A place to discuss things we have discovered and ask for help from other cyber viking warriors of Giant Bomb.

There are a lot of good posts in the steam forums for it, but the general ones I can remember:

For Hacking, to make it simple, go Shield > Shield > Overflow > Attack. Keep repeating this and you'll win. If you're looking good, you can keep attacking rather than repeating the whole formula.

Endurance and Accuracy should not be neglected even if you're focusing on hacking/stealth. Accuracy should really only be ignored if you're doing a melee only character.

If not going to be doing any melee at all, still look between whether it'll be better to increase Strength instead of Speed. Speed makes you faster, but Strength lowers weight encumberance. Early on, sometimes it may be better to raise strength than speed, until you get diminishing returns.

Also, even though it's currently in broken english at times, check through the tutorial videos. (Apparently the developers are working on a better translation patch right now.)

There are apparently 4 endings in the game. No one's gotten the 4th which is considered the True Ending by the devs. The developers are looking at making the 4th easier to obtain in their upcoming megapatch.

would this game run on a laptop with integrated graphics? my laptop runs other source engine games well.

@MrFlibble said:

would this game run on a laptop with integrated graphics? my laptop runs other source engine games well.

I've been having some problems running it. I've even created a thread asking for help because, as you say, it's a Source game and it should run fine... I wouldn't risk it, to be honest. Wait for a sale before buying if you don't meet the recommended requirements. $20 is quite a lot to throw away if the game doesn't work.

What i've figured out so far:

Hacking: method i've found that works for hacking is to apply "mask" (reduces target's attack) until the target's attack reaches 0 and maintain that system. The target will then spend all it's turns buffing itself with "overflow" (increases attack but decreases defense)

Posession: i've only possessed enemy characters (not turrets) and when you possess the enemy AI you take over their vision but control is influential and not direct. Works well only if you need to scout ahead and if you manage to use it to kill enemies the other AI don't react.

Campaign vs Temple HQ: The Temple HQ is a hub for the sake of grinding and upgrading your character. you unlock different maps (i assume from playing the main campaign) and within those maps are randomly generated objectives. After that you can spend what you've earned on cybernetic implants or weapons. Campaign is the story and the mission objectives are static from level to level ( i assume).

Also: is crashes a lot on my system...in the Steam forums the devs said they've been working on this problem so i may play it more once this issue is resolved.

For those looking into picking this game up, i'd suggest you wait it out and buy it on sale or wait until they've ironed out more of the bugs.

For those curious who also paid attention in the quick look, no, there is no stealth.  Crouching works ok but as soon as you sneeze everyone and their brother will know where you are.  Later on you can buy a cloak upgrade which works as stealth but it eats up energy fast so you need to be careful with it.  Cloaking paired with a backstab from a damocles does wonders to most mobs though, as in you can 1-2 shot a Deus Ex doing that.

I really do wish that they would change the enemy behavior a bit in a patch or something. The distance at which an enemy can spot you and know EXACTLY where you are at all times can get annoying. It kind of kills some of the stealth.

I have no idea wtf I am doing in it period. lol. 
 
Did some tutorial thing. Ended up at the HQ I guess. Talked to some dudes. Talked to some little robot thing who is supposed to be mine or something. Then he blew up for no reason and the guards/teacher people molested me over and over. 

Despite my first feelings, hacking is pretty powerful in this game, although it is a bit underpowered in terms of getting experience and money. If you want to play a hacker, make sure to get you hacking stat up to 70-80 range as soon as possible. During missions, you will want to "hack" everything and everyone along the way. While enemies are hacked, new reinforcements won't spawn and you'll have a much easier time getting through the levels. That still leaves you with the metastreumonic force encouncters for which you will want to get sentry guns early on and place them or carry them in front of you. It seems to be a bug, but killing an enemy while holding a sentry counts the same way as if you shot them and yields money/experience (yes, you might want to abuse that, if you already got the game and don't want to wait for the balance patch to come out).

Concerning the mini-game, you can go overflow x 2/3 -> attack x 2 as soon as your skill got high enough. If you should encounter an enemy that proves to be very resistant, you might want to consider opening with mask until his defense is down and then alternate attack / mask. However, past level 10, I usually had no problems beating enemies in the mini-game. Last but not least, cloak is important for that build, but you should be able to get around without it during the first couple of levels. Most, if not all, levels offer alternative paths that allow you to bypass any active combat and concentrate on hacking. While the maps tend to be huge, keep in mind that they are usually not very high. The sewers below New Eden allow you to cross most of the map while hacking everything above you without any risk. As a final advice, if you see your cyber health dropping rapidly or that the enemy is gathering dangerously high attack levels, simply quit the hacking and start new. There is no penalty for exiting the hacking procedure while it is running.

A final word on hacking failures...

If you are beat by the enemy, there are basically 3 possible outcomes:

1. nothing happens (counter-attack fails)

2. you are hacked (the laughing man smiley shows up on the screen - hack yourself to get rid of it or wait it out)

3. you die (brain melted)

You can prevent 2/3 by upgrading your firewall and hacking skill, but you will need quite high stats to consistently avoid being counter-hacked. Therefore it's even more important to bail out early of hacking attempts that go wrong.

@Resident4t: Endurance affects energy recovery and Cybereye upgrades reduce cloak energy consumption. I found quick energy recovery to be more useful though. The consumption reduction is pretty low, even on level 10 eyes.

I've only died in this game from failed bank unit hacks. It's difficult for me to keep track of the stats and pay attention to where I'm clicking at the same time.

i started a new game quit the game once i got to the temple for the 2nd time and when i started the game again and clicked play campaign it started me in the first area except there were no quest givers and no way to get back to the temple and resume my current game progress. please help!