When it comes to superheroes, Invincible has had a stratospheric rise in the last few years, introducing the world to the Invincible, Omni-Man, the Guardians of the Globe, and many other powered beings. One of the most prominent is Atom Eve, a close ally and friend of Invincible as well as a member of the superhero squad Teen Team. Atom Eve has had her own spin offs already in the shape of a comic and an animated Amazon show. Both have the same title as the game Invincible Presents: Atom Eve, but this is an original story, with its narrative beats being based more on the comic than the show.
Invincible Presents: Atom Eve plays out like a visual novel with decisions impacting the flow of the characters’ relationships. There is also turn based combat for the combat against various enemies. In the preview build, episodes two and three were available. Choices and events from episode one had been decided already, including Eve being in a relationship with Rex. The preview episodes deal with Eve’s starting senior year in high school along with mysterious power outages, and a couple of new super-powered individuals.
In each scene, Eve will have conversations with various characters including her parents and Teen Team. Depending on her upgrades, Eve will have different responses available. There are three upgrade paths for Eve which are split into Empath, Creator, and Firebrand. The Empath pathway influences conversations, as well as providing abilities such as counter strikes. Creator provides abilities in combat that allow Eve to stun enemies and come up with different solutions to protect against attacks. Finally, Firebrand is the offence-based pathway, providing new combat moves that can deal high damage. Abilities are unlocked by gaining experience points and these are earned through completing situations and combat.
The combat in Invincible Presents: Atom Eve is a turn-based, with Eve and enemies having their opportunity to act. The perspective given is from over the shoulder of Eve, facing her enemies. She has a set amount of energy each turn, and this can be used to either attack enemies directly or use a support ability such as creating a shield. In one battle, Eve could interact with the environment, using her power to stop an ambulance going over a bridge. If there are allies nearby they will occasionally provide assistance too, which is esepcially helpful when there are multiple enemies to face off against. The fights in the preview didn’t feel overwhelming and the turn-based combat was easy enough to navigate.
Invincible Presents: Atom Eve has the potential to be an entertaining addition to the Invincible franchise. The way the episodes are going seem to point to a predictable outcome with at least one story thread, however there could be a number of different twists depending on which other characters make an appearance. The production values are good and the music is well suited to the scenes. The only shame is that it doesn’t have voice-over acting for the characters, relying on the comic style inspiration.
