Else Heart.Break()
So many bugs, so little help. You have to coax the game into continuing the storyline. God forbid you didn’t spend five to ten minutes walking back to the hotel to sleep at night, otherwise you might fall asleep before you finish a key plot point action that has roughly a minute-long window to do. The premise seemed fun, but I am having the hardest time even getting the first few things done.
The backpack system is a mess, especially given the fact that you’re going to want to collect every floppy disk you find. There are tons, so you’ll be constantly flipping through them, dropping them places you’ll hopefully remember you dropped them, and potentially rediscovering them later.
– Real player with 56.7 hrs in game
Read More: Best Atmospheric Indie Games.
This game drove me crazy. I finally finished it, but I wouldn’t have been able to without consulting the online forum repeatedly. There is a lot of great potential here, but most of it is wasted. The first thing to realize is that this is not a “programming game”, in the sense that none of the difficult aspects of the game have anything to do with tricky programming puzzles (unlike, say, Zachtronics games). This game is a role-playing point-and-click adventure that happens to feature programming (hacking) as a key component. The game features an in-game programming language called Sprak, which is a pretty simple imperative language that nobody with any programming experience will have any trouble with. However, very little real programming is necessary to progress in the game; usually you just modify tiny snippets of code and then you’re done. (Basically, the game makes you into a script kiddie.) The one difficult aspect of programming in the game is figuring out just which built-in commands are available. The game helps you a bit with this, but every programmable device has a different set of built-in commands, and some critical ones are only found in a few places. But the biggest problem with this game is the plot. The plot progression is wildly uneven, with long stretches where nothing is happening punctuated by short bursts where critical stuff is happening all at once. Plot triggers are very easy to miss, and if you do, you will wander around forever trying to figure out what you should be doing, while none of the in-game characters will talk to you. Worse, many triggers require you to behave in exactly the opposite way that the game suggests you ought to behave, or thwart your expectations in other ways. Contrarily, many things the game suggests you should be doing turn out to be completely unnecessary and a waste of time. The worst part of it, for me, was that the programming part of the game can’t start until you get a hold of something called a “modifier”, and it is by no means easy to do so. I probably played for 20 hours or so before giving up and consulting the forums to find out how to get this absolutely critical piece of equipment, without which the game cannot progress. The best (non-spoiler) advice I can give you is to talk to every person you meet, and keep talking until all possible conversation paths are exhausted. Also, the game world is large enough that it’s very easy to get lost, and although you have a map, it’s pathetically bad, with many important landmarks left off. And when you finally get a modifier, you still aren’t out of the woods. You have to figure out how to join a kind of “resistance” against an evil system, and again, it’s very easy to completely miss the trigger that will get you into this group. Once you do, the game (finally!) starts to take off. This is fun for a while, but nothing you do matters much until the final confrontation happens, which will be glaringly obvious. However (once again!) what you need to do to fix things will not be obvious, so you are left wandering around again while nobody will talk to you, wondering what you should be doing (this seems like a theme here). When you finally realize what you need to do, doing it is quite easy as long as you can get into a particular room. There are floppy disks scattered all around the world that contain hints and clues, as well as code examples that you can learn from. You will need to spend a lot of time looking at these unless you (like me) run out of patience and just consult the online forum, and then you can literally finish the game in five minutes. There are multiple endings: several “you lose” kind of endings and one “you win” ending which is so unsatisfying it feels like you just lost a bit less. To sum up, I think this game had huge potential, but it was ruined by poor execution. I almost can’t fault the developers for this; to do a game like this right requires more resources than a small team can provide. I think in the hands of someone like Valve, with expert writers and large numbers of playtesters, this game could have been something amazing. As it is, it’s more of a proof of concept. (OK, great, concept proved! Now go make a real game!) If you’re going to play this game, save yourself endless frustration and consult the online forums when you get stuck.
– Real player with 51.0 hrs in game
Algotica Iterations
2.5D logic puzzler with a bit of adventure thrown in. Vivid, colourful graphics and engaging gameplay but spoiled by sloppy execution.
You play as a little robot (I think there are 3 of them but if so they all look the same). You have to plan a route for him along catwalks to hit nodes and reach the exits. You do this by setting a series of actions (forward, backward, turn-left/right, activate, jump, attack…) and then running the program to set him in motion. You keep modifying the program until you get it right, so more often than not you’re running the program over and over, adding new steps to get further each time. You have a limited number of ‘memory cells’ (steps) to reach the exit and I vagely remember something about the less steps the better.
– Real player with 9.9 hrs in game
Read More: Best Atmospheric Indie Games.
Despite nice looks, I won’t recommend this game… At least for now. It certainly has a potential, but the execution is quite poor and raw. There are quite a few bugs in the game, which sometimes are irritating and make you restart the level, but nevertheless they aren’t crucial (as in you can still progress through game, because those bugs occur only occasionally). Besides all the bugs, my laptop cooler starts spinning like crazy whenever I run the game. Putting that aside, I wouldn’t say that the UI is that well-thought-out either. By that I mean, for example, that to exit the game, you need to first exit the level, then exit “the room”, and only after that, after you OPEN SETTINGS, you can quit the game. Not the most rational way to do it in my opinion. Another issue is, if for some reason I am to write all the robot’s actions one by one, they all don’t fit in the zone where you have all your commands pinned down! And there is no option in this scenario to scroll down to see what you have in the end of your program! And there’s many, many more of such mistakes.
– Real player with 7.7 hrs in game
hack_me
Hack Me is the beginning of a hack simulator gaming trilogy which no longer appears on the Steam Store. It was originally created by 2 Belarus Indie Developers Egor Magurin https://twitter.com/IndoversStudio and Eugene RadaeV. I find it ironic that these developers themselves were VAC banned and caught for cheating/hacking CSGO within 76 hrs of gameplay. Who better to sell us a hacking simulator than 2 has-been wannabe noob CSGO hackers? That’s poetry right there.
If you’re expecting this to be a realistic hacking simulator you will be quickly disappointed. It’s more a press spacebar or left mouse button simulator, with all the hacking jive being filled in for you. When you do come across area’s where you do get to type, you better put in the exact info needed or the game sort of locks up by not responding properly when you put in the correct answer soon thereafter. When this happens, you will need to escape back to main menu and reload chapter. There are 10 mission all up with 14 chapters, all of them involving you to toy around with at least one of the 3 hacking programmes on your desktop and either check your mail or chat for job information. There is also a hint button on the right-hand side to help you if you get stuck.
– Real player with 12.1 hrs in game
Read More: Best Atmospheric Indie Games.
Basic Information
Title: hack_me
Developers: Egor Magurin & Eugene Radaev
Publisher: MegawattsCo
Genre: Simulator
General Impression
Hacking simulations available for purchase on the Steam Store are neither a novelty nor even limited in numbers. Indeed this seems to be an ever expanding subgenre that attacts and nurtures a dedicated fanbase. That being said, hack_me might not revolutionize hacking sims but it doesn’t fail to deliver a compelling experience either. For a game that can be finished in about two hours or less (depending on how thorough and patient you are) it manages to offer exactly what it promises through the screenshots and gameplay video. In all honesty, it’s not the type of game that might get by with doctored images which would falsely advertise something else. What you see is what you get. Perhaps it still has some potential for gameplay expansion once it leaves Early Access stage.
– Real player with 2.6 hrs in game
Quadrilateral Cowboy
Quadrilateral Cowboy is a story about having those youthful, exciting, and often dangerous experiences with a really tight-knit group of friends as you journey through life together, and then growing old to reflect fondly on those memories.
It is all very beautiful to experience.
Half the game is a story that unfolds, and the other half is puzzle solving. The tale is quite moving, and the puzzles are very reasonably difficult, and quite rewarding. If you know Chung’s work, you know what to expect as far as the ‘experience’ or flavor. Otherwise, here is a test to gauge if you will like this game. If two of the three apply to you, then I highly recommend you buy it:
– Real player with 9.8 hrs in game
The game has some great ideas and nice attention to detail, but I felt like it never came together.
A lot of mechanics get introduced and then forgotten. New mechanics replace the old ones instead of building on them. There’s hardly any increase in complexity as you go along.
All the levels are simple and focused on 1 to 2 of the avialable mechanics. The rest is either not used at all or simply taken away from the player, sometimes for 1 mission and other times forever.
Because of all this, the game became way too easy later on. Instead of having puzzles to solve, you just go through the motions. Click this, click that, go here, go there. Some timer here and there. No challenge whatsoever. Not to mention you can ‘cheat’ your way though a lot of the levels.
– Real player with 6.8 hrs in game
Hacknet
shell
! 74.125.23.121
shell
! 216.239.32.181
shell
! 210.81.156.7
shell
! 206.44.131.159
connect
! 226.187.99.3
Scanning for
! 226.187.99.3 ……………………………..
Connection Established ::
Connected to
! EnTech_Offline_Cycle_Backup
! (Actually the credits server lol)
! 226.187.99.3@ probe
Probing
! 226.187.99.3 ………………………………
– Real player with 38.0 hrs in game
While this game is being sold as a “hacking simulator”, a debate will likely rage about what exactly it simulates. In either case, it comes suspiciously close to being a realistic simulation of hacking. So close, in fact, I’m left wondering why the dev didn’t go the extra yards to make it inarguably so (maybe something he can shoot for in the future). Realism nit-picking aside, this game is full of very realistic nods to hacker and IRC culture, and in broad strokes, represents some of what goes on in actual exploits. While the experience of compromising systems is streamlined for the sake of keeping it an actual game (again, is it a puzzle game or a simulator?), in that “push a button, get bacon” sort of way you see in “hacker” movies, there was still much in the game that reminded me of taking the OSCP (for those who know my pain, you will find much in each mission to make you smile in that corpse-like rictus you had while laughing at emails and files during enumeration pratice in the Offsec lab).
– Real player with 28.4 hrs in game
Monster Logic
One of the best programming games I’ve played. Lots of levels and a variety of interesting ways to solve each one.. Competitive leaderboards, the top score in some of these puzzle are already pretty crazy. You are going to have to be super creative in order to match them. There are three categories for the leaderboards and your best score in each category for the puzzle is automatically saved. (Zachtrnoics take note please)
I have played almost every programming game on steam and this is probably my second favorite. With my favorite being EXAPUNKS
– Real player with 86.9 hrs in game
First off, I was a beta tester and received the game for free.
It might be scary for those who are not particularly into programming to look at the store page and see stuff like “Based on esoteric programming languages Befunge and Trefunge”. It could make you think this game is “too niche” and not for you.
Now, I don’t know whether you’ll actually like it or not, but let me tell you this: I had never even heard of Befunge or Trefunge before playing this, and I’m not a programming enthusiast or anything. I just looked at it as a fun puzzle game with cute monsters and animations and tried to solve the levels as best I could using good old logic.
– Real player with 54.5 hrs in game
A Night Before the Deadline
This game was more than I was expecting. The atmosphere from the audio in game puts you on edge, the “story” (though I called it early) was something new (although very short). Took roughly 25 minutes to 100%. While the walking is rough and awkward at times, the sprint is bae.
Overall, it was very short, but definitely made me feel uncomfortable with the atmosphere. The mini games were different, and it felt like a good start to something!
– Real player with 3.2 hrs in game
A Night Before the Deadline
Enjoyable for the short time on offer, with just enough variety to keep it interesting. The controls are terrible and the searching is a little tedious. I’d maybe recommend it in a sale.
A Night Before the Deadline is an adventure game set in the IT department of an office block. The deadline for an important piece of software is due for completion tomorrow, and Joe must stay late to complete the work.
– Real player with 0.9 hrs in game
OS:Path
Was having fun and it shows great promise, but it is painfully short. - was very frustrated when it ended. Most of my shown playime is waiting for text to appear and afk making my lunch. I would have spent around 15 minutes actually doing something.
– Real player with 2.7 hrs in game
The game is quite short. It’s a really cool idea. The game engine seems solid. I only wish there was more content. The developer has suggested more content, if the game does well enough.
I had issues with the game on my Debian machine. See forum for solutions. The developer has been very responsive.
Ultimately, it’s worth the price, if nothing else to support an good developer.
– Real player with 2.4 hrs in game
Zero Page
Zero Page is a single-player survival horror puzzle game that dares you to survive the horror of solving puzzles by yourself in space. If that wasn’t horrifying enough, you’re also going to have to solve them on a deserted spaceship using the only piece of equipment that still works: a personal computer from 1981. But with a little bit of BASIC and a lot of high-stakes debugging, you might just live long enough to find out why you’re alone, why you’re in space, why you’re on a dying ship circling an unknown planet, and why that ship wants to kill you.
Back to BASIC
Find out if you’re smart enough to not die in space, armed only with a machine that struggles to count higher than 256 — a highly accurate recreation of a classic 1980s personal computer, complete with floppy discs and a joystick.
A Game About Thinking (The Thinking Man’s Shooting)
Put that laser gun back in your space pants. You’re going to have to program your way out of this problem, by writing code that actually physically changes your environment.
Also a Game About Action (The Action Man’s Thinking)
You won’t just be sitting at an old computer — well, you will, but not fictionally. In addition to programming, you’ll also get your hands dirty resurrecting an ancient spacecraft — patching critical holes, pressing important buttons, and bringing systems back online so they can start keeping you alive again.
One Dreamer: Prologue
Well, the fact that I have more than ten hours of gameplay might scare some people. But relax, it’s completely optional, but you’ll have a long journey if you want to have all the acheviements. The game itself gives you the option to “facilitate”
• The story is simple. But extremely good. So if you don’t want to have all the achievements, the story will entertain you anyway (you won’t regret playing)
• The settings are perfect, and basically, the graphics will make you “happy”. It’s something that brings harmony to the eyes, even being something simple
– Real player with 11.1 hrs in game
Depending on what you’re looking for in this prologue, it could be very short, and it could also be frustratingly long.
My first run playing through this game took me 25 minutes. I focused on the story and primarily made the necessary coding changes to proceed through the game. I also unlocked 3 of the achievements then.
I spent a little over 3 hours stuck in the secret area until I finally decided to relent and check the Discord server to find out that I had to close the game to get out of there. I spent around 7 minutes beating the UwU/OwO game fairly and between 5 to 8 minutes for the P/\DDLE game. I spent the rest of the time unlocking the other achievements and looking for the 1D codes.
– Real player with 5.0 hrs in game