Huh: superhero series Invincible is getting its first PC game, and it's a visual novel
Invincible, the comic series created by Walking Dead creator Robert Kirkman, came back in a big way after the success of its animated series, which released on Amazon Prime in 2021. It's an ultra-violent yet colourful and creative story, one that parodies superhero tropes without outright condemning them.
Skybound Entertainment have sought to capitalise on this renewed enthusiasm by announcing they'd be working on several Invincible games last year. This tracks—superhero games are popular, and Invincible's ripe with interesting characters to choose from. So what did they go with?
A mobile game—which kinda buries the lede with its cinematic trailer—was the first announcement. Okay, Marvel Snap did well, makes sense to follow up on that. Their first step onto Steam however flies in from way out of left field—a visual novel by the name of Invincible Presents: Atom Eve, which was first announced at Invincible's 20th anniversary panel during this year's San Diego Comic-Con.
Mike Rogers, the creative director at Skybound, described it as an "amazing visual novel experience, choice-based, [which] puts you in control of Eve … you get to decide whose ass she's kicking, who she's dating." He then went on to describe it as in "its own sort of pocket in the multiverse where you can take your Eve in different directions."
While visual novels are typically the domain of either horror or dating sims, they share a lot of conceptual DNA with comic books—something the trailer shows off in what I assume may be cutscenes that make it into the final game. There's even a funky Griftlands-looking combat system with splashes of RPG, promising "different powers based on the choices you make."
Atom Eve's a pretty vital character in both the series and the comic book, a fan-favourite badass in her own right who can control subatomic matter to basically do just about anything. She's even received her own one-episode special ahead of Invincible's second season.
Kirkman also revealed the game will "continue to expand out the Invincible world", as it has details "that we never got around to [revealing in the comic], so there's gonna be aspects to her character that you'll actually learn from this game that you've never got from the comics."
So yeah, I'm actually on board. It's just an interesting direction given the type of images conjured when you think 'Invincible's getting its own videogame'. Though given the series' genre-subversive nature, I think it's pretty fitting to plonk something weird and unique at the feet of gamers who expected something more action-loaded.
Invincible Presents: Atom Eve is set to arrive in mint condition to Steam later this year, with no specific release date announced.