Experience the thrill of becoming an unstoppable superhero in a world filled with action and romance in Invincible Presents: Atom Eve.
The Invincible series as a whole has been ever-growing lately with the recent release of the first half of the show’s second season, the menacing presence of Omni-Man as Mortal Kombat 1’s first DLC character, and now a spin-off game featuring Atom Eve as the main character of said game. That spin-off is titled Invincible Presents: Atom Eve and is a visual novel with a bit of turn-based combat thrown into the mix to cap off each in-game chapter. While that sounds like a great idea on paper, with the series originating as a comic series, this title misses many of those marks.
Invincible Presents: Atom Eve would seem like the perfect opportunity to mix the comic book aesthetic with the visual novel genre, but it doesn’t do much to push that forward. Some scenes play out like a comic book, especially more combat-centric scenes, and the text boxes resemble those seen in American-style comics. Even the art style is colored and shaded as if it were a comic, but it takes precedence over actual appearance.
That was likely the goal of the development team behind the game, but it feels like there could have been a bit more to make things pop. The game doesn’t need to push boundaries in terms of visualization. Still, it definitely could have used something to make Invincible Presents: Atom Eve shine just a bit more, as the rest of the game doesn’t do much to push things past very basic expectations.
Probably one of the biggest downsides of Invincible Presents: Atom Eve is the story. The main story is entirely forgettable and doesn’t offer much to keep the player interested in finding out what happens next. It doesn’t help that a large portion of the game is learning about Atom Eve herself, but where the game takes place in the overall story of Invincible leaves her undeveloped and honestly kind of boring. Forcing story beats from further into the comic’s story would either spoil the show, which is currently still going or have things not quite fit in terms of the plot line.
Speaking of which, things in terms of timeline don’t really fit into how the comic or the show does the Invincible story, so don’t expect the events of the game to be referenced further in the show. It does seem like Invincible Presents: Atom Eve is more inspired by the show than the comic, despite the game’s visual appearance taking on a comic book appearance. This is most notable with character designs, especially with a character like Amber, who, despite playing a very minor role, has an updated design from the show.
In terms of overall design, Invincible Presents: Atom Eve takes things pretty safely, as mentioned previously, with a simple comic book look. However, it doesn’t match the art style of the comics. Which is fine, but if it followed that art style, things would have felt more like homage and less of a simple style choice. That style choice has some very odd effects.
A lot of the characters look a little off in their portraits. Many characters look completely off, especially Atom Eve. Her face looks way too small in all of her portraits, and a lot of her neutral expressions look like she’s quietly fighting off a sneeze.
Atom Eve isn’t the only character that suffers from strange oddities in their art, but hers are most noticeable as she is present throughout the game, as she is the main character. But a lot of characters also have touch-up marks in their portraits that kind of stand out once they are seen. Mark has lines floating around his head in some stances, and some enemies have trim around their character art. Thankfully, this is the only really big problem with the presentation as a whole.
However, there is a bit to be desired in the audio department of things. Firstly, there is no voice acting. This is another thing that isn’t expected but is something that would make a game like Invincible Presents: Atom Eve flow better, especially with how iconic some of the performances have become in the show. Even if the characters made little noises or only said portions of their dialogue, it would have made a world of difference rather than not having anything at all.
The music in Invincible Presents: Atom Eve is very forgettable, and that’s all there is to say about it. It’s very generic and not very interesting, and sometimes, it feels like it doesn’t fit the mood of what is happening on screen. The most that can be said about it is that it helps fill that absolute silence left throughout the game. Other sound effects are a bit scarce and only really happen in combat scenarios or when going through a menu.
Invincible Presents: Atom Eve’s two forms of gameplay come from the visual novel genre and the turn-based RPG genre, respectively. These two genres flow well together as a lot of older RPGs were practically visual novel in nature, to begin with, but rather than having a focus on the combat side of things, the main focus of the game here is on the visual novel bits with the combat thrown in much more like a puzzle than an actual encounter.
To balance things out, there is a skill tree that largely affects both combat and conversations. Some nodes on the skill tree will grant things like combat abilities or more health, but others will allow for different dialogue choices in the conversation sections of the game.
There isn’t a right or wrong way to go about the skill tree, so it leaves room for players to explore what they want to do as well as what a player may want to focus on. However, with how boring the story can be, it is usually just better to upgrade things that will affect combat to speed things along.
The conversational aspects of Invincible Presents: Atom Eve leave room for alternating paths and alternative endings. A lot of the time, these choices have little effect, like a character reaction, which is satisfying at times, but there are little things that push things in a more serious direction with some of the characters. Namely, with Rex and Mark, the player can pursue romantic interactions with the two characters. It is completely possible to ignore both boys or simply treat them without any romantic intentions, but the option is there for those who are interested.
There are also reaction-based events that take place during the dialogue sections that allow for different outcomes, but just like the Telltale games like The Walking Dead, a lot of them will only affect things in the moment rather than in the long run. Now that it has been mentioned, a game style like Telltale’s The Walking Dead would have been a great idea, especially given that the original creator of The Walking Dead is the same person who wrote the Invincible comics.
That note aside, the other gameplay type is turn-based combat, and as mentioned before, the combat scenarios play out more like puzzles than actual combat encounters. In most scenarios, figuring out what method leads to taking the least damage and keeping Atom Eve alive while the player whittles down the enemy’s health is most important. It is not the typical way combat works for a turn-based game, and with this style of gameplay coming second to the talking parts, it is a bit more fitting.
Invincible Presents: Atom Eve feels more like a cash grab than a passion project. The game can be beaten in around three to four hours, depending on how much attention the player gives to the story. With its short length, there is room to replay the game for different scenarios, but it isn’t ever worth it when the character presentations are so dry and underdeveloped.
The only people who would likely care to go back for different outcomes are either completionists or hyper-fans of Atom Eve as a character or the series as a whole. But then again, the asking price for the game isn’t very high, so it isn’t an offensive release if the goal is to make a quick buck.
The whole package of Invincible Presents: Atom Eve is kind of a mess. The presentation is all over the place, with sloppy art, bland music, dull writing, and a general lack of polish. However, nothing is outright bad. It feels like a half-baked product that, if given a little bit more time to cook.
It could have had something more memorable or at least a companion piece to all the other Invincible stuff released. That is another huge thing that works against this game; all the other invincible stuff going on surrounding the release of this game. Especially given that in terms of gaming, Omni-Man’s inclusion in Mortal Kombat 1 is a much bigger deal to most than this entire release is.
It is incredibly hard to nail what exactly the point of Invincible Presents: Atom Eve was supposed to be. If it were for Atom Eve fans, then its existence is a bit questionable as to why they released it so close to the Atom Eve special. It’s the same story as if it were for gamers when Omni-Man was added to Mortal Kombat 1.
If it was supposed to be for fans of the series as a whole, then it should have encompassed more than the earlier bits of the story, or at least had a completely original story that didn’t rely so heavily on story beats from the original story. The villain was original, for sure, but almost every major story moment in Invincible Presents: Atom Eve has been ripped from the source content and just recontextualized.
In short, Invincible Presents: Atom Eve is a game that doesn’t make sense in terms of marketing but is completely forgettable as a game. There is nothing inherently wrong with the game besides some boring dialogue, but nothing about Invincible Presents: Atom Eve stands as something that will be remembered unless the team behind the game takes what they have here and builds upon it, which is a possibility.
A more in-depth and original title that treats combat scenarios like puzzles sounds like something that could absolutely work. Maybe having a more in-depth story without a lot of the choice in where the dialogue is heading would benefit the format as well. Regardless, on its own, Invincible Presents: Atom Eve is a drag, and there’s not much that can fix it.
