Black Ice

You wouldn't hack a healthcare company who denied your neighbor's sick 5-year old daughter because the cost of treatment + interest exceeds her projected lifetime earning potential. ...would you?

I haven't played it that much but I feel like I have to give a recommendation to a dev team that keeps updating it's EA title ten years after it's release.

It's been around a long while and it's come a long way. The core of the game was pretty good to begin with -- super basic start arenas, shoot critters, get loot, but they've also done a lot over the years to give the game some geography and verticality, which massively improves the experience. The Kinetic Temple is open now with one of the best 'monologues' I've gotten to experience, and it's very colorful. You may sometimes need to restart a few times to get the loot you want. And don't expect to be able to ADS (there *is* a specific item type for a "zoom" effect, though). Honestly, it's well worth it, and coop seemed to work really well when I tried it too.

I bought this game along with a poster and a button at a convention seven years ago. I was having a fantastic weekend with friends I had never met in person before and most of whom I have not seen since. In a weekend full of memories, this game stood out. I got this game, got home, hung up my poster, installed it, booted it up for 5 minutes, loved each second, and then got sidetracked. For seven years. This week, I have finally started it up again. Above all the drama of that one guy doing all those things, above all the jokes about how a cashier at a restaurant took our order, this game had stuck with me through the whole convention and through the interceding years. A remarkably tactile and fast paced mover shooter with much of the tension and push and pull of health and damage taken versus opportunity and damage dealt of my favourite game, Quake (1996), but with the searing neon aesthetics of Ricochet and Antichamber conveying an intricate plot of bleak capitalist dystopia that has rung all too true in the years since I first played it, this game stood out to me as a confluence of elements of games I usually liked, to the degree that after a brief live demonstration I hung its poster on my wall, where it has remained even as my attention strayed. I do not regret my decision to get this game, and I do not regret my decision to trust my gut and hang up that poster. It has kept this game on my mind, and now that I am revisiting it I find it not only everything I remembered it to be, but everything I have since hoped it would be. What I was not expecting or prepared for was the writing. This review was provoked by the most recent time this game moved me to tears: when the main point of contact the player character has with the world took a step back, looked at the impact that your potentially naiively-motivated actions had on the world, and said they were proud. I'd already been struck time and again by the writing in this game, sometimes delivered as subtly as a relationship between a character you don't know logging their feelings about a company you don't know, and sometimes delivered as directly as a graffito about the first VR snuff film. But to me, the clear characterization of this deuteragonist exhibited in their understanding of the ways that their perceptions of the world shaped the bounds of what they felt possible therein made it feel more than worth taking yet another moment to pause and breathe in the atmosphere and world that this game does not shy away from sharing with you. I recommend this game, without reservation. I usually do not recommend games before they leave early access -- this is an exception.

I got this game a while back because I liked the aesthetic and thought it had promise. Back them it did not have much depth but It was kind of fun. Now that the game is much more built out I would highly reccommend it. This is a great example of a developer sticking with a good idea and putting in the work until it is a solid game.

Got a free code for the game at pax 2016 (I think) in san antonio. Back then it was a cool concept but there wasnt much to the game. Every few years keep coming back to check it out when I have the spare time and see it in my library and the amount of new content I find each and every time is astounding. The game has come a long way and it's clear that the people behind it care a lot about it.

If the game looks like something you would enjoy, it is definitely something you would enjoy. Not only do you get to make your own build, but explore a handcrafted world that has been actively developed for over a decade. There is a lot to explore at the pace of your choosing. The developers are open to feedback and look forward to improving their game. Looking forward to the time i will sink into this

[i]As this game is still getting gamechanging updates- I might or might not update this as time advances...[/i] [h3]After twelve years, I think it's fair to write a review finally...[/h3] Yes, you read that right. This game has been in EA for about 12 years now [i]but[/i] is getting constant updates. And I remember the early days, when there was no verticality- no 'Arcade' and whatever the game is now. It has changed. And in my eyes, this is what Early Access should show: [i]PROGRESS[/i] Ever since this game was launched into AI I have been working, been laid off- got a truckers drivers license- lost said license and then refocused back into computers. I've studied coding with Python and now I am back at school relearning soldering electronics. You could say that I have changed as much as this game has evolved during it's years. But- enough about me, what [i]is[/i] Black Ice? Well then, as of writing this review here in early 2026 I would explain this game as a TRON inspired shooty lootathon with a lot of build variety! And that's the most simplest way to describe it. Like dungeon crawlers of old, you'll collect loot, level up and explore a huge handcrafted map. Or well, I believe it's handcrafted. If it is- nice work devs! Lately I've been seeing too much procedural generation which more than often just makes the world feel too samey. The biggest quirk with this game is the hacking functionality, which you'll have to use to progress throughout the map and also of course: collect loot. By using your hacking tool on a server you'll draw out the guardians/anti-bodies inside the server and as long as you are in range of said server enemies will continue spawning which you'll have to destroy. Think horde mode in some shooters. All servers belong to different companies, so you can expect 'Defence' companies to give you machine gun drops and 'Medical' companies to drop anything health or defence oriented. Very clever if you ask me! But here's a funny thing with this 'hacking thing'... You can hack multiple servers at the same time! And if the servers are from different companies the guardians will fight each other as well as you! And from what I remember in the past, this increases the chances for better loot- so there's risk vs reward that [i]you[/i] yourself set up as you please... As long as you can reach other servers from your current location. I mentioned machine guns by the way, what kind of weapons do you have in this game? Are there some shootbangs for your buck? Well: you have machine guns, smgs that brrt, lasers that fire your lazors, bouncy guns that bounces around like soccer balls (?), pizza slice launchers and a whole lot more! There are also grenades and 'executables' acting in for spells or active abilities like in some rpgs. There are even summons! You can be a pet master! Which brings me to another quirk with the game which you may or may not like- RAM. No, don't worry- I am not going to talk about the RAM shortage due to the datacenters being built late 2025 and early 2026. RAM in Black Ice acts as your ammo pool and mana bar. You could also call it a stamina bar if you will. If you fire a gun, spawn a pet or heal yourself (channeled or instant) it will draw from a set pool of RAM. This RAM-bar can be upgraded with level ups or gear though, so you can build around this. But if it feels like you are out of "ammo" the whole time- be sure to see what is actually going on with your RAM usage. Maybe switch off channeled healing? Which once more, brings me to another quirk with the game! The equipment system! Like in many mmo's, you equip everything onto a hotbar like spells in mmo's. While anything is attaced there, bonus stats apply to your character. There are even items that work passively as long as they are equipped there. This also means that what is in that bar shapes your character into a set archetype. So I have three pets? That's free less weapons for me. And a passive upgrade item take another slot. But, it's not just numbers that can be items... Even your sprint key, jump and 'right click' key can be something of value for you! [spoiler]Example: Normally right click is your hack server button, but nothing is stopping you from ripping that out and placing a scope (zoom in) item in there. Just be sure to have that hack tool somewhere else![/spoiler] If anything, my low playtime feels unfair to this game- but it could also be fair since back when I first played this game it was just a flat cyberspace... Now it's a lot more. A LOT MORE. This game feels also pretty future proofed with already ten player coop built in from the get go, no DRM and mod support! And after all these years, it's hard for me to be stingy and critique something as the game has changed so much- but if there was something it would be UI related to weapons. After a few hours I can see how to differentiate a machine gun from a shotgun or hand cannon, but I believe readability there could be improved. And while you can respec a lot of choices, leaving you very flexible with your build crafting- I would love to see [i]something[/i] that could be a bit more permanent and hard choice to make. Such as maybe something that would allow you to specialize into different weapon classes. Let me play as a grenadier from the C&C games, chucking grenades everywhere or a minigunner from DOOM that would allow me to go pure [i]HAM[/i] with miniguns. Anyways, love to see the progress and I hope to see much more!

Went from being one of the most barebones games in my collection to a bonafide cyberpunk looter shooter. The movement, the story, the options available to you have all grown exponentially since I played this game originally. I especially like the far-future worldbuilding going on through emails and corporation profiles. And bunny hopping while spamming grenades/spells and spewing bullets into a horde of weird little computer spiders is chaotically enjoyable. Very fun! I do have two critiques though. The affixes are poorly messaged on the interface - partially because, well, they aren't really that interesting usually - and your "equipment" space (your hotbar) is very stingy. Would benefit to have a separation of armor and weapons - or at least items you slot into "passives" that aren't on your active hotbar but which provide their affix bonuses. Also the affix bonuses could be cooler and highlighted better in the interface, instead of "+1% hack speed" nestled into four other lines of similar color.

Great game, Great Devs