PC REVIEW | NET.ATTACK

Over the last two weeks, I’ve reviewed a couple of survival‑type games, and during that time I have developed an overwhelming appreciation and addiction to them. Net.Attack is probably one of my favourites I have played so far, as it genuinely offers an interesting twist to the tried and tested survival formula. ByteRockers’ Games have separated the choice between choosing a buff or a weapon, and instead decided to give you buffs only from levelling up, but have given players the ability to hard code their own attacks out of the 190 nodes available in the game.

This creates an interesting, almost infinite way to play the game by utilising thousands of different combinations of attack patterns, leaving no two playthroughs the same. It is genuinely one of the most creative ideas I’ve seen in a survival game, and I would be confident in saying one of the most creative ideas I’ve seen in a game, period.

Things I liked!

• Beautiful Sprite Work | Net.Attack is a very pretty game. It has very clean and sharp sprite work that is simple but colourful and matches the theme well. The geometry of the characters is simple, but if you think of things like CPUs, GPUs, transistors, and capacitors, then a lot of these share very similar design elements of being simple in design. Using this style for enemies helps bring the theme of being a computer programme navigating through a circuit board and attacking the virus that has infected your computer. The effects are also on theme and look good.
  
  Towards the end of each level, you will have to make your way to the exit within sixty seconds or get killed by the virus as it closes in on you. It is a big red circle that has glitchy effects but also looks like circuit board burn. It changes the look of the map and is very detailed.
  
  
• Infinite Attack Options | By far the biggest selling point of Net.Attack is the ability to code your own attacks using a series of nodes that are commonly found in visual scripting. This is where the game really shines. Pressing E at any time will allow you to enter the coding area of the game, where you are given a series of starting nodes. These are usually in the format of On Tick, which has your code fire off every second. From here, you drag out of the exit pins and connect them to other nodes that execute on that second. For example, a pulse node fires a short laser beam in the direction of the enemy. Connect that up, and you fire every second. Simple!
  
  There are then additional nodes you can add, such as For Each Loops, which will fire multiple times on tick, and combined with multi pulse nodes, you end up firing up to 8 times a second. The combinations are almost limitless with the 190 nodes available in the game.
  
  
• The Music | The music is punchy and energetic, and features a decent soundtrack throughout all of the levels that you play. It is a fusion of retro and sci-fi, which produces a fast paced, almost ethereal, at times psychedelic tune that will have you bobbing your head to the sound of the beat. It isn’t distracting from the game in the slightest and adds a lot to the overall energy of the game. Sound effects are minimal but suit the theme of the game. Lasers, explosions, damage, and level transition sounds are all simple but effective. Lasers sound like classic 80s movie lasers, with explosions not being overbearing.
  
  
• Tons of Unlockable Characters | Net.Attack has a metric ton of playable characters to unlock. Each character comes with their own set of levels also. So much so that the game genuinely took me well over twenty hours to unlock every character. To unlock them, you save the money you earn from finishing levels and purchase them on the main screen. From here, you then enter their circuit board area and complete the seven levels for that character.
  
  In terms of variation of levels, there isn’t much; it all looks very similar, but they do offer harder challenges. So if you think the starting character is too easy, just unlock one of the many characters and give yourself a harder challenge.
  

• Mid-run Abilities | During each run, you will level up from killing enemies on the circuit board. In turn, they will drop experience points for you to collect, which will grant you passive abilities. This is where Net.Attack differs from other survival based games on the market. Usually, these will offer you weapons or buffs, whereas this game only offers you buffs towards your health, damage, luck, and speed. The attacks are purely dealt with in the coding area.
  
  I really enjoyed this take on the levelling up system because it feels different and also feels like you are getting not only one choice to choose from. You could argue that this makes you a little overpowered, but the amount of health some of these enemies have during a run makes it an even challenge.

Mixed & disliked!

• RNG based shop | By far my biggest issue with Net.Attack is that the shop where you can purchase new nodes to code your attacks is purely RNG based. This creates an issue in that there will be many times that you simply can’t code the attack patterns that you want or need because nodes don’t have an exit (which means the code ends at that node), or they are new On Tick nodes, which means additional attacks can be placed next to them to increase the number of attacks you do per second.
  
  So you either re-roll continually until all of them are gone, or you spend money that is needed to buy the nodes before you get something good. In my experience, with a game that features so many different nodes to choose from, it would have been nice to see some of the heavy hitting nodes make an appearance as much as the common ones.

• Repetitive Combat | This isn’t exclusive to Net.Attack but rather an issue with survival games in general. Combat does get repetitive quite quickly, and unless you have a decent attack code set up, combat can feel repetitive. Aiming for that coveted “God Status” is what keeps you from feeling like levels drag on. However, Net.Attack does have an average play time set for each level, which isn’t too bad in my opinion. Some people may find issue with it, but it is something you will become aware of given my comments about the RNG based shop above.
  
  
• Same Enemy Types | Net.Attack doesn’t have a lot of different enemy types. This may be because of the theme of the game and having them represent simple circuit board objects. I do believe, though, that not everything should be “gamified” to the point where realism has to meet in the middle. I would say a healthy amount of enemy types would have made the combat feel less repetitive, and it could have even been something simple like making a certain enemy type smaller and faster, or having a bigger enemy shoot faster at you. Too many times you will come across the same enemy type and know exactly how long it will take to defeat it or what the best course of action to avoid it is.
  
  

CONCLUSION

Score: 75/100

Net.Attack is a simple yet fun game to play if you have an hour or two to kill from time to time. It prides itself on bringing a unique mechanic to the survival roguelike genre, but trips over itself in longer play sessions with its repetitive gameplay loop. The almost infinite combination of attack patterns does make you feel extremely powerful, though, when you finally manage to get the nodes you want from the store.

Aaron

Gaming is in my blood.  Be it handheld games, Xbox, PC, Switch or Playstation, I am all over it.
I make my own games as part of my profession and love playing co op games with friends in my spare time. Avid dog lover and camper van enthusiast.