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

Forum Overview :: Reviews

by Mischief Maker 03/17/2007, 8:23am PDT

Shadowrun for the Sega Genesis was a crappy game. The graphics were ugly, the music was horrible, the plot was crap, there were bugs everywhere, and it was an obvious rush job. That said, it was still an incredibly addictive game, what with the stat-boosting freedom it gave you along with its neverending gobstopper of random missions. The best part of the game was the computer h4x0ring part.

DECKER is a tiny game that takes the computer hacking of Shadowrun and turns it into an obsessive stat boosting min-maxing extravaganza. You take contracts, enter randomly generated computer systems, sneak your way to the objective, and hope like hell you either don't get caught or at least don't run into a black IC you can't handle. You start out living in poverty, hacking bait shops and radio shacks, and eventually living a life of wealth and luxury, hacking through the best megacorporate security can throw in your way. There's no plot or anything, just the cyberpunk setting and the eventual goal of boosting your reputation to "Master of the Matrix."

The best thing about this game is how it constantly puts you against problems that have multiple solutions. Do you invest all your skill and money into stealth programs, getting to your objective with minimal fuss, but risking that a single screwup will force you to abort? Do you buff up your combat programs, hoping to muscle your way through to the objective before the administrator shuts the system down? Or do you try to mix the two, silencing nodes and trying to kill the ICs present before any alarms can be raised? Can't find the program you're looking for in the shop? You can pay extra to special order it, or you can take some time off to program it yourself. Your rent is coming due, do you take the more difficult and lucrative mission, taking the risk that you'll come away empty handed with your reputation damaged, or do you stick with an easy mission and hope that you can find a few valuable datafiles on the side that you can sell to make up the money difference?

While you definitely need to spend some quality time with the help file to learn the functions of the programs and various nodes and all, this game's learning curve is the shortest of any rougelike. The entire game can be played point and click with the mouse and there're keyboard shortcuts for everything. Even better, passive programs like "Hide" and "Armor" run automatically.

On the downside, while gorgeous for a rougelike, the graphics are tiny and crap and the author freely admits drawing the whole thing in windows paint. Sound effects range from endearingly cheesy to irritating. Like all rougelikes, this game is really HARD at the beginning, though when you start the game it gives you the option of taking various stat boosts to help you out.

Fun, addictive, tiny, nonstop, the perfect rougelike. Solitaire is dead.