From the creators of the Long War mods for XCOM and XCOM 2 Pavonis Interactive comes an ultra-dense socio-economic real-time grand strategy with RTS elements. Terra Invicta is a mix of genres and moods, with a crazy level of depth and features that can make your first few games go quite poorly. However, stick it out and follow along with the tutorial prompts and you MIGHT figure out how to make this behemoth of a game work for you and find success in your mission: Saving Humanity.

Gameplay

With support from Indie-Strategy publisher Hooded Horse, Terra Invicta puts the players in control of an underground faction as an alien spaceship crashes into Earth. In its wake, 7 different factions attempt to spread their ideology, control different countries with operatives, and prepare the world for the incoming aliens. For some, that means uniting humanity to fight against a true menace. For others, submitting to the aliens or even fleeing the system are their goals. These organizations will all be aiming to further their own goals, while the player has to attempt to navigate the territory grabbing and attempts to take control of specific country’s “control points.” Each country has one or more, and they all connect to a specific level of government capacity. For example, taking over a legislative control point allows more influence over that country's policy, and the executive point means control over a country’s military/nuclear arsenal. At the same time, the resources gained from owned control points can be used for operations, purchasing, and research. If this sounds complicated, believe me, it is.

There is a lot involved with a game of Terra Invicta, and you won’t necessarily see every part of the game on your first few playthroughs. The Earth-wide intrigue and territory control/research portion of the game takes up a good 6-10 hours before you even have the ability to build spaceships for the RTS portion, but if you make a few mistakes you will quickly realize you don’t have the capabilities to create those ships and fall far behind the other human factions, ultimately leading to a death spiral. This death spiral often doesn’t present until it is far too late to correct, and I have restarted this game quite a few times already. With that being said, as frustrating as it can be, I have enjoyed the espionage nature of the early game and figuring out how all the systems interact. A large part of the first few games is definitely untangling all the interconnected systems in the game, interacting with the objectives, and seeing what helps you and what hurts.

Utilizing different approaches to different factions is also important. As the “tutorial” faction, The Resistance, your goal will be to prepare a unified world ready to resist the alien menace and prepare the world for its eventual invasion. Staying in the shadows to protect the world definitely reminds me of the XCOM vibe that the creators are connected to. Having to sort of engaging in these proxy wars with larger nations, encourage a federation of all of your controlled countries, and create a bulwark for humanity feels in-depth, engaging, and requires forward thinking that only comes about after a few failures.

Expectations

Coming into my first game and having an awareness of what Terra Invicta is supposed to be, I was expecting a grand strategy with a slow build-up and climactic conclusion. I was very surprised to find this epic game full of crazy systems and features that you have to unwrap to even have a chance of success, and the open-ended nature of it really lets the player run away with whatever their plan is and see if it works.

For me, my most successful run had me taking complete control of Russia, preventing any faction from having any foothold there, and encouraging wars between different nations owned by the other factions. I also took control of a few minor countries on each continent while building support for my faction in the US, and utilized Russia’s military strength to scare some of the more pro-alien factions into hiding. After some time, I was the first to send a station into orbit and eventually founded a moon base to get me the raw materials I needed to start the construction of a space fleet to defend Earth from alien scout ships. This gameplay was not scripted, was not necessarily part of my objectives, and the way I went about it was all part of my own story. That wonderful dynamic storytelling is something I love about video games, and Terra Invicta has it in spades.

So while I expected something large and convoluted, the absolutely crazy scale of this game and the stories it tells is epic, and with every playthrough, I experience something different. From councilors that betray my cause, other factions that engage with me in cold wars, or just random events that derail my plans or give me an opportunity. However, the scope of Terra Invicta borders on bloat, and casual gamers might struggle with it.

Verdict

Terra Invicta is a wonderful mash-up of genres that allows the players to build their own epic stories about a looming alien invasion and how humanity faced its first threat from the stars. While a large number of features and gameplay loops almost feel overwhelming, it dances on the line enough that you want to play it to learn while avoiding being frustrating. However, that learning comes at a price when your 15-hour campaign begins a 5-hour death spiral that you can’t see until you are far too deep to escape.

For strategy fans and armchair generals, this game is going to be something amazing as it moves through Early Access. For the more casual strategy players, this will either be the gateway to grand strategy or proof that the genre has way too much going on. For the current price of $40, I can definitely recommend it as the amount of enjoyable time spent will equal out to the cost. I’m looking forward to seeing how Terra Invicta evolves through Early Access until its eventual release.

Check out the Early Access release trailer below and let us know your thoughts in the comments! Terra Invicta is currently available on PC via Steam Early Access