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[Invisible, Inc.] Incognita goes Incognito
InkSplat
100%ed Bad Rats.Registered User regular
100%ed Bad Rats.Registered User regular
What is Incognita?
Incognita is a game of Turn-based Tactical Espionage. It is the gameplay of XCOM with elements of Gunpoint mashed with the art of Mark of the Ninja and then unleashed upon the world.
The game is made by Klei, the company who brought you Shank, Shank 2, Mark of the Ninja, and Don't Starve. The game is also following the same path as Don't Starve, offering a 2-for-1 preorder which includes Alpha/Beta access, which means you can buy in now and follow the game's creation from the beginning.
The trailer.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZwmDeIJ-LHwGameplay
In Incognita you are in charge of a group of agents who are charged with slipping in and out of secure locations and absconding with precious data and money. You have to avoid guards and cameras, while the building itself hunts you down and prepares to call in elite security forces to deal with you should other measures fail.
The action is turn-based and very information focused. You can take over security cameras to keep watch of rooms, and peek past doors before you go barging through them. While certain agents under your control are plenty capable of murdering the guards they come across while prepared, if caught unawares and flanked, you can pretty much kiss that agent goodbye.
In combat, cover is vitally important as it essentially negates all standard weapon damage, only letting through flanking (+1) or from behind (+3) bonus damage. Being shot in the back will one-shot pretty much any agent, so don't get caught with your pants down. Death is permanent.
Outside of combat, which is the main aspect of the game, you are looking for data discs locked away in safes throughout the level, as well as money and other special goodies. You can hack into computer terminals, giving you points to spend in Mainframe view, which allows you to take control of security cameras, unlock safes, and turn off high-powered laser fields.
Now, while your team is more than capable of handling any normal threat, if they take their time and prepare, this isn't a perfect world. The building itself is aware of your presence, and once it can pinpoint your location after 20 turns, it will bring in a group of highly trained security specialists to hunt you down. You can hold out against them/run away for a short while, if you want to push your luck and grab a few more things before you go, but you don't stand a chance in a toe to toe fight for very long. When they show up and start closing in, its time to head for the exit.
Here's a link to a live stream that Klei did. Note that it has features which aren't in the current Alpha. Skip past the first couple minutes of the video to get to the point where it actually starts.
Current State of the Alpha
Right now you can go to http://www.incognitagame.com to purchase the game through the Humble Store. For your purchase you get a Steam key for the game as well as a link to give another person a second copy of the game as well. Both of you get full Alpha/Beta access.
As with Don't Starve, Klei will be updating the game every 2 weeks. And, for anyone who experienced that, it was pretty much like Christmas twice a month, as there were always interesting things being done.
Currently, the game is very barebones. The version we currently have is very obviously going to be the demo when the game is released. It is a single level with 2 fixed Agents (though the level is randomly generated every time, and out of 4-5 plays as of this writing, none of them have played out the same).
You get a Stealth Agent, who can move silently while running and who has a dart gun for knocking guards unconscious at long range, and an Robot Engineer Agent, who can wirelessly detect and hack into computer consoles (even through walls), and whose robotic strength allows him to punch harder, knocking guards out for longer.
You can also rescue at least one other type of Agent, the Sharpshooter, who, well, is very good at shooting people dead.
And that's it for now. But, what's already there is pretty amazing, and everyone should buy it, because its only going to get better.
Gameplay Tips
"o" will rotate the camera 90-degrees clockwise.
Hold SHIFT while mousing over units to display a things Line of Sight.
Origin for Dragon Age: Inquisition Shenanigans: Inksplat776
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This game does look real awesome, but I'm not going to jump in an Alpha unless the price is dirt cheap.
I thought about that after I posted it. But then it just seemed so appropriate for the thread itself to be disguised, that I couldn't bring myself to change it. :P
Price isn't dirt cheap unless you've got someone to go in with you. $7.50 or so is pretty cheap for all upcoming updates. And eventually the game will go up to $15 for just a single copy, so, totally worth it to at least grab it at some point during the Alpha or Beta phase.
Also, very intrigued about this game as I really dug Gunpoint and am just getting into XCOM.
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XCOM goes [Incognita] as Gunpoint
I was seriously impressed when I first booted it up. Its barebones as hell, but all the major pieces are there, and they feel great. Its a really nice mix of original X-COM and new XCOM in all the right ways. Its streamlined but still very deadly.
In one of my games, I was dumb and left my guys out in the open on the first turn, with their backs to doors. On the Corp's first turn, a security guard opens the door, sees my guys, calls his buddy over, and both my guys get shot in the back of the head and die. And it was totally my own fault because there was plenty of cover around, I just assumed I didn't need it in the entrance room.
But yeah, that's why I put a section in the OP talking about the current state of things. I think its already great, and Klei deserves all the support they can get, but I also want to be clear that right now don't expect more than a pretty good demo.
edit: Handled it. Thanks!
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Battle.net
Also, showcases the amazing feature of being able to peak around corners.
I really dug the hell out of that game, it was a pretty good little turn based squad tactics game from Tom Clancy's Red Storm studio. If only it had a more intuitive interface it may have caught on. It had an interesting approach to the story and how missions were tied together, almost in a Visual Novel style. It also used a pretty sharp four color graphic novel art style that holds up quite well. It had lots of stuff that foreshadowed many of the trends we see in tactical turn based games now. Like persistent characters with RPG style skill progression and a focus on smaller squads. A decent variety of possible objectives in series of handcrafted maps with different scales of alert provided some pretty dynamic scenarios. A restaurant map that could be an espionage cakewalk could easily turn out as an assault bloodbath due the ways the various elements could mix and match. Also, adding to the difficulty, you had to keep your entire team alive through each mission. Any death of a team member is a game over. I always thought it was a ballsy design decision that really did great things for the tension and really pushed you to get the most out of your team. I really did like the fact that every member of your team's survival was important, it's a refreshing change from the cannon fodder approach.
This game is likely going to follow a similar approach, as your agents will become more and more useful, which makes each run riskier if you want to stay longer once the Elite Security shows up with their AKs.
Second one went really well despite a really poor map layout and some poor luck. Didn't steal anything worthwhile (only safe I opened had an ammo clip inside) and my Engineer got shocked tampering with a loose wire from a computer, but I managed to make it out and leave a trail of shock traps for the swat team that arrived.
Really looking forward to this now.
Another good tip is that there is a difference between peeking under a closed door and peeking after you open it.
When peeking under you just get a straight view, but once you open it the agent will peek around each side of the frame. This is important for finding cameras especially.
And nice, did not realize that about peaking. I've just been finding them via scanning with my Engineer.
Hopefully we get the ability to turn off heart monitors via the Mainframe, as was shown in the livestream as well as the pre-alpha footage.
Speaking of pre-alpha, for those of you who are keen on TotalBiscuit:
I particularly love the Engineer so far. So many times shock traps have saved the day, and scanning and finding cameras through walls is so awesome. Plus he is an awesome robot man who pistol whips bitches and has a forcefield.
Anyway, they recorded it themselves and will be posting it later this week, buuut the update itself will be out tomorrow around noon. So, yeah.
From what I've gathered from people who were able to watch the stream live, they've tweaked the level generation, added a store that you can find to buy gear, and now you can play level after level rather than it booting you to the main menu after completion, some graphical tweaks, including showing more clearly the path you'll be taking when you move. Skill trees and levels should be coming soon.
Dammit.
There goes that money.
I think you might still get two copies when you buy. Think of the savings!
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I'm one of the people not able to get it at all. Which is a bummer.
DOUBLE DAMMIT.
And on the update front, I think I've gotten it now. So if I get the chance to hop on, I'll post impressions.
Edit: Nope, did not get it despite my game updating.
Wait, let me work this out here... so with the double copy thing... reduced price for early buy-in... sacrifice a chicken...
3 dammits and an eighth?
Mainframes are much less abundant now, they actually seem to be a bit of a commodity and worth searching out. Also keycards are much more important (seemed to seal your agents behind security doors as opposed to lasers), and as SeGa Tai mentioned, seem to be more out of the way.
So a lot of this seemed to be tightening up the difficulty in response to how people were playing the previous build.
I had one that I couldn't spot because a plant was against the wall in the blind spot, but if I had taken the time to think about it, I'd have known that that was a risk.
Definitely a lot more variety in the rooms in general though, which is awesome.
Oh, also, AI has been improved, which wasn't mentioned in the notes. A guard actually came to investigate where a camera had seen me, and that definitely never happened in the last version.
InkSplat, your excitement for this game is rather infectious, I must say.
Let me just give you a rundown of the mission I just ran.
I start off lucky and find a camera mainframe pretty early. It shows me the location of a passcard, but I stupidly don't go after it because I get distracted by a safe and a shop that are both in the opposite direction (and towards the level exit). I stealthily take out three guards, leapfrogging my way through a couple of rooms, from knocked out guard to knocked out guard, my agents pinning them as I go to keep them unconscious for a bit longer. I slip through a laser field just before they're about to wake up and reactivate it behind me, leaving me in the clear. I think.
Whoops, the door to the exit is locked, and I didn't come across a second passkey on my way. Its turn 13, and the key is on the other side of the map.
I dash my Stealth agent after it, but he has to take the long way around. I set my engineer up near where they entered the level, and near a second entrance into the exit elevator room, waiting for my Stealth agent to get back with the key. One of the guards that I had knocked out previously, however, comes snooping, and a brief firefight ensues. I take a shot and duck back behind a wall. He comes running forward but doesn't see me immediately. I rush forward and pistol whip him. Unfortunately, before he came after me, he shouted, and one of his buddies then came to investigate.
Hiding back behind the wall, the second guard doesn't find anything. Unfortunately, by now, its turn 20, which means the elite security shows up a mere two turns movement from my Engineer's position. I say screw it, shoot the second guard in the back of the head, and then retreat behind a statue for cover.
The elites come quickly with their machine guns, and my engineer holds out bravely, fending off four of them plus the guard I had knocked out for a good three or four turns while my Stealth agent grabs the key and is forced to abandon his buddy to make it to the original door they found locked.
The Stealth agent has to knock out two guards on the otherside of the locked door and then make his way through just as the Engineer goes down and the Elite guards now make for his position. He seals the door behind himself and heads for the elevator.
Floor cleared.
He's now alone starting Floor 2, with only 200 credits to show for the Engineer's life.
So, yeah. That's what you're getting in this at the super early Alpha stage. If that sounds like enough for you, then buy it. If not, then don't. You'll run into some crashes, and you're dealing with a limited pool of skills, weapons, and enemies. But if it sounds interesting to you as it is, then I'd say its totally worth it. Easily if you can find someone to split the cost with.