DROP System Breach Review (Steam)

by Jim Smale · Published April 28, 2023 · Updated April 27, 2023

For our DROP System Breach Review, may we welcome you 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.

DROP System Breach Review Pros:

Nice graphics.
616.36MB download size.
Steam achievements.
Controller support.
Arcade hacking gameplay.
Normal and hardcore modes.
Presented as an old-school computer interface.
Tutorial sequence with ongoing tutorial pop-ups.
Best played with a controller.
Puzzle gameplay.
End of level breakdown and rewards of credit.
Tutorial pop-ups as you play.
The story is told via in-game email messages.
Simple controls.
Click a mission marker and get info like the source of the file, objectives, and mission name.
Tasks can vary from finding information to installing spyware or finding viruses in networks.
City/hardware heaven is a shop of sorts where you can upgrade things like CPU speed or thread capacity.
World map level select.
At times you will get choices on which missions to take on.
Optional bonus objectives.
An enemy core is defending system of networks and can attack you when inside the network, each time it hits you, the time limit goes down faster.
Alert level goes up as you take longer and get detected. This bar dictates how much of a time punishment you get.
It is satisfying once you get going and finish a mission.
Firewall hubs allow you to negate damage from enemy cores, it is possible to use a process to heal the firewall.
Handy button to jump straight to your core so you can heal, press it again to go back to the last location.
Later levels do make you feel badass like when you have to go into a drive and filter through files to download a particular one then disconnect before being noticed.
Clear instructions in terms of what to do.
Objectives turn blue to say you’ve done them.
Huge emphasis on time and clearing a mission as fast as possible.
Log files trigger every action you do and after ten the alert level goes up one. You can hack the log database and delete log files one by one but it does take time.
Daemons can be unlocked later on and these automatically exchange data for credit.
Find raw data hubs to trigger your Daemon tool and drain all the data.
The hardware haven shop unlocks new abilities that help a lot like marking objectives in the mainframe or autonomously connecting to hubs.
The guide’s directories allow you to reread tutorials.
Gets quite addictive.

DROP System Breach Review Cons:

A lot to take in.
The manuals you have are extensive and very daunting.
Not as fun to play with a keyboard.
It takes a while to even know what the game is and what your role entails because it feels like it plays itself for the most part.
Not sure how long installing viruses and spyware will take.
It feels like guesswork most of the time.
No replay value.
Achievements don’t pop until after I close the game down.

DROP System Breach:

Official website.

Developer: Etherfield Games

Publisher: MicroProse

Store Links –

Steam

7/10
Graphics - 7/10
7/10
Sound - 7/10
6/10
Accessibility - 6/10
8/10
Length - 8/10
9/10
Fun Factor - 9/10

7.4/10

Summary

The game started off confusing the hell out of me, I don’t know why but I couldn’t fathom what the plan was here. I seemed to just guess and press my way through a connection and I got money for it? It wasn’t u til I just kept clicking that it started to form in my mind, now not everyone is as slow as me thank god so il break it down for you. Despite what I said earlier, this game is clearly more of a time-stress management game than a puzzler. You are a hacker and you access hubs and networks, you have a goal like taking a data key off someone or installing spyware or whatever it is, you need to connect to a hub to have the next connected one show up and so on, you do this until you have achieved the goal and disconnect all within a time limit. The time limit seems basic but it gets a lot more later on for the networks will start sending attacks to you and your firewall takes damage (you can heal them but again it takes time), you accumulate logs and every ten will up the alert level so you have to hack the log server and delete this but that takes time away. It’s this nonstop I haven’t got time to read gameplay that keeps you playing for ages and losing track of time. I was not a believer at the beginning but by the end, I was a fan. Give it a try as it will surprise you and it makes you feel like a competent hacker.