Starward Industries have announced single player narrative-adventure The Invincible for Windows PC and next-gen consoles. (Thanks Nibellion!)

Based on the 1964 novel of the same name by Stanislaw Lem, players must recover their spaceship crew from the strange and alien world of Regis III. Each choice they make will determine their survival, and unravel the mysteries of the hostile planet. The announcement also came with a release date; Windows PC (via Steam), PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X in 2021.

While gameplay has not been revealed at this time, Starward Industries CEO Marek Markuszewski was interviewed by The Gamer. There he revealed the story’s concept was ideal for the surge of popularity of narrative focused single-player games.

“Lem centers on dynamics of humanity and societies in the future. These visions, stretching hundreds of years into the future, are deeply rooted in science. [And] as time has shown, his logic and conclusions came to life.”

Markuszewski explained how Lem’s work touched on ideas that would later be known as the Internet, AI, and genetic engineering. His work also addressed transhumanism- and the philosophy behind it.

“Aren’t we all gradually transforming [in]to living increasingly digitally, and creating our personalities outside of our bodies? Transhumanism looks even further into the future of health science with implants, chips and mental interfaces. There may be potential in exploring this angle in a separate video game.”

“Another tempting concept is other lifeforms, which may not include protein, photosynthesis and carbon-carbon bonds. Lem argued that we’re not only unprepared to encounter such species, but we can’t even notice them as our egocentric imagination tells us to picture lifeforms as having a head with eyes at the top and legs at the bottom.”

It was also mentioned that the game’s developers include those who had worked on Cyberpunk 2077, Dead Island, Dying Light, and The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt. Markuszewski stated tat the team intended to launch the game with production values akin to The Witcher, though with a smaller world.

“We’re going to deliver on a promise of bringing to life an immersive, beautiful retro-futuristic world,” Markuszewski stated, “and involve gamers in crafting their own story in non-linear gameplay. It’ll be a unique, one of a kind experience, no matter how clichéd it sounds now.”

Markuszewski also touched on how the next generation consoles would be able to bring the game to life.

“The new platforms are powered by massive graphic processing capabilities,. Thanks to this, The Invincible will lay out its brilliant story with a matching opulence of visual features. From the production standpoint, we have planned releasing on next gen platforms from the beginning. There’s no other way than to think ahead, which also includes moving to Unreal Engine 5.”

You can find the music preview below.

You can find the full rundown (via Steam) below.

The Invincible is a first-person Sci-Fi thriller set in a retro-future timeline. Waking up as a space scientist on a hostile planet, you embark on a mysterious mission to find the missing crew of your spaceship. Survival is a matter of your correct choices, taken whilst uncovering the secrets of the planet, bigger than anyone thought.

You are a scientist onboard an interstellar scientific expedition, suddenly thrown into a life-or-death rescue mission. Landing on a planet Regis III you have to find the missing crew members using some advanced space equipment, whilst relying on your brains and instincts to survive on the planet which quickly occurs to be unwelcoming. Soon you’ll discover that Regis III holds terrifying secrets which are uncovered while you’re piecing together the fate of your crew. And as you delve deeper into the mystery, you realise that perhaps you are not alone, and that some places like this planet are better left untouched. But it’s too late to turn back.

Features

• Retro-future atompunk setting reminiscent of the era of space race
• Analogue yet very advanced technology allowing for drones and autonomous robots to support or spoil your mission
• Immersive gameplay with a non-linear story shaped by your relationships, choices and persuasive skills
• Beautiful, state of the art graphics powered by Unreal Engine
• Intriguing story inspired by Stanislaw Lem’s seminal sci-fi cult classic of the same name

Image: Steam