Lia: Hacking Destiny from Orube Game Studio is a fast-paced 2D action roguelite in which you’ll race against death. Learn more in our Lia: Hacking Destiny review!

 

Lia: Hacking Destiny from Orube Game Studio is a fast-paced 2D action roguelite in which you’ll race against death. You’ll be taking on the role of the titular character as you explore a world that has been overrun by machines after the evil MegaCorp took over things. How did it get to this in the first place? Well, MegaCorp basically ended up making the planet pretty much uninhabitable due to their greed. They did manage to build a ton of rockets so that people could migrate to what they called Earth 2.0. If your name were on the big list, odds were you’d get on one of the rockets and start anew at this location in the Alpha Centauri System. Unfortunately, they eventually ran out of rockets, leaving behind a good chunk of humanity.

With MegaCorp’s robots patrolling the streets and attacking any human on sight, you’re pretty much barely managing to get by as you try to stay off the robot patrol’s radar. You’ll need to make the most of the few resources you can get your hands on as you try to stay one step ahead of the robots, one run at a time. The game will throw you into procedurally generated maps that will change for each run that you take on, so you’ll always need to be on high alert.

 

After the intro cutscene is over, you’ll gain control of Lia by using the left analog stick as you jump and double jump by pressing the B button as needed. You can also wall jump as you explore each area. Attack enemies with your melee weapon by pressing the Y button. You can also shoot with your long-range weapon by pressing the X button. Do know that your long-range weapon will have limited ammo, so you’ll need to make every shot count! Your ammo will reload over time, but finding yourself without any bullets when there are plenty of enemies around you is certainly bad news.

Something to always keep in mind is that there are many cameras spread around the city. When you enter a camera’s line of sight, you’ll notice that your threat bar starts to increase. If the threat bar fills up, then your threat level will increase. This will, in turn, make the game a lot more challenging! When you’re at level 1 threat, hazards will be activated. If you move up to level 2 threat, then more enemies will appear in rooms. Managed to make it to level 3 threat? Then a sentinel will spawn and will hunt you down!

You can always try to destroy cameras before entering their line of sight, but sometimes this is not an option. For those scenarios, you might want to make good use of your dash ability so that you can try to get through a camera’s line of sight as quickly as possible. All you need to do is press the R button to dash forward. You can hack computer terminals to lower your threat level.

As you defeat enemies, you’ll gain experience points. Once you’ve filled up the bar, you’ll get to level up and will be rewarded with attribute points. These can be used back at the base with Lucas to upgrade your base stat values, which will, in turn, boost elements such as your health, melee damage, ranged damage, ammo capacity, shooting speed, move speed, and critical hit chance. That way, you’ll be able to improve your odds of survival and take on deeper subsequent runs. Spend your hard-earned attribute Points to level up Power, Aim, Dexterity, Speed, Technique, and Vigor as needed.

Lia: Hacking Destiny is a fast-paced 2D action roguelite in which you’ll race against death. You’ll be taking on the role of the titular character as you explore a world that has been overrun by machines after the evil MegaCorp took over things. How did it get to this in the first place? Well, MegaCorp basically ended up making the planet pretty much uninhabitable due to their greed. They did manage to build a ton of rockets so that people could migrate to what they called Earth 2.0. If your name were on the big list, odds were you’d get on one of the rockets and start anew at this location in the Alpha Centauri System. Unfortunately, they eventually ran out of rockets, leaving behind a good chunk of humanity.

The good news? A group of humans locates a hologram message from Dr. Rose, who says that there are still hundreds of rockets left from the Great Migration. All you need to do is find a Super-Reactor at MegaCorp’s headquarters to power up the rocket that can help you escape Earth. Just go through four huge industrial bases, defeat hundreds of robots and some bosses, and you’ll be good to go!

Collect new melee and ranged weapons as you move through each area so that you can deal more damage and have a better chance of reaching the final area, use attribute points to boost your base stat values, and always try to stay one step ahead of the robots. Use the money you collect to purchase power-ups for each particular run that can help you deal more damage from a distance, add a chance to spawn sharp shurikens when defeating an enemy with a melee weapon, or even sñpawn a turret drone that can follow you around while it deals extra damage to enemies. Lia: Hacking Destiny is out on Nintendo Switch with a $14.99 price tag.

Disclaimer
This Lia: Hacking Destiny review is based on a Nintendo Switch copy provided by Orube Game Studio.