With The Invitation, there is currently a promising MMO shooter with a sci-fi setting in the works that many people are not even aware of. MeinMMO shows what is behind this ambitious project and introduces you to the game as part of our Find Your Next Game initiative.
Have you heard of The Invitation? No? Unjustly, I believe, Sven Galitzki, shooter expert at MeinMMO. This PvX MMO shooter from the German developer studio tool1 is an ambitious project in early development that one should keep an eye on, especially as a shooter fan. For not only does The Invitation look graphically appealing, it also offers some innovative elements and ideas that could bring fresh wind into the shooter genre.
Even if you have heard of The Invitation or followed it: We had the opportunity to speak in an exclusive interview with the founders Martin Kleingräber and Timo Becker, who revealed many new, previously unknown details about the game. MeinMMO will also present these in the context of the initiative Find Your Next Game.
This is The Invitation
What is it all about? The Invitation takes place in neglected rural areas of Europe in 2081. An advanced alien civilization has connected Earth to an interstellar transport network, allowing most of humanity to live in metropolises and enjoy the benefits of the eponymous invitation.
Those who live outside the cities do so by their own rules. Daily, various factions fight for dominance over essential key points such as factories or data centers to obtain loot and ensure their survival.
This is how you play: The game is played from a first-person perspective. The game world of The Invitation and the objectives are open. The (still) instanced map can be entered at any point along the edge. The adventure only ends when you exit the map somewhere at the edge.
The main focus is on maximum interaction between players (more on that later), specializing and optimizing one’s character, and surviving as long as possible with a character.
There should not only be one way or strategy for success that everyone follows. Instead, you should be able to achieve your goal in various ways and go as far as possible – whether through eliminating opponents, negotiations, trade, cooperation, or cunning and deception.
What does PvX even mean? PvX is similar to PvEvP. PvE and PvP are mixed, meaning players face the environment, the AI, and simultaneously other players.
Essentially, PvX in The Invitation should further clarify: Players are up against almost everything. However, cooperation is also possible, even if not mandatory. One can never be sure against whom or what players will ultimately face.
“You never really know what will happen next, you constantly face new situations concerning how to deal with challenges,” says Timo Becker. Your adventure may start as an attack on an AI-controlled alien but could end up fighting other players for the loot who just helped you take down the extraterrestrial creature.
What makes The Invitation so special?
In addition to genre-typical shooter mechanics and loot, The Invitation primarily focuses on one thing: maximum player interaction.
Maximum Player Interaction
In The Invitation, one glides into adventures not through NPC quest givers, but over three types of invitations:
- PvX
- through other players
- and through the environment.
Generally, players are to interact with each other as much as possible in The Invitation – by giving each other quests, fulfilling them, teaming up when the opportunity arises, or backstabbing each other.
“Everything you do has drastic consequences. No matter what you do – you will always have some irreversible consequences,” added Martin from tool1 in the interview with MeinMMO.
Player Invitations: These come directly from the players: Each player has the option to set various types of quests for other players. Whether you need specific resources, help with a particular task, or want a specific player dead – there’s a lot to consider.
The heart of it all is the communication and quest menu, where each player can choose from predefined quests or freely edit tasks according to their wishes. Here, you can also set which quest requests you would like to be shown.
PvX Invitations: These are essentially events, occurrences, and incidents of all kinds – from wandering aliens to battles between rival gangs, there’s so much going on. To encourage players to participate, The Invitation lures with loot in the form of equipment.
Environment Invitations: These refer to special areas that invite exploration and utilization. There, players can find important resources or make adjustments to their game character. Customization is possible only in these areas and only in specific buildings.
This way, you can equip your character with freshly found prosthetic parts, modifying your available abilities. Alternatively, you can craft different types of grenades at special 3D printers.
In short: These special areas and buildings represent important hubs where you can expect a lot of fighting, trading, or deception.
Which games can The Invitation be most closely compared to? Or is it too special for that? Timo Becker, one of the founders of The Invitation, explained that the MMO shooter can primarily be compared to two titles.
This would be DayZ – as a comparison. It has a certain overlap. Our game has elements that DayZ does not have. Especially these events, these special locations, and the player interaction. Actually, all three of our core elements do not exist in that form in DayZ.
Timo Becker in an interview with MeinMMO
From there, it can be described quite well in the developers’ eyes. “Imagine you have DayZ and our three core elements.”
For the second game, Timo Becker added: “Quite late, we realized that the overall construct we now have overlaps significantly with Sea of Thieves – even if you wouldn’t initially think of that game.” He continued: “The way events and player interactions come together, there’s another significant overlap.”
Also Escape from Tarkov has certain parallels, but its clearer objective distinguishes it from the open nature of The Invitation.
Equipment System and Character Specialization
The Equipment System: The heart of the system is a modular character. Here, you can equip different prosthetics alongside armors in various slots, modifying your abilities.
There will be no power level or value ranges dictating how good or powerful a particular piece of equipment is. These only determine which playstyle suits your character best. You will also look in vain for skill trees or leveling in The Invitation.
Many games currently cater to people who have a lot of time and can grind for long periods. I don’t know how many resources they can gather and how many wild boars they can kill to get their armors and levels. They do all that stuff just to finally be able to do the things they actually enjoy. And we said right at the beginning: Why not start directly with fun? […] We want you to set a task for yourself at the beginning: This is what I want to do. And you can do it right from the start.
Martin Kleingräber in an interview with MeinMMO
Each piece of equipment will have advantages and disadvantages for specific gameplay situations, ensuring there isn’t one overpowering build that overshadows everything else. If you gain effectiveness and power in one area, you will lose corresponding effectiveness in another.
Martin Kleingräber cites armor as an example:
“If you wear armor and get hit, you get thrown down instead of being shot through. You take less damage with armor, but each hit is also a kind of crowd control effect. It helps absorb damage for the group, but without someone watching your back, you will be held down by bullets…”
“Armor is not a good idea for a solo player,” he laughs. “But it’s very helpful for a group.”
The Specializations: By combining equipment and various prosthetics, you specialize your character. This way, you determine how you play The Invitation, and this should have distinctly noticeable effects. There are no fixed classes.
If you are a good hacker with your prosthetics, you won’t be much use in direct combat and will be reliant on the help of a strong soldier. On the other hand, you can be a powerful warrior, but certain doors to valuable loot won’t open without your scrawny hacker friend (or corresponding equipment). No matter how hard you try.
Here, player interaction should further be amplified. No character will be a perfect all-rounder; you will rely on the help or abilities of others for many things.
The Invitation features Permadeath – What does that mean?
What does Permadeath mean? Yes, The Invitation features permadeath – and this is not optional, but rather an integral part of the principle and philosophy of the game. At least in combat against other players.
If your character dies due to a human opponent, you lose all your possessions. The situation is somewhat different with AI, but more on that later.
Why Permadeath? From this perspective, many would play very differently, according to the developers. Knowing that you can lose everything, you constantly have the mindset that there is something at stake, you are more cautious, approach with care, and rethink some actions you might otherwise have rushed into.
The beauty of permadeath is that you actually have something to lose… It adds a certain spice that you normally don’t get in games. And particularly in our game, it is important that you feel that everything has serious consequences and that everything you have worked for feels valuable because it can be lost.
It’s a bit like betting with friends in school. Even if there shouldn’t be much money on the table, at least a 2 Euro stake should be given. So that there is something at stake. Because otherwise, people just wouldn’t play properly.”
Martin Kleingräber in an interview with MeinMMO
Killing the opponent is not always the goal: But death is not always the best outcome – not even for your opponents. Rather, it should be the last resort if one is truly focused on that.
If you kill someone completely, you may lose valuable loot or the opportunity to obtain further loot from the downed enemy.
To loot someone, you don’t necessarily have to kill them – there is also a down status where you are incapacitated but not dead due to your injuries. Even at this stage, you can be looted.
This way, you may be more useful to many than being completely dead. Your opponent can take some loot from you already, but they may negotiate with you to provide them with additional important resources from your inventory via drone or help them with your skills in a situation they cannot handle – for instance, opening a specific door as a hacker.
This way, you can keep your character and not start from scratch again. And the enemy has gained even more from the action than they would have from your death. Generally, poor behavior should not be the most effective strategy.
By the way, AI opponents put you in down status, from which you can rescue yourself with an ordered aid drone or a call for help to friends once the computer-driven threat is gone or eliminated. The developers are a bit more lenient with permadeath in PvE.
Other important questions about The Invitation
Kickstarter campaign failed – what does that mean for The Invitation? The development of The Invitation was originally supposed to be funded through the crowdfunding platform Kickstarter. However, the campaign there failed. We at MeinMMO primarily wanted to know: What’s next? Will it continue at all?
“It will definitely continue,” says Timo Becker. They can still work normally for a while, but they are already working on plan B and clarifying financing with various investors in the mid-term so they can stay fully committed. Additionally, first discussions with publishers are already underway, even though they want to take their time with that.
It is very important in the publisher search that they retain all freedoms. They do not want to change any game design decisions for marketing reasons, according to the two developers.
“If a publisher says now: People don’t like permadeath, please change that. We don’t want that.”
When is The Invitation scheduled to be released? As part of the Kickstarter campaign, the first alpha test was planned for May 2021.
However, this date is currently on hold. It could still work out, it is still conceivable, but it depends on how quickly the further financing of the project is clarified.
In short: The developers cannot currently give a specific time frame but prefer to create a positive surprise than a negative one.
Is The Invitation coming only for PC or also for consoles? Currently, versions for Windows, Mac, and Linux are planned.
Consoles like the PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X are not categorically excluded in the long term, but for now, they say “No in brackets”.
They are not yet sure whether the controls would work well on a controller. That’s the biggest variable. However, technically, not everything has been conclusively resolved yet, according to Becker in an interview with MeinMMO.
Does The Invitation have Open PvP? Yes, it features open PvP. There are no lobbies, no social hubs, and no completely safe zones as soon as you enter the map at its edge. While it is safer at the edges since the Points of Interest (Events Locations) are clustered towards the center of the map, you can still be caught at the edges. You can die anywhere on the map.
It is only truly safe when you exit the map somewhere at the edge, completing some kind of extraction. There are no fixed extraction points; you can exit anywhere towards the edge.
For players who suffer a disconnect or have to suddenly stop in the middle of the map, there is a system in place that will eventually take them out of inactivity – but not immediately, so they cannot flee before crucial battles or skillfully executed ambushes.
In the long run, The Invitation’s AI aims to extract such players safely to maintain immersion and to prevent them from simply dissolving before the eyes of others.
What to do against Griefers/Gankers? They want neither to promote toxic player behavior nor completely eliminate it. However, they do not artificially focus on things or mechanics that create disputes among players but still promote every path taken in their own way – for instance, with a leaderboard for executions.
This way, you will visually recognize (e.g., through skins) whether someone cares for you and is respected by the community or whether you should better stay away from a player unless you are seeking direct confrontation. Moreover, leaderboards will show who is leading in which areas of the game.
Furthermore, there will be indicators when entering the map to signal whether the corresponding entry point is safe or if there are other players nearby. So, you don’t have to fear griefers right at the starting point. If it’s too crowded for your taste, you can choose a different map.
Generally, in The Invitation, you will progress better by making friendships. Even aggressive players will rely on them and will likely have to consider cooperation at times when they need a particular resource or help with a quest they can’t progress on alone.
However, potential bounties that many players might rush to claim and the looming loss of your character should contribute to less toxicity than in many other games. Griefing and ganking will never be permanently possible. After all, as with permadeath, griefers and gankers will likely care as much about their character as other players do, and they must also take other aspects of the game into consideration.
The developers see such problematic players more as a challenge than a problem. Martin Kleingräber said to MeinMMO:
We want to experiment a lot to see: How can we involve various player types and interests that in other games are totally problematic in a way that they present a challenge and a fun factor for all players instead of being just an obstacle? So that people can also benefit from standing up to this challenge in a playful manner.
How large is the world? “In the long run, we want to have a large, cohesive game world – with dynamic servers,” the developers told MeinMMO.
In that world, all players should be able to play together in one massive open world on a map.
At first, one will work with individual, instanced maps of different sizes – averaging about 4 square kilometers in size. The size depends on the number of possible players established there. You shouldn’t have to travel long distances or waste time walking before encountering other players. Regular encounters should be possible here.
In principle, this means: The larger the map, the more maximum players it can accommodate. You will have to try harder not to run into others than to find other players.
How many players can play simultaneously at maximum? Currently, the ideal state aims for a group of 40 to 50 players (more are possible) on individual, instanced maps, rather than all being on one large map. However, you can freely choose which map you would like to visit.
An intelligent ticket system will ensure that the servers are never too full and never too empty, so you can always play with friends and join or invite them to your map.
What is the goal? What does the endgame look like? MeinMMO wanted to know what tool1 intends to use to lure players back into the game repeatedly. After all, you need some kind of carrot in front of your nose to keep you going.
Among other things, the leaderboards are meant to play an important role. These apply not to accounts, but to individual characters. Different achievements will be measured and rewarded. Even in the top 50%, exclusive skin rewards are up for grabs (they are not permanent, cannot be purchased, or taken while looting). The higher you rise, the more exclusive the rewards.
Additionally, hunting top-tier players becomes an increasing motivation the closer you get to the top or a certain percentage on the leaderboards. Furthermore, beyond pure character progress, account-wide progress elements are planned. However, they haven’t shared any details about that so far.
In general, the allure should be to adapt your character as closely as possible to your preferences or playstyle and to go as far as possible, surviving as long as possible with him. “Similar to the hardcore mode of Diablo 3,” added Martin.
In short: You should achieve the self-imposed goal as best you can and have as much fun as possible while doing so. Ultimately, it should be up to you to judge how successful you were with that particular character.
Will there be microtransactions for real money? Yes, but only for visual content, so for cosmetics that are permanently unlocked and cannot be taken from you when looting.
For example: Skins that you can find, like a cool jacket, can also be purchased for real money. The difference is: If you die, the found cool jacket is gone. However, if you found and then bought it, then it is bound to your account and can be used permanently by you – even on the next character.
There will be nothing that has any impact on gameplay or offers in-game advantages.
For whom is The Invitation interesting?
If you enjoy shooters, open-world gameplay, and rely on your skills rather than numbers, as well as a great deal of player freedom? Do you also appreciate it when the world and the game are significantly influenced by player actions? Are you looking for a special loot shooter that takes new paths, where you never really know what will happen next? Then you should definitely keep an eye on The Invitation.
What do we like so far? And what do we not like?
Potential: Exciting outlook
Admittedly, The Invitation is still quite a ways off. If all goes well, the alpha will start next year. However, the overall concept seems coherent and surprisingly well thought out down to the smallest detail – even if that may have appeared differently with the limited public information so far.
The developers are working on numerous exciting ideas, and what has been showcased so far along with the many details looks promising.
I am personally a big fan of hardcore modes and find the allure of permadeath very exciting. If everything is implemented coherently, The Invitation could perhaps even make these otherwise niche elements appealing to a broader audience.
Overall, the concept of The Invitation looks promising and has really triggered my interest as one of the few upcoming shooter projects. I will definitely follow the development of this game with great anticipation. In some time, we could expect quite an interesting MMO shooter outside of the tried and tested AAA titles like Destiny 2, bringing fresh wind into the genre.
Sven Galitzki
Freelance author and shooter expert at MeinMMO
