DROP - System Breach

I've played a number of hacking sims. Some of them are kind of disappointing. Drop is not. When building a hack sim, some go technical, asking you to actually learn and type commands. This can be good after a bit but requires a bit of time to get into it. This is more of an arcade hacking sim. You won't need to memorize commands, just learn your controls and master them while you figure out the timing, almost like a platformer or the cooldown-based combat of some RPGs. I enjoy it.

This is it, this is the hacking game I've been wishing for. Fast controller access, hopping around a network considering speed and moves and resources all simultaneously, upgrading your tech and abilities, encountering new challenges and minigames (which would be ridiculously simple in their own right but are just the right level of extra mental processing in the middle of the time-pressure game).

More of a "neutral" than a "yes" but putting yes for now. The task-management juggling the game asks you to do is quite compelling. Constantly moving all around a system, choosing where to dedicate your limited resources to accomplish your missions as fast as possible (all levels have a five minute timer). Where it loses me is the meta-game / "world" layer. While you nominally have a selection of missions and factions, functionally there's no depth to the campaign. You cannot favor a particular faction, you cannot influence the direction of the story, you cannot do anything except complete missions in order and buy upgrades to complete missions faster. What starts out as compelling and promising ends up becoming a boring trudge towards the finish, where nothing you do matters (except for achievements, I suppose). At 2 hours in I was really happy with the game, but by 7 hours the limitations dragged the whole enterprise down. If they make another DROP, I think emphasizing the mercenary aspect and allowing you to influence the story and factions through your hacking would be a really cool addition. Whatever ghost of it here is just vibe, but the ghost alone is enough to make me salivate for a game like this that just has slightly more going on.

Pleasant little game, but very dynamic. Levels are quite short - 4-5 minutes, which permits sometimes to play a level just for little fun and to boost your day energy from the intense action.

Pretty good minimalist hacking game. It does get less fun and more frustrating as new defense types are introduced. The last few missions are a bit of a slog tbh.

Great game ! really put you into a flow state. With a nice universe an aesthetic. Kudos !

The game starts good but it's a downhill run to a cliff in the endgame. Basically in the end game there is no more way to upgrade your character and you are stuck in a boss fight. The challenge through the entire game is very easy and then for the end the developer chose to challenge the player by implementing a system of timeouts that prevents them from interacting with the challenge. Worst decision on the history of games imoho. You cannot skill up or practice to get better at being stunned to death.

[ITA] Non il classico hacking game, ma riesce a farti sentire tale senza farti scrivere una singola linea di codice. Infatti, Drop System Breach é un action game dove verranno messe alla prova i tuoi riflessi e non le tue abilità di coding, facendoti saltare da un nodo all’altro combattendo sia contro il tempo che contro una serie di sistemi difensivi che cercheranno di ostacolarti. La storia in sé è carina, la su legge attraverso una serie di testi che vengono mostrati dopo ogni missione ma non è fondamentale capirla o seguirla per completare le missioni. C’è un sistema di “level up”, comprando potenziamenti e programmi e qui c’è forse l’unica “pecca”: se non si acquista il potenziamento giusto, si rischia di finire soft-lockati perché il gioco non ti permetti di accumulare troppe monete tra un livello di trama e l’altro e quindi si rischia di dover riavviare la run. Detto questo, mi ha divertito molto ed è giocabilissimo su Rog Ally (immagino anche su Steam Deck), I livelli hanno un tempo limiti e di 5 minuti ma si finiscono sempre abbastanza prima, quindi permette di fare run veloci ma anche sessioni più lunghe di gioco. Il team di sviluppo, giudicando dai crediti, è decisamente piccolo ed era alla sua prima creazione, quindi tanti complimenti ragazzi! In definitiva, consiglio di acquistarlo, la classica piccola gemma indie poco conosciuta ma che merita! [ENG] Not your classic hacking game, yet it still manages to make you feel like a hacker without having you write a single line of code. In fact, Drop System Breach is an action game where your reflexes—not your coding skills—are put to the test, as you jump from one node to another while fighting both against the clock and various defensive systems trying to stop you. The story itself is nice; you read it through a series of texts shown after each mission, but understanding or following it isn’t essential to complete the missions. There’s a level-up system, where you buy upgrades and programs, and here lies perhaps the only flaw: if you don’t purchase the right upgrade, you risk ending up soft-locked, because the game doesn’t let you accumulate too many coins between story levels, meaning you might have to restart the run. That said, I had a lot of fun with it, and it’s perfectly playable on a ROG Ally (and I imagine on Steam Deck as well). Levels have a time limit of 5 minutes, but you usually finish them much earlier, which allows for both quick runs and longer play sessions. Judging by the credits, the development team is quite small and this was their first creation—so kudos to them! In conclusion, I recommend buying it. It’s one of those small, lesser-known indie gems that truly deserves attention!

It is a pretty fun arcade/time management game. It does have a computer-y coat of paint, and the time-management aspect is there, but I would dispute it being a hacking game – it leans way more arcade, and the almost complete liberty it takes assigning IT terminology to its game mechanics and concepts removes any suspension of disbelief that would allow one to "feel like a hacker." It is just a neat little arcade game about jumping between nodes.

Very good!