Super Hack Override is a quick filler game where players will attempt to earn the respect and adoration of their fellow hackers without drawing too much attention to themselves. Take down too many government systems and you’ll be put in hacker jail for sure.
It’s designed to be played with just a deck of cards and plays 2-6 players in about 15 minutes.
Gameplay Overview:
In Super Hack Override you will attempt to reach a threshold of hacked cred to win the game without surpassing the maximum number of government hacks you can perform. Each hack has a special ability you get to execute when you play it from your hand, and a number of hacker cred associated with it. Many of the hacks also trigger a “proxy swap” allowing you to switch hacks between players, including unplayed hacks that are still in each player’s hand.
Once an opponent plays a hack and makes it public, you can also perform that hack and resolve its special ability. This will cause the card to return to that player’s hand, lowering their cred and making it harder for them to reach the amount needed to win the game.
If a hacker ever has more government hacks than the maximum (which scales based on player count) they are eliminated from the game. Once a player has accumulated enough hacker cred—or are the only player not eliminated—they win!
Game Experience:
The theme is without a doubt what drew me into Super Hack Override. It seems like it is right out of the movie Hackers, throwing around a lot of terminology and making players feel like with just a few keystrokes (or card plays) they will bring down the big, bad government. Unfortunately, it fails to deliver that feeling.
There comes an inflection point where maybe you decide to try to eliminate players by giving them the big government hacks rather than trying to accumulate cred yourself, but that is about the only decision you ever make. The government hacks are worth 7-10 cred each, so you have to play some to win the game. But without some of the higher value non-government hacks (i.e. the 5 and 6 point cards) it’s incredibly difficult to win.
Players will spend way too much time counting up exactly what everyone’s cred is currently at. Playing a card and taking some unexciting action, and then moving cards between players. There are no clever moments to be found. Nothing surprising will ever happen. There are only 10 different card actions in the entire deck and many of them are very, very similar.
Especially at lower player counts—either when the game starts or after some players are eliminated—Super Hack Override drags on for what feels like forever. One player can play a card just to have it bounced back to their hand immediately. Theoretically you wouldn’t keep doing the same loop forever, but one player has to blink and try to do something else.
Final Thoughts:
With a larger variety of cards and some better artwork, Super Hack Override could have had something going for it. As it is, there isn’t enough here to recommend it to anyone. Super Hack Override is a rare 10-20 minute game that overstays its welcome. You will repeat the same actions over and over, and opponents can undo any progress you make with there being little you can do about it. Super Hack Override is more of an exercise in futility than fun.
Final Score: 1 Star – Neat theme but poor execution.
Hits:
• I’ve always wanted to be a hacker.
Misses:
• Most of the cards do the same thing.
• Drags out especially are lower player counts.
• Very few decisions to make or interesting moments.
