868-BACK

more like 868-CRACK amirite

This is a truly excellent roguelike with extraordinary depth and opportunities for player expression. It has a difficulty curve that feels truly challenging, which makes mastering its systems all the more satisfying.

I've been looking for a game like this. It has almost no fluff in its adherence to its core loop. The strategic choices always culminate in puzzle solving and your job is to figure out which set of puzzles you can solve while balancing score (hell yeah arcade) and survival. RNG will haunt you at every step of the way so this process never becomes static. The tactical aspect is scratching a different itch. There's only 5 enemy types with their own quirks and behaviour but your options and power are similarly scaled such that defeat could always be around the corner. The game is brutal about throwing wrenches at your well engineered game plans and radically altering game conditions (a lot of this can and should be mitigated in the strategic layer and that requires its own set of skills). Due to all this, a refreshing sense of tension permeates every run. Aesthetics and UI are unusually refined and integrated in the gameplay loop. I was not surprised to learn that this developer has a small but dedicated fanbase, almost like a cult and I can see the vision. I'd love for this game to reach a wider audience but you can tell the developer creates for art's sake and I admire that. 10000 legacy run one day maybe????

868-back has taken over my life

Coming from 868-HACK (which i loved from a gameply and design perspective), i am pleasantly surprised by the content of 868-BACK. I am keeping this in my Steam Deck for sure. While there are some rough edges in controls, i really like the dilemna of pushing for higher credits/stronger build in exchange of more enemies in a level. Some progs have really crazy powers and coming up with great combinations is really fulfilling. Yes, a run can become quite difficult but that's what makes it interesting, imho.

If you like puzzles, roguelikes or boardgame-ish tactics games this one's for you. The first two or three hours can be rough but if you hang in there you'll have a great time. The systems and rules of the game are deceivingly simple on the surface but they have loads of depth and nuance once you dig deeper.

This game has a shocking amount of depth: a vast trove of items with subtle interactions and combos, building on a very simple basic mechanic. its a great game; if you liked Into the Breach, you'll love this.

Brough's games don't always sell themselves particularly well, but I'll put my finger on the scale to tell you that this is an evergreen forever good rogue-like. Tense and dynamic decision making. Simple core concepts that keep unfolding and revealing the more you invest and experiment. Unless I'm extremely tired 868-HACK is all I want to play when I sit down for game-time.

really good puzzle roguelike :3

really cool and really hard