“One more game. Ok, no. Last round. Damnit. Ok...that one didn’t count.”
That’s what I sound like playing 868-HACK, a hacking roguelike that came out Friday for iOS from designer Michael Brough. Originally called 86856527 and it was created as part of the Seven-Day Roguelike competition.
It’s an incredibly addictive game, one that’s fairly simple to learn, yet hard to master. The gameplay is centered around data syphons, items you use to harvest resources from adjacent cells. Siphoning from nodes will yield new abilities, but at the same time will spawn programs to attack you. The game is a very finely tuned balance of risk and reward, and a poorly planned move can yield a fast, stupid death.
Also, it stars a Evil-Otto-from-Berzerk style smiley face. How can you hate on that? It’s available for download for £3.99/$5.99 on the App Store.