Cyber Shard Clicker

It's hard to mess up these incremental games, but this one manages it. It just isn't fun. The main limitation you run into is just waiting for the right enemy to spawn as you collect tons of resources that ultimately mean nothing after a you get the few upgrades for it. Also, some of the audio and visual often unsatisfying and even annoying. What is that annoying sound that plays all the time - is it an enemy attacking me? Why do my turrets not shoot half the time? Why is there a "coin" currency always on display, despite it being used only for a few upgrades and never again? What is the point of XP? Why are there level gates on the difficulties, even though there is absolutely no way I'll have the resources required to unlock the next difficulty before hitting the level requirement?

I had fun with it. The pace seemed to be a little sluggish in the middle, but eventually I powered through (total game time under 13 hours, so wasn't a real struggle) and finished the game. While not redefining the genre, it was compelling enough to play through until the end. For the price, it was well worth the numbers going up for a few hours.

The story isn’t that important. You’re a hacker employed by a corporation to train and manage its defense AI against hackers with less noble intentions. Your job is to move the crosshair over targets moving across the screen and keep it on them to attack. Attacks happen automatically, so all you have to do is move the cursor. Time is limited, and since you’re very weak at the start, you’ll only be able to destroy one threat.

However, losing is part of the game. Each destroyed threat earns you credits and materials that are spent on upgrades. The upgrade tree starts with a single upgrade in the center, while the rest remain hidden. Once you purchase an upgrade, new ones connected to it are revealed. The only thing missing is a visual aid showing which upgrades you can afford; without it, you have to hover over each upgrade individually to check.

Some upgrades can be purchased multiple times to boost their effectiveness, but you don’t need to max them out to unlock the next one. All upgrades are interesting; some provide standard perks such as increased damage, a larger crosshair that hits more targets, faster attacks, and so on, while others introduce new elements.

For instance, you can buy a defense turret, a lightning strike to accompany your normal attack, a defender that automatically generates money from the upgrade screen, or a stronger attack triggered by left-clicking. The downside is that some of these special upgrades aren’t very useful. The turret, for example, does very little damage, and the orbs that float around you seem to do nothing at all.

Better upgrades require special materials called shards. These come in various colors and correspond to the shapes you’re destroying. The green circle is the weakest, followed by the stronger red square, then the even stronger blue triangle, and so on. To spawn new shapes, you first need to buy the corresponding upgrade and defeat a boss. Doing so unlocks defense tiers that replace the weaker starting shapes with stronger ones.

Another currency type is vault keys. These also come in three varieties and are used to unlock certain upgrades. However, they can also be spent for free resources. Eventually, you’ll accumulate so many keys that it’s best to use them regularly.

Unfortunately, the spawn rate for the other two key types appears to be broken. I was able to finish the game without ever seeing them. On the bright side, the upgrades they unlock aren’t essential and won’t prevent you from reaching the end. The game’s length feels perfect for this genre, just a couple of hours, and you can earn all achievements by defeating all three bosses.