It didn’t take me long to realize that the Terra Invicta was about to be something special. A standalone game from the creators of XCOM and XCOM 2’s ambitious Long War mod, Pavonis Interactive has basically taken the strategic layer from XCOM and turned it into a Paradox-style grand strategy game. The scope is mind-boggling just by going, and it really doesn’t stop feeling that way. In 2022 every major nation on Earth is simulated for the entire solar system as well as asteroids and ice dwarfs beyond the orbit of Pluto. It almost sounds ridiculous to describe it until you see it for yourself. And somehow, it actually works too.
The start date is just fine, the Russia-Ukraine conflict and membership in international alliances such as the European Union and NATO are detailed. Countries have all kinds of ratings that influence their behavior, from military technology levels to political freedom to wealth inequality, which can each be nudged in any direction if you gain control of their foreign policy. . The big difference is that an alien spacecraft has crashed and landed somewhere on Earth, and no one has agreed on what to do about it.
(Image credit: Hooded Horse)
Unlike most grand strategy games, however, you’re not playing as a nation in Terra Invicta. Instead, you take control of one of several factions with a specific idea of how to handle the search for intelligent, alien life. The Resistance is the default faction, and they’re like your typical XCOM or Stargate commands—their main goals are to protect Earth from alien attacks and secure humanity’s freedom among the stars. The Protectorate, on the other hand, seeks to present the aliens as a vassal state, seeing the prolonged war as a doomed affair. The Project Exodus figures are getting a little crowded in the neighborhood, and they only care about building a colony ship that will allow us to secure the future of our species somewhere far away.
The absurd depth of the simulation and the relatively simple ways you can interact with it, at least initially, have a fairly sharp contrast. Yes, it will track atmospheric CO2 on Earth to model global climate change, rising sea levels, and the resulting economic devastation that hits some regions more difficult than others. Yes, there are several Lagrange points around Saturn’s moons where you can place a space station. But for the first year or so, it’s essentially a detective game.
Your faction is led by a council of up to eight characters who have different missions available and are good at certain things. A celebrity may excel at getting public opinion on your faction, while a spy is good at undermining agents from other factions. Their main job is to convert the nations of Earth to the ideology of your faction, which is the only way to quickly secure more resources and eventually give you control of their armies and space programs, if they have either. This is done by targeting control points. Large countries like the US and China have access to far more resources, but they also have more control points, which are far more difficult to capture.
(Image credit: Hooded Horse)
Once you have secured all the control points of a country, you can determine their economic priorities and foreign policies. You can treat it like the futuristic Hearts of Iron, and try to consolidate your faction’s support by conquering the world with traditional military operations. Just be aware that if you attack a country or coalition that has nuclear weapons, you can make the aliens’ job easier for them. This global temperature modeling could also go in the other direction, and a nuclear winter that kills half the population is another possible way it could all end.
information war
Other factions will attempt to dominate the world, as well as those who are pro-alien. The slaves, who think we should worship the invaders as gods, are the natural opponents of the Resistance. The factions of power and even the priorities of factions will change as research on alien activity slowly begins to give you a better picture of who these creatures are and what they really want. It’s a slow-burning mystery, and I certainly don’t want to spoil it here. But I can say that I was blinded by some revelations that eventually came my way.
With the levers of power firmly in hand, you can shape nations that have come to your side in many ways. You can plunder them without thinking for resources, try to create a utopian welfare state, or simply divert all funding toward developing a space program. And having a strong presence beyond the atmosphere will be essential to ultimately winning.
(Image credit: Hooded Horse)
The second stage of Terra Invicta opens when you set up your first space station. Using a resource called Boost, which is generated by launch sites on Earth, you will engage in a scramble to colonize every planet, moon and asteroid in sight. Look, Earth has all this weird gravity that makes armor plating and large payloads of laser beams prohibitively expensive. So you need to acquire resources in space and add new ships and stations from there. The aliens will make a head start on this one, so there’s no time to waste.
You’ll start with fairly simple science stations like the ISS, but technology gradually unlocks options like orbital shipyards and lunar mining colonies. From here, nation states don’t matter as much anymore, and everything will either be owned by aliens or directly owned by one of the human factions. Studying aliens will not only teach you what they are doing here, but will also help advance Earth technology in your attempt to capture you. Research points can be allocated either to raise the global technical level, which helps everyone, or to unique projects of your own faction, which only benefit you. Most of those projects are unlocked by global technology, though, so you’ll have to care about both, even if you want to keep all the shiny toys for yourself.
(Image credit: Hooded Horse)
Finally, you are ready to start the space war with the aliens. And the pauseable real-time combat system takes into account things like speed and combat, so don’t expect Star Wars-style operatic dogfights. If you’ve played Kerala Space Program, you have some idea what you’re in for, except now there are guns. Mastering the orbital transfer window and balancing delta-v for long trips against combat mobility is essential. It’s a system I’ve barely scratched the surface of yet.
The breathtaking ambition of the Terra Invicta means it’s a bit more cumbersome, and the barrier to entry is higher. But I am mesmerized by how it all comes together and delivers on its sky-high promises while telling a compelling story with so many twists and turns. Even after two dozen hours of playing so far, I feel like I’m just starting out. I think it’s going to leave a meteoric impact on the types of strategy gamers who love spreadsheets, geopolitics, and kick foreign ass just as much as I do.
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