Chris InglisDROP is a rogue-like hacking simulator developed by Etherfield Studio and published by MicroProse. I have been playing the demo ahead of Steam Next Fest and it’s been a blast, sometimes literally. The game is simple to play with unique visual effects representing the network and nodes that you need to hack. The awesome soundtrack and electronic shrills really do evoke the thrill of hacking and it gets quite intense the more you play with difficult networks.
Set in the year 2067, the nations were the first to disconnect from the World Wide Web, creating their protected networks. When the megacorps followed suit, the process became unstoppable. This is the time of digital enclaves and virtual fortresses. A new Cold War of paranoia, isolation and industrial espionage. In this world of myriad disconnected networks, hackers thrive. It’s a dangerous job. Connect your cyberdeck to a local terminal. Hack into a network. Download valuable information and leave without a trace. You are one of these hackers in the city of Windport, formerly known as Portland, looking for the great opportunity.
A friendly fixer gives you your first cyberdeck to start your hacking career, and the first several hacks are quite easy. You see a network grid and initially you are shown just the one mission location. Each mission description tells you who sent you the job, what probable security systems to expect, the primary objective and the cash you will earn. Once you accept the mission, you’ll enter the network framework. You have objectives in the bottom left corner of the screen, and any time you come across a new type of node or objective, a tutorial screen pops up giving a good explanation for how to overcome the obstacle, or how to retrieve certain information from that new node type.
You can use keyboard to navigate but I found the controller to feel more natural, and I was able to react quicker with controller when the game gets intense as the networks get more complex. Our first few jobs just require us to find the owner of a node and then extract their security key or a document. As we start to complete more hacks, we get noticed by the Swarm, a notorious hacker community who give you more daring missions with higher risk.
As you earn money, shop locations open and you can buy upgrades for your tech, such as increased thread and CPU efficiency, allowing you to perform tasks faster. If you save up some money then you can afford devices that will automate your tasks quicker or highlight the path to mission critical nodes, but these things come with higher risk of alert and your firewall being attacked. If the alert level gets too high, then it will start to attack your firewall.
Your firewall has hitpoints which you can purchase upgrades in the stores, however if the firewall gets fully breached, the mission time limit starts to decrease fast creating a tense situation. You can restore the firewall by traversing the network back to the firewall and using processes to repair it. There is also a shortcut button to teleport back to the starting node for quick return. You will need to weigh up whether repairing the firewall is worth dropping focus on the primary and secondary objectives if you’re close to finishing and can escape in time.
The background music is great, suiting the cyberpunk hacking theme, and the beeps and other sounds get intense as the alert level increases, the timer speeds up and your firewall gets breached. Do you risk everything to try complete both primary and secondary objectives in order to get a bigger payout and upgrade your tech faster? Or do you play it safe and just get in, complete the primary task and get out? For me, the allure of completing all tasks was sometimes worth going for, and often I would fail but it is all a learning experience.
Overall, the DROP demo was a very fun experience being simple to play but difficult to master as hacks got more complex. The music is well suited and sound effects really do add to the intensity of trying to get the hack complete without getting caught. I am sure this demo will be well received during Steam Next Fest, and I am looking forward to the full game releasing soon.
This review utilised a demo key provided by MicroProse and the Drop demo will be available to play as part of Steam Next Fest.
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