868-BACK Review

Did you know there’s a difference between roguelites and roguelikes? Unless you’re really into the genre as a whole, odds are you’ve only played the former. The latter are rare, and that’s for a reason. Games like Wardrum, Galactic Vault and Hades (depending on who you ask) are all roguelites, with a "T". They have meta progression systems, combat that isn’t strictly turn-based, and plenty of features designed purely for player convenience. All three games are genuinely fun to play, and even though they’re not for everyone, anyone can pick them up and still find some aspect to enjoy.

Despite 868-BACK’s presentation, it actually isn’t a title about hacking, at least in the traditional sense. Its core gameplay doesn’t involve writing code, and you don’t have to wear fingerless wool gloves while playing. Instead, each one of its runs plays out similarly to those in titles you’ve probably enjoyed before. Your goal is always the same: to manoeuvre your way through a virtual depiction of a series of servers using mechanics that are essentially turn-based, while acquiring resources and powerups. You also have to either kill or avoid enemy pixels, and when you inevitably die, your run is permanently over.

What sets 868-BACK apart from its competitors is how much depth there is to its gameplay. There are dozens of different abilities you can acquire, a huge roster of enemies to fight, and even a solid variety of maps. You’ll never know what the game is going to throw at you, and dealing with all of its moving parts requires genuine skill. That’s frustrating at first, but the better you get at 868-BACK, the more rewarding the game becomes. You’ll never have an easy run, and so making it to the end of one is gratifying in a way that almost no other title is.

868-BACK would be worth recommending on its gameplay alone. In spite of, or maybe because of, its brutal difficulty, it’s a legitimately great tactics game. You may not feel like an actual hacker while playing, but you will have a ton of fun. 

However, there’s more to 868-BACK than clicking on sprites and moving around the complex mazes of tiles that act as its maps. Surprisingly, the game has a story, and it’s not a bad one. The reason you have to hack into servers is because they’re run by evil corporations. Your character doesn’t have anything in the way of an arc, but uncovering what makes the game’s version of hypercapitalists worth destroying is interesting. 

‍868-BACK’s audiovisual design isn't flashy, but it is exceptionally effective. The soundtrack is fantastic, and its graphics are similarly worth writing about. Like in most roguelikes and/or roguelites, there’s always a ton of information on your screen. However, the title’s user interface never feels cluttered, and it works exceptionally well. 868-BACK nails the cyberpunk aesthetic its developers were obviously going for without making you feel like you stepped back in time to when CRT monitors were considered the peak of technology.

In spite of everything 868-BACK does well, which is pretty much everything, it’s still not a game for everyone. It's a genuinely punishing title without a single feature that makes it easier to play. That difficulty is by design, though. 868-BACK is a roguelike, not a roguelite, and it’s one of the best on the market. Its gameplay is stupidly rewarding once you get over how frustrating it is, and there’s a good story to uncover, too. You’ll frequently want to throw your computer into a dumpster while playing, and yet odds are you’ll immediately queue up another run anyway.