Lia: Hacking Destiny - Review

Pure fast paced frenetic fun and silliness atop a layer of cyberpunk social commentary, all wrapped up in an adorable art style and upbeat soundtrack.

"Lia: Hacking Destiny" is addictive. That feels like the most important place to start. Just the absolutely frustratingly addictive nature of this game. I've never been a huge fan of roguelites but I found myself white knuckling the controller, audibly reacting to deaths with loud shrieks and squeaks that I couldn't even attempt to replicate, then hopping straight back in for another run in spite of terrible carpal tunnel pain from the last dozen. I have no idea how this game managed to evoke such absolute visceral reaction seemingly without even trying.

Typical roguelite elements, great generative levels, fun side platformer style chaos, most of all I found it tremendously endearing and just downright addictive. It's a silly game. It rejects any pretense of seriousness that comes with the themes inherent to the post-apocalyptic cyberpunk genre while embracing them in their most memeified form. The CAPTCHA mini game is only a few seconds but it entirely encapsulates that rejection. In order to lower your security rating you must prove you ARE a robot by solving a CAPTCHA, differentiating things like chihuahuas and blueberry muffins, or sloths and coconuts. Between those and the optional mini boss battle to rescue cats from being enslaved and used to farm funny video content, the game encapsulates a certain nostalgic joy in its callback to the classical era of memes. Plenty of great roguelites and side platformers to out there, but what Lia offers is a unique sense of addiction that feels reminiscent of the internet experience it harkens back to. I miss that era, my dudes.

The pixel art style is pretty cute but the brief bits of additional art and animation are spectacular, I would've loved to see it a bit more frequently. The soundtrack is masterfully done. Not intrusive, but very aesthetically engaging. It worms its way into your brain as you're playing and it almost became a part of my play rhythm. Chop, shoot, slice, dash, dash, dash, just hitting the beat while you're playing feels good, man.

Gameplay is frenetic, fast paced, and frustrating as all hell up until you've got some upgrades and gadgets. Once you've got those and your preferred weapons, play style, and power ups locked in, you become an absolute menace. Those are received semi-randomly during your runs, so it takes a bit of play style flexibility to match the combinations you're able to get your hands on. Amazingly, my game beating run was without the benefit of any of my favorite upgrades or weapons. That mid run surrender to the hand I'd been dealt and the accompanying overhaul of my approach sent me into full ninja mode in ways I didn't even realized were possible. I cleared entire rooms in a zig zag of lighting, kunai knives, and a slew of explosives in a single non stop motion. Right through the final boss that run felt like perfect fluidity, just pure muscle memory and ultra instinct. That said, you might never play a zoomy ninja run. Either by choice or by the randomness of the available weapons and power ups. There's so many ways to clear rooms, and there is absolutely no wrong way to approach it. I had some fairly successful slow stealth runs, melee focused runs, and ultimately spent most of my time trying a ranged style. None of those were remotely similar to my ninja run.

I have basically no complaints. I ran into 2 minor glitches on the same run. On one I got Lia stuck inside a wall, thankfully I was able to resolve it by teleporting to a different room. However, if I hadn't unlocked teleporting yet I would've had to end that run. In the other a health potion got stuck in a wall in the same manner with no way to recover it. Ran perfectly every other run. Finishing off the final achievements is a bit of a pain. At this point I just need to raise the security alert and die on purpose a few more times, then grind through runs until I can max out all the gadgets. However, it's worth noting that this is the first game in a while I've felt absolutely compelled to 100%. I have nothing else "negative" to say about this game. Not one of these can actually be called a "problem," and in no way impeded my enjoyment.

All things considered, Lia: Hacking Destiny is a solid 4/5. Pure fast paced frenetic fun and silliness atop a layer of cyberpunk social commentary, all wrapped up in an adorable art style and upbeat soundtrack. I got exactly the game I thought I was buying and I couldn't be happier about it.

Review by Mika Reed

@MikaReedWrites | MikaReedWrites@gmail.com

All images from the Lia: Hacking Destiny Steam page and are courtesy of Orube Game Studios www.orubegamestudio.com