I have complicated feelings for Terra Invicta, a complicated game

I dipped my toes into Terra Invicta over the past couple weeks. The news of its impending 1.0 release was the first I really heard of it, but it grabbed my attention because of my affection for XCOM. Now, Terra Invicta isn’t really in the same vein as XCOM or X-COM. If it were to be compared to a Firaxis game, it would be Civilization. But it involves a lot of globes and an alien invasion that starts small and builds its way up, kind of like XCOM.

But after putting over 20 hours into it, I feel like I’ve barely scuffed the varnish. There are games that make 20 hours go by in a flash. Games where that time investment feels worthwhile. Games that, even after all that time spent, I can’t wait to jump back in. I’ve probably built up enough tension for the obvious answer: Terra Invicta isn’t one of them.

GAS UP THE PROBULATOR

I’m not reviewing this game properly, because I don’t feel like I’ve even penetrated the greasy outer layer. Things could maybe get real interesting once you start ordering around star fleets. I kind of doubt it, but it’s totally possible. If that’s the case, I’m not sure why it’s buried under so much grease.

Part of it could be my fault, since I refused to let my councilors work under their own free will. I’ve just seen what the enemy intelligence looks like, and it’s not impressive.

Anyway, let’s back up. Terra Invicta has you play as a secret organization, not unlike the Illuminati or Majestic 12. Aliens are invading, and six of these organizations get their priorities lined up. One of them wants to fight back, another wants to bend over for some consensual probing, there’s one that wants to just ditch Earth and run, and so on. The Resistance is suggested as a starting point, which would probably be my preference, anyway. Things might be different if the aliens were sexier, but, well, I’ve seen the autopsy footage.

INTERSTELLAR LOBBYING

You’re in charge of steering the technological progress, the construction of extraplanetary infrastructure, and political policy of your organization. Directly, you can control any armies under your command, but most importantly, the councilors.

The councilors are your organs. You send them out into the world to observe, influence, and kill; y’know, just like your organs. You need money and status, so one function is to have them sway the populace to your cause and implant your loyal subjects into government offices. By taking control points in countries, you are able to change the political policies and steer the country to your ends.

Which is one of my problems. I’ll take over a country, and then my primary goal is to make it into a fair society with strong democracy and social support. That’s not what you’re supposed to be doing in the game. Ideally, I’d be positioning the country to fill a role, such as military, science, or economy, but my core values override my strategy. So, halfway through my time with the game I was more concerned about wealth equality. But that’s going to be small comfort to the average citizen when they have a probe rammed so far up them that it could serve as an antenna.

I took control of North America and Japan, because they have the best vending machines, and just went to town improving society. Then we got into a war with Russia and India (under the influence of a rival faction), and when I attempted to capture Russian territory, they just nuked it, rather than let it fall under my control. That’ll learn me.

I’M WAITING…

I still worked on space things, but I’m not sure I was approaching it the way I was supposed to. I sent out a few probes to seemingly high value spots and started construction on a few, but my opponents were building more than a few.

And this is where I finally hit my stopping point. I recognized that I don’t know what I’m doing. I don’t know what I should be preparing for or what the end game was going to look like. That’s not unusual for a 4X game. They’re often meant to be played multiple times, so the first attempt can basically be seen as a dry run. However, I must reiterate: it took me 20 hours to get to that point.

It would be at least another 10 before I began failing hard enough to force a start-over. That’s likely a generous underestimation. I realized that, in order to try again, I would have to repeat that 20 or 30 or 40 hours. No, thanks.

A lot of my time was watching a globe spin. You send your councilors out, then hit fast-forward until the next time you’re allowed to give them commands. Time moves quickly, but not that quickly.

You can set your councilors for auto-missions, but I don’t trust them. I always had something that needed to be done, so it didn’t make sense to just hope that their programming would have the same priorities. So, that made a slow game even slower.

MIGHTS AND COULDS

While playing Terra Invicta, I kept getting the urge to play Civilization instead, and after the 20 hours I put into it, I switched and put 20 hours into Civilization VI in which I played a full standard speed game. I won a science victory, but, like, two more turns and I would have had a culture victory instead; I did great. Best run I think I’ve ever had.

Terra Invicta is doubtlessly a deeper and more complex game than Civilization VI, and there’s definitely an audience for that. Personally, I love some complexity, and I’m willing to work for the payoff. But Terra Invicta is too dry, and too drawn out. Things probably get more interesting when giant monsters are being unleashed on the Earth and epic battles are being fought for territorial rights in the Kuiper belt. I just don’t feel like continuing to inch slowly toward “mights” and “coulds.”

This write-up is based on a pre-release candidate provided by the publisher.