Caltrops - Reviews - Re: DECKER: Best Rougelike ever (Note: Not an actual Rougelike)

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by Bananadine 09/09/2007, 7:20pm PDT

I like Decker. BUT DOES IT EVER END. I worked really hard and achieved all the highest achievements available, seemingly, and I'm still out there, risking my life for the sake of my anonymous clients.

It's kinda strange--I've clearly won the game; there might be a brief ending sequence that I've missed somehow, but it's very unlikely that there are further mechanics involved (like a boss battle analogue or some such). Yet I still want permission to stop playing. This clearly has much to do with the player, as well as with the game. :(

Also a couple of comments on the game design: I think file missions are too hard, and crashy/backdoory missions are too easy, because it's always simple (albeit not necessarily safe) to find the CPU but it's always very time-consuming to find the right files (even with the Clue system although that does help tremendously). On the other hand, you really can get a huge amount of money hunting through files if you get good at it and have the appropriate skills (incidentally I used Virus quite often as an alternative to Decrypt).

I agree that the balance between stealth and combat is totally awesome. I did lots of both and found myself in all possible permutations of resulting actions--sometimes I'd save a lot of time with good stealth, sometimes I'd save a mission that was aalllmost finished with a heroic bout of combat, sometimes I'd totally get my ass kicked because I wasn't stealthy enough, and sometimes I'd just pick a fight and kill everything out of sheer rage. Fun!

Not mentioned previously: The Boost programs are awesome. Except Analysis, which seemed completely useless. I got a mid-range Evaluate program fairly on and never felt the need to upgrade it. That was odd. And Confuse is good too--and Decoy. What a neat game, to provide so many options.

BUT I STILL PREFER NETHACK.