching for it incorrectly?) I saw
         | this book recommended in another thread and have been checking
         | over the last several months in hopes that it has been
         | restored, but no luck yet. Tempted to just buy it from another
         | platform.
        
           | gambiting wrote:
           | Oh no! You're right - I just checked and luckily it's still
           | in my Audible library, but indeed, searching for it on the
           | store yields nothing :-(
           | 
           | I see it's available for sale here at least:
           | 
           | https://www.audioeditions.com/the-invincible?sp=378507
        
           | topato wrote:
           | How bizzare, I expect this from streaming services, but I
           | suppose I never considered Audiobook distribution
           | "gatekeeping"... Delisting from Audible must be a massive hit
           | to any audiobook's sales numbers
        
       | tarr11 wrote:
       | Kind of off-topic, but I always find it weird to see people's
       | hands and arms in first person games like this. Like, if I _think
       | about it_ , I know my hands are almost always in view, but they
       | almost always fade away and I ignore them.
       | 
       | Whereas whenever I see a first person game, it's almost all I can
       | focus on and it breaks the illusion.
        
         | Joel_Mckay wrote:
         | Does it bother you more knowing many FPS are just a pair of
         | disembodied floating 3D arms noodling across the landscape?
         | 
         | Best not think about it too much... lol =3
        
       | squarefoot wrote:
       | The graphics style gives some Fallout vibes, in a good way.
       | Beautiful!
        
       | izacus wrote:
       | This is such a beautiful game that really channels the book. The
       | Soviet retro futurism in the art style really sells it and the
       | bleak mystery behind it makes you think in the best "classic
       | scifi" way.
       | 
       | I loved my time with this.
        
         | SamBam wrote:
         | Yeah, from the trailer at least the canyons exactly mirrored my
         | image of the book. It's actually eerie how close the whole
         | world and tech looks to how I pictured them.
        
       | sigma5 wrote:
       | while watching the trailer, I had a deja vue from the bioshock 1
       | atmosphere which I recommend very much
        
         | PlunderBunny wrote:
         | Indeed. Bioshock 1 remains my favourite game - even after all
         | these years, the parallels in the story between Rapture and our
         | modern world remain as relevant as ever.
        
       | adrianhon wrote:
       | I call The Invincible a glorious failure in my review:
       | https://mssv.net/2023/12/26/the-invincible/
       | 
       | tl,dr: It looks _incredible_ , like no other game you'll see
       | today, and it grapples with deeply interesting themes - but it's
       | extremely annoying to play and suffers from a serious lack of
       | editing. There's just too much friction to become truly immersed.
       | Still, other games can only wish their failures were this daring.
        
         | gambiting wrote:
         | Out of curiosity - did you read the book before playing the
         | game?
         | 
         | I'm asking because as I said in my comment - I really loved the
         | game, but I do wonder if knowing the secret of Regis, The
         | Invincible and its sister ship made it easier to play and
         | overlook some of the mechanical problems(which in my opinion
         | really weren't that much of a deal, I think I got lost driving
         | the rover once but like, meh).
        
           | adrianhon wrote:
           | I didn't, no. I've read a lot of Stanislaw Lem but The
           | Invincible never quite hit my radar. I can see how knowing
           | the story would've made it a bit easier to get on with,
           | though.
        
         | mgl wrote:
         | You may want to check it again with the Voyager update released
         | in May with 88% positive reviews on steam :)
        
       | curtisblaine wrote:
       | Today I learned that the "walking simulation" genre exists in
       | gaming.
        
         | TheRealPomax wrote:
         | Gaming is literally the industry that coined the term.
        
       | GeoAtreides wrote:
       | > Not everything everywhere is for us
       | 
       | Lies! the stars are mankind's birthright!
       | 
       | Death to the xeno!
        
       | rkagerer wrote:
       | Heads up, the game's EULA[1] has some objectionable terms. They
       | collect your story decisions and system information ("technical
       | requirements of User's hardware and software"). There's also an
       | indemnity clause (though not the worst I've seen). Can't anyone
       | anywhere just let us have nice things?
       | 
       | For those wondering, it should work on Windows 7 with the -dx11
       | switch.
       | 
       | [1] https://store.steampowered.com/eula/731040_eula_0
        
         | mgl wrote:
         | Can't really see anything objectionable there... it's a video
         | game, they want to log game events and user config to reproduce
         | errors, nothing new or concerning really.
        
         | permanent wrote:
         | This seems quite reasonable imo
        
         | ziggyzecat wrote:
         | airtight gaming rig vs the you-have-to-be-online-for-badges-
         | medals-and-achievements-CaNdYmAn
        
         | swatcoder wrote:
         | It's pretty normal to do both those things in order to reflect
         | on game design, monitor quality, and provide support.
         | 
         | We don't have to like that it's the norm now, but it's a bummer
         | to see a small studio singled out for something the whole
         | industry is doing, especially when their game is being shared
         | as something especially interesting
        
       | Log_out_ wrote:
       | Poland,the baltucs and chechia are by now the powerhouse in
       | europe when it comes to games and software.
        
       | TheRealPomax wrote:
       | Title should really say which novel. The man wrote quite a few of
       | them.[1]
       | 
       | [1]
       | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_works_by_Stanis%C5%82a...
        
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       (page generated 2024-07-09 23:02 UTC)