@mcc sorry if this is a dumb q but thought I'd ask since you've praised the game so much: do you have any recommendations for getting into 868-back? I have tried the demo for a couple of hours and am kinda bouncing off of how much of a wall it puts up to new players. does that mean it's not for me or is there some stuff I should try to get into the swing of it
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@jcoglan HACK is very hard and it takes awhile to complete even a single run through the Mainframe. But once you've finished a few runs in HACK, a switch flips and you "get it" and you're instead trying to see how many runs in a row you can get. BACK, of course, expects you to complete 15 (!) runs so you will not complete BACK unless you can get into that mode.
I think if you play HACK at least until you hack the mainframe once, you will find BACK makes a lot more sense.
@jcoglan If that's "too much hacking" here are some suggestions that might help unblock you staying inside BACK:
1. Focus on just completing one run. Don't think about the map or the 15 day span. You just want to finish one run.
2. IGNORE SCRIP COMPLETELY UNTIL YOU ARE GOOD
3. Play *slow*. Every single time you press a key in this game is a potential to lose.
4. Particularly think about "positioning". Most conflicts with enemies come down to whether you can "chokepoint" their path toward you
@jcoglan (In other words think about whether you are in a "safe" place, especially when you siphon.)
@jcoglan Hey, actually, I do have a pretty specific suggestion:
- Play 868-HACK first
868-HACK is a very stripped down version of the game, 868-BACK pretty much incorporates the entire first game while expanding on it, and on reflection it's possible that 868-BACK "assumes" you played the first game, design-wise. Also story-wise it's implied BACK happens 10 years after HACK so aesthetically it's easy to imagine HACK as your college years, a dark room, an old computer, BACK as the "future"