Drop: System Breach

released on Mar 28, 2023

Welcome to Drop, a fast-paced action-strategy hacking simulator. Ready to hack your way to fame and fortune while avoiding getting caught? Use stealth and cunning to maneuver between the ongoing power struggle of corporations and factions to control the fragmented networks in the city.


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very cool hacky game that feels that nails 1 player Overcooked-like experience

but where Overcooked creates tension by punishing badly cooked food, DROP allows you to serve burnt steaks all day.

sadly that means you can dirty hack through pretty much the entire game without any incentive to be stealthy. brute forced my way through this thing once i got a feel for it

far (FAR) too long and suffers greatly from pacing issues, with a few wild difficulty spikes thrown into the mix

chunky emails between missions supposedly deliver a cool scenario but, it's all way too bloated

which is a shame bc there's genuinely awesome gameplay in here, and i think there's a version of this is which is way shorter/ tighter, and all the more thrilling for it

still finished it bc it made my brain go brrr in a way i couldn't let go, despite all of the above. it really does nail 'hacking' on a pad.

Got a little repetitive towards the end, with a sharp difficult spike for the last two 'drops'. Ending wasn't quite as interesting as I hoped it would be. Sounds blended together a bit when things got busy, but the visuals were nice to look at.

I'm pretty upset at how Drop: System Breach had me liking it before getting very bored and then really hating it.

This entire game feels like it should be another game's hacking minigame. That's fine, because initially I enjoyed performing "drops": quick, simple sprints to get into a system, complete a couple small tasks, and get out in under the 5 minute limit. This goes on for several hours and while things do slightly change -- such as new defensive programs to learn about countering and upgrading your rig with new hard- and software -- you see the core concept in its first ~20 minutes and there's just not much else to it. You're going to get sick of it. The game has movement keys and 2 primary buttons so it's certainly not trying to be Uplink.

There's a plot, sort of: You're a rookie hacker on the scene makin' big waves at the local internet cafe with your uber 1337 skillz before you pick up a data packet you can't open nor get rid of. The game mostly revolves around what you downloaded and what to do about it. I suppose if you know about current topics in technology, you can likely guess what it is and (if you enjoy sci-fi) what becomes of it. It's not very complicated but it's fine, whatever.
The problem is that's only part of it. You're a pretty independent dropsman, so you can choose which missions you want to do and who you work for, but this feels like an entirely pointless system. Sometimes there's 4 missions to choose from, and though they've got different initiators, targets, and objectives, it doesn't matter at all what you choose: you're going to get a message telling you “Good job!” (sometimes, it's from the people you just targeted(?)) and after a few of these, you'll get more intel about that "important data" and a “story” mission, which'll just be more of the same.
Why even bother letting me choose my mission when they completely blur together and nothing I do has consequences? The objectives barely matter, you'll become a master almost immediately running on autopilot. No matter what your mission is, you're going to go in and farm as much of the cash sitting around as you can, tick the box of whatever you're there to do (almost always “Find the system to press 'A' on”), then leave. All missions have the same base pay, which is never enough; it's only when you're committed to a drop that you can see the potential earnings inside after exploring the entire system. Outside of a few rarities, drops will only take you 3 minutes and you're going to do (what feels like, anyways) hundreds of them.

That's my long way of saying “It gets repetitive, fast.”

The last two missions (after, again, countless cookie-cutter jobs) are the only ones I can think of that have any variety and they're both pretty miserable. The penultimate level teaches you to ignore everything about how you have been playing for several hours and instead blitz through as fast and as dirty as you can. I don't know if I can describe the last mission too well if you haven't played the game, but basically the difficulty is ramped up from the “2” it has been sitting at since the beginning and is now at a red hot “10”.
The 5 minute time limit is still here, and every hit through your firewall shortens that. The final boss is hitting you constantly and when you complete one of your 5 required objectives, they PAUSE YOUR INPUT to taunt you a bit. You're just stuck sitting there and guess who isn't? The asshole who's gonna plummet your time to 0 while you can do absolutely nothing about it. Dogshit boss.
Don't like your upgrade build for this suddenly completely different style of play? Oh well, bud.

There's a bit to like here before there absolutely isn't. Its simplicity is charming but there's nothing going on anywhere, really, so the whole thing gets stale soon. All so you can beat a final boss that is insanely tough (especially considering the rest of the game) and get an email saying “Wow, that sure was whacky, huh?? See ya later!” and credits roll.
I went with 2 stars because I did have fun for a while... before the slow betrayal.

I do not recommend Drop: System Breach. It's probably bad for your vision.

Despite what may look like as simple screenshots, Drop is a deeply engaging and fast action hacking game that really makes you feel the tension of getting in and out of the system.

The mechanics are introduced in a very good pace that let's you get used to the systems and start mastering your movement through the networks and at the same time increasing the intensity and adding tools to make your job more efficient. And despite adding a lot to keep track of, the sound design is so good that just by hearing things you'll start to notice dangers that need your attention, or if process has already ended. The UI is also incredibly intuitive, when everything clicks, it really does make you feel like you are a master at your job.

The real genius comes from each mission time limit, you'll always have 5 minutes to complete a drop, and this not only increases the tension but also makes you consider how much further you can push to get more credits, it also adds a certain addictiveness of "just one more drop".

There is also a story, but as it is told through text messages from a bunch of different NPCs and organizations, you do have to be paying some attention to remember what each organization does and who is working for what, it did get a bit confusing at some points for me, but the overall plot is simple enough.

In the end the beauty here is the simplicity, everything seems incredibly thought out so you can glance and know what situation you are in and have the reflexes to solve it. Drop is fast, thrilling and super satisfying to play.