868-HACK

Maybe I just don't get this game... but I genuinely don't understand why it has such high ratings. You run around a maze of stuff, occasionally collect other stuff, enemies spawn all around you, some go through walls, and you die. I don't understand how to not die. Best I've managed after a dozen runs is like level 5. Maybe I'm dumb. Maybe the tutorial does a bad job. But I guess into the refund bin this goes.

It's deeper than it seems.

One of the best roguelikes ever made!

If you're like me, you probably came here when you saw 868-BACK. Back to what? Or from what? From [strike]corporate life[/strike] hiatus, and to H4XXING. Of course. Or... to the past, since this game came out in the halcyon days of 2015, when we had no idea what's coming to us. So: is it worth playing more than a decade later? Yes, but mainly as an entrée to playing 868-BACK. It is a small, develishly difficult game that's surprisingly clever and deep; and once you manage to wrangle it, you'll find yourself wishing for something like this, but bigger. And more of it. And that's exactly what 868-BACK is. This, but bigger and more. But it's fundamentally the same thing, so let's decompile it and take look at the code. A gauntlet of 8 levels made out of 6x6 grids reminiscent of classic roguelikes (we're talking ADOM classic, not Binding of Isaac classic): turn-based, stuff moves when you do, things get to your face to attack you and so on. You can attack like a rook in chess - as long as there is a line of sight, you can use the turn to pew the baddie. There are four kinds of baddies, and all of them have some kind of twist to them: one moves twice in a row, one can move through walls, one is invisible unless you are in the same row or column, and one takes 3 hits instead of 2. And they just keep coming. Your first few runs will probably end almost instantly, and you'll find yourself saying "What? All of a sudden I'm dead???". That's because you can take a whole lot of... 3 hits, and attack only one thing at a time. Which, when you break it down, means that: - being surrounded by 3 enemies is instant death - fighting two guys at once will reduce you to near-death if you're lucky, kill you if not - even fighting in a chokepoint isn't safe since some enemies move twice, while others will just go through walls to get to you. And, of course, to get anything at all, you have to siphon data cubes which spawn multiple enemies at -once-. As many as 9 enemies. Plus, every new sector auto-spawns enemies on entry, and very quickly you'll find yourself facing a large group. Impossible, right? What gives you a very minor fighting chance is the usage of progs. Think of them as special abilities or spells. You start with just one, and they cost energy and creds to use. And they don't seem all that strong, either. Push enemies away? Kill all guys that overlap with something else? Make this particular type of enemy explode? How am I supposed to- Oooh, you can push enemies on top of each other and [i]then[/i] use that overlapping kill ability? I see what's going on here. Every completed run unlocks a new prog, which in turn creates new strats. You can - if you want - unlock all progs for free, just for the hell of it, you can even re-lock them, why not. It doesn't necessarily make anything easier, since which progs you'll find is random in the end. And there is no meta progression. You just need to git [strike]commit[/strike] gud. Of course, all of this applies to 868-BACK too, but in that game you do multiple of these gauntlets [strike]back to back[/strike] one after another, with modifiers that both make everything more difficult and give you more situational (but permanent) tools to play with. So it really isn't any easier. It's frustrating, but it frankly slaps. A good way to see if you're going to like 868-BACK. And, to make things more delicious, if you play these games back to- IN ORDER, 868-BACK becomes a bit of an ode to... aging, of all things. But that's a line of thought for another day. [url=https://store.steampowered.com/curator/42922988/]Curator page[/url]

Great small-scale roguelike. Easy enough to win if that's your only goal, but the high-score system encourages you to take risks and push yourself. As you string together a win streak, the game gets progressively harder to keep it interesting.

I return regularly to this fantastic game and I can't believe it got less than 100 reviews, so here is one more. A gem of minimalistic game design, 868-Hack delivers a stripped down, tense "Roguelight" experience on a series of 6x6 grids where you have to guide an avatar to the exit while getting rid of an increasing number of adversaries and collecting score if you dare (doing so brings more enemies). Every move is a tough as nails decision where you have to balance resource collecting and management, risk taking, and positional tactics. The large number of possible upgrades (with a maximum of 8 you can get on a given run) makes for the so-called rogue-style experience where you have to improvise in each run a viable and balanced set of powers from what is thrown at you in order to beat the tougher levels and hopefully gather a higher score. The base mechanics are easy to grasp, but you have to experiment to notice some edge effects and interesting synergies between the upgrades. What I appreciate in the minimalistic approach is that you don't need to keep in your mind an entire encyclopaedia of powers, rules and enemies to get good: it is fairly easy to have a good overview after a couple of hours. The elements are simple, but the combinations are always varied and bringing new challenges (when you start getting too good, the game starts throwing more gameplay hindrances at you). Finally, the very simple graphics and sound effects make for a surprisingly unique atmosphere. One of my favorite games!

This is an absolute goldmine. A tiny set of rules that is simple to explain and understand - so many complex difficult decisions and enough randomness that you don't get stuck trying to calculate 20 moves ahead (much). Brilliant.

It is a really elegant game!

Hack-Man? The best turn-based arcade game I have ever played. Traditional roguelikes are usually bloated with content. This plays more like Pac-Man. You hack the ghosts instead of eating them. This is an elegant game. Truly a game design marvel. In my opinion this game is a masterpiece. The kind of game only a few people will ever truly appreciate. I'm glad I was here to experience it. Thank you.