Invincible Presents: Atom Eve hands on — step into heroine’s shoes

Invincible Presents: Atom Eve is one of the first games based on Skybound’s growing Invincible superhero universe. The RPG title focuses on the titular heroine, Atom Eve, as she navigates the early events of the story. Players step into her shoes, making decisions, building (or burning) relationships and of course, taking down the bad guys.

While a release date has not been announced, Invincible Presents: Atom Eve is set to debut this year. I had the opportunity to preview two of the game’s early chapters.

Atom Eve’s gameplay

At its core, Atom Eve is an RPG heavily influenced by Telltale’s story-focused games. Players must choose where to go and how to handle conversations and fights. All of these interactions will grant Eve experience.

As players level up, they can unlock traits and perks from a skill tree. Some abilities unlock new dialog options while others grant Eve new combat options. I didn’t get to see most of these powers during my preview. However, there are many benefits to spending points in one of the trees rather than spreading these points out.

The combat system reminded me of Slay the Spire. Enemies telegraph their next move and it’s your job to spend energy points to counter them and deal damage. At the end of each turn, you regain a set number of energy points. Unspent energy points will carry over into the next turn, allowing for more powerful combos.

Focusing on depth is incredibly valuable when it comes to taking down enemies. Perks that grant more energy per turn are locked away behind several skills.

Do the options matter?

While Atom Eve lets players make their own choices, it’s unclear how much of an impact these decisions make. The version I played is an early build so this could change, but after playing through the demo twice, my decisions did not change how events played out.

For example, in one fight Eve can interact with the environment to save civilians. In my first play through, I used my abilities as intended and saved them. However, I did not in my second go around. In both cases, the outcome was the same.

This shouldn’t detract from the overall experience for first time players. That being said, this does call into question whether or not the game will be worth replaying.

Invincible Presents: Atom Eve succeeds in translating the comics and TV show into a game. Players guide Eve through the early events of story, but from her perspective instead of Mark’s/Invincible’s.

Eve’s dialog options capture her personality and feel age appropriate, while giving fans a new peek into this growing universe. Eve feels consistent with her portrayals in the main TV show and standalone special. We’ll see how she develops in the show’s second season, set to debut on November 3, 2023 on Amazon Prime.

The game stays true to its comic book roots. The art style is a love letter to the medium, complete with dot shading its use of panels. Overall, it’s gorgeous to look at and a major plus for the game.

This title is Skybound’s first major attempt at a PC game set in the Invincible universe and there’s tons of potential. Skybound is leveraging gaming in other ways. Invincible is making moves on mobile with Ubisoft and Omni-Man is now playable in Mortal Kombat One.

All together, Skybound’s first standalone PC entry to the universe looks like a strong addition to the franchise.