The Invincible | How Accurate Is It? | Game vs Book Comparison | Story Explained | Stanisław Lem

Oh damn, you were right,  Koval. It's beautiful here.  A habitable planet roughly the size of Mars  vast deserts Canyon like mountains an ocean   where earthlike life can be found and on the  dry surface there is yet another kind of Life   very alien to us the result of of necro  Evolution welcome to Regis 3 a world of   stanislav lm's imagination before we start  a quick reminder due to the nature of this   video certain Story related spoilers  cannot be avoided move on at your own Peril the Invincible is probably Stanis  flam's most famous novel after Solaris   it's that certainly is my favorite among his  books together with you I'm about to explore   the similarities and differences between the  computer game and the written original first   let us discuss the name of the novel the name the  Invincible always refers to the star Cruiser that   arrives at Regis 3 to look for the missing  sistership Condor only the last sentence in   the novel uses the word Invincible separately  and as a mere adjective describing the sheer   Majesty of the Starship so that it truly seemed  invincible ible but thus also questioning its   actual invincibility in the Polish original  the gender neutral World Invincible is in   the masculine form there is also the masculine  form for the word cloud so that it could also   indirectly refer to the microbots but since it is  never mentioned in this context the invincibility   of the cloud can only be eluded from the story  other than that it is first inform us the ship   itself the star Cruiser Invincible that is more  or less defeated by the artificial official life   forms of regious 3 in the end the irony of the  name also alludes to mankind itself the people   from Earth are anything but Invincible in the  book The Crew of the Invincible has to leave   the planet suffering heavy losses not everything  everywhere is for us the main protagonist in the   novel concludes some worlds are not meant for  people and should be left alone the game is   effectively a prequel to The book which  is nice as the developers didn't have to   alter the story of the novel there are some  plot inconsistencies though which I want to discuss but first the similarities Regis three is  depicted accurately deserty Landscapes but with   water basins and where sometimes heavy rainstorms  rage and an ocean teeming with life similar to   that of Earth there was no mention of any moons  or planets which you can see in the game though   but I'm okay with that the view is certainly  amazing the home style Fri 3 is almost a red   dwarf there is no mention of the star in the novel  being actually red the red color only appears at   Sunrise or Sunset as far as I know the sun's color  depends on the planet's atmosphere in space each   star would appear white to the human eye since the  atmosphere of regious 3 is very clear as described   in the book and in the game it should pretty  much look yellow like on Earth it would be dimmer   though something you probably wouldn't notice  without teleporting between reges three and Earth   within a few seconds which of course is impossible  since it is supposed to be a realistic hard sci-fi   novel the atmosphere is also the same as in the  novel 78% nitrogen argon 2% carbon dioxide 0% 4%   methane and 16% oxygen I'm not an expert whether  it is is a viable and relatively safe atmosphere   for humans but the oxygen level compared to the  21% oxygen on Earth is quite low as if you go high   in the mountains the atmospheric pressure in the  book was similar to that of Earth and that's why   the people in the book simply wore oxygen masks  for some reason the game developers decided to go   for space suits although people can undoubtedly  do without them as the helmetless engineer ritra   proves quite well probably space suits look much  cooler than simple jumpsuits with a face mask it   is also not clear whether these are full-fledged  space suits of the future or simply pressure suits   Which astronauts normally wear during liftoffs  and Landings The Plot In the game and in the book   takes place in the equatorial zone of Region  3 it is mentioned that the celestial body is   rather cold outside of it having thick polar ice  caps there is a major difference though in the   game name there is a suggestion that Rus 3 is  a third satellite meaning it is the third Moon   of a gas giant with the name Regis in the book  however regious 3 is clearly a planet and there   is no mention of any other planets or moons let  alone gas giants to follow the logic of naming   celestial bodies outside of our solar system  the discovered planets always get the name of   the Star Plus a letter or a number thus Regus 3  should be the third planet in the system of the   Stars Regis there is also some indication in the  book and in the game where and how far away from   Earth the star system of Regis 3 is di mention  Zeta Lyra where the machines of RIS 3 might have   originated from actually exists and is about 150  light years away from us and Regis 3 is mentioned   to be 16 light years away from zet Lyra the Regis  star system itself is most likely fictional I   couldn't find any information on it the Supernova  explosion of Zeta Lyra which which destroyed the   civilization of the supposed creators of  the alien robots also appears to be purely fictional the game is true to the art style of  the 50s and 60s which is now considered atom Punk   most notably known through the Fallout series the  novel the Invincible was published in 1964 and at   least some of the book covers were in that style  everything looked bulky sturdy and heavy giant   glowing buttons mechanical dials black and white  screens and most hilarious magnet tapes the most   iconic and true to atom Punk is the rocket shape  of the star Cruisers Condor and Invincible the   spaceships in the science fiction of the time  tended to be either rocket-shaped or flying   sorcer in the book both Cruisers are described  as spires and metal Towers 20 story high Landing   vertically there is no detailed description how  the ships look ins side but usage of elevators   was mentioned quite often another thing worth  mentioning is the gender inequality of the 50s   and 60s women were no members of space Crews and  Stanis lamp's novels there is not a single female   protagonist in the novel that invincible and  no mention of any women at all the crew of both   Condor and the Invincible seem to consist only  of men this nowadays outdated societal attitude   in the western world is reflected in the game  as well although there is mention of a woman in   their Condor crew you never encounter any female  Alliance astronauts not even as corpses the gender   inequality is also an issue in the interplanetary  Commonwealth in the backpack of Meritt the   fellow female astronaut in yasna crew you find a  letter of recommendation for Meritt to become an   astrogator yasna while carrying her friend's body  to the Lander mentions that Meritt had she lived   would have become the first female astrogator  in the Commonwealth probably the first one ever so to summarize some alien race sent Advanced  robots to Regis local dinosaur like Monsters   tried to eat them so the robots produced other  robots which produced more and more robots until   they fell victim to their own overproduction after  a number of iterations and Wars for resources they   spat out the murderous cloud which took over  the plan indeed the theory about the Cloud's   origin is very accurate and well summarized in  the last conversation on condor's bridge what   was missing was certain features of the microbots  that don't appear in the game in the book there   was the so-called Black Rain the microbots  would move with rain clouds probably to save   energy because of the Winds thus they were also  likely to gain energy through lightning strikes   although the letter was not discussed in the book  and is my own concl inclusion during the rain they   sometimes simply fell to the ground as if dead  it is unfortunately not explored further whether   these were defective robots or simply inactive  ones because of lack of energy waiting to recharge   through solar power during the day in the novel  The Crew of the Invincible manages to find some of   those fallen down robots and do some experiments  on them the microbots are described as having a   shape similar to the letter Y which means not all  three sides might have been exactly symmetrical   and of the same length but in my opinion the  symmetrical shuriken shape as I call it is   probably what stanislav Lam actually meant with  his description and so I totally agree with how   their shape is depicted in the game that symmetry  also makes sense because there is a meaning behind   it Locomotion how do the spots actually fly the  three black blades around its also black Crystal   core are no wings and are hard and immovable  the microbots create an elect electomagnetic   field that is calibrated in such a way as to heat  up the air around the bot the heated air creates   uplift and so the bot can either hover or float  in the air this free bladed shape helps with that   the Bots connect with each other by bringing their  pointy ends very close to those of the neighbors   connecting either physically or through another  force field that is only a very short distance   away from the individual pointy ends thus creating  a more stable structure an attachment of a pointy   end with a central Crystal node is also possible  this cluster of bots the cloud can perform better   air Maneuvers and is probably able to save lots  of Power by flying in a more energy efficient   formation the established structure also helps  to create the actual swarm intelligence the   bigger the cloud the more intelligent it is its  intelligence is eluded in the scene one possible   ending in the game and also an important scene in  the novel where the cloud creates the image of y's   face out of individual microbots the way they  take out humans and probably most moner but's   not protected by a force field is by building  a small cycl above their heads thus creating   a strong magnetic field that in turn wipes out  human memory this cyclon was only shown in the   Cyclops fighting scene but if you hadn't read  the book you certainly would have overlooked it the strange Divergence or perhaps  misunderstanding is how the cloud   affects both humans and their robots yasna  and ritra both survive relatively unscathed   from the Cloud's influence in the book The main  protagonist survives one such attack by sinking   into duper which means he didn't get panicky  during the attack and because not knowing what   else to do simply froze in motion and in thought  not thinking of anything but that stuper actually   saved his life his memory remained intact this  is the great difference to the book in the novel   you either got spared by the cloud without  consequences or your mind and memory were   erased completely there were no mind minor cases  of Amnesia like with yasna or a hitra short memory   loss both of them should not have had any memory  gaps at all another inconsistency is the Cloud's   reprogramming of other machines there were two  cases of damaged robotic Workforce in the book   The one was an arcton robot the one that carries  containers that repeatedly tried to go up a steep   slope which was quite senseless as it always fell  down the other case was with the Cyclops of the   Invincible which also got either reprogrammed or  simply damaged by the cloud and started shooting   friendly spying probes out of the sky there  were no cases of machine benevolence in the   book in the game however there are three scenes  showing it in one of those the bow-shaped robot   companion offers itself as a parachute to slow  down jasna's fall and then again rescues her   by attacking the animat the third case is when  the animat spares her although it is technically   reprogrammed to kill humans at the end of the  game you can find a note that postulates a theory   that a person that is spared by the cloud is for  some reason set to being a friendly if it's true   it would prove that the cloud not only damages  but actively reprograms robots in the book The   main protagonist wore a special cape on his head  that camouflaged his brain activity the Cape of   invisibility as it was jokingly called such  a cape was mentioned in another note at the   same location on the Condor but in the game it  remained only a prototype and was never tested   in the field which is strange because in the book  that Cape was manufactured and equipped within an   hour thus being a fairly simple Contraption which  should have been used by the condo crew this cape   supposedly protected the protagonist from the  cloud on two occasions not conclusive enough in   my opinion to determine whether he was indeed able  to camouflage his brain activity or that the cloud   simply decided not to attack him but active  and direct benevolence did not appear in the novel as I mentioned the game is is effectively  a prequel to The Novel this gives the narrative   designers a lot of freedom in creating  the plot nevertheless there is one big   inaccuracy compared to the book in the novel  there were no survivors among the condo crew   and the crew itself was incapacitated already  after a few days they only managed to send a   scout mission to the robotic City that yasna  finds there was no expedition to the ocean the   condo was attacked directly erasing the minds of  everyone on board there is a slight possibility   that the Scout crew sent to the city was not  there at that time but in the book The Crew   of the Invincible did not even discuss whether  someone might not have been on board when the   attack happened there was also a body count and  they found quite a lot of corpses it is mentioned   in the book that six star years have passed since  condo's disappearance probably meaning six Earth   years it is thus unlikely that survivors were  expected to be found after such a long time   if there had been any survivors they probably  would have returned to the Condor but the water   and Food Supplies on the star Cruiser were full  suggest testing that there was no one who could   have used them up in the book even the astrogate  of the Invincible doesn't know why the cond was   sent to Regis 3 in the game however rohra tells  yasna that it was simply an emergency landing   the ship's main core malfunctioned and needed  repairs the following scientific exploration of   the planet simply happened because the scientists  on board had nothing better to do some endings to   the game are highly problematic as they offer  you the possibility to meet the crew of the   Invincible and thus tell them everything that  happened this step would render the whole plot   of the book obsolete but I still found it awesome  that one of the possible endings let Yas now talk   to the main protagonist of the novel Navigator  Rohan from the Invincible to all units in the   perimeter this is the chief Navigator of the  usca Invincible Cruiser we're preparing to land   on reges 3 call code Sierra Alpha Romeo estimated  approach time hello Invincible it's Condor here   oh Condor we hear you I confirm we picked up your  coordinates yesterday with a message from a member   of the interplanetary Commonwealth a big addition  to the novel is the creation of factions in the   game we play as a member of the interplanetary  Commonwealth that is for some reason opposed to   the alliance there is no mention of any of this in  the novel there was only the one faction which is   called the alliance in the game and only the two  ships the Condor and the Invincible this conflict   probably more or less a cold war certainly adds  some suspense to the game and make makes the   plot logical now there is another ship beside the  two star Cruisers that can pay a visit to Regis 3 the Invincible was well ahead of its time  stanislav lamb was one of the first to analyze   the concept of swarm intelligence and came up  with the idea of evolution among robots a term   he called necro Evolution while describing  Regis 3's inanimate ecology as a necrosphere   he is also known for imagining very exotic  life forms the sentient ocean of Solaris the   mushroom shaped aliens in the noval Fiasco and  the shuriken microbots of Regis 3 all of them   very unlike the typical humanoid aliens  we unfortunately still encounter far too   often even in modern games and TV shows he was  also one of those authors who remained in doubt   whether humans could ever become omnipotent and  solve all their problems through sheer force and   weaponry the philosophy of rational humility is  very well shown in the game which is why I give   the Invincible big thumbs up and if you for  some reason still haven't played the game and   also haven't read the novel I encourage you to  do both as these two works of fiction go very   well hand in hand if you like this video  please consider to subscribe and leave a   comment I'm interested in your opinion about the  game per Aspira adastra through hardship to the   Stars fellow astronauts and hopefully see you  soon on some other distant world full of fond us

Channel: Anglahel Gaming

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Length: 18min 23sec (1103 seconds)

Published: Wed Nov 15 2023