Hypernet Explorer is an聽immersive-sim roguelike set in a weird and alternate 2001,聽where the Y2K bug shattered reality and erased most modern technology, that is slowly being rebuilt using magic and the occult.聽
聽Form a party to explore聽a 92 floor skyscraper that barely holds the cosmos together or just get lost in alternate activities; manage聽a cursed pizza place, become a certified tarot reader,聽 date yourself from another plane of existence,聽start your own space program, get filthy rich by manipulating the soul market and... go bowling with your beloved cousin.
Every boundary that once separated religion, science, finance and magic聽is now obsolete so...聽do what thou wilt.
Complex simulation
Inspired by Dwarf Fortress and聽Caves of Qud, every聽system, from economy to weather patterns to character statuses, is simulated and interconnected: even the smallest action can have devastating butterfly effects on the global scale, univeral and multiversal scale. Every galaxy in our observable universe and beyond is modeled and explorable.
Class struggle
Pick from聽64 base classes that range聽from classic RPG archetypes (wizard, hunter, knight) to modern career paths聽(CEO, psychologist, combat medic), each with unique abilities, social advantages, and gameplay styles. Keep class upgrades between multiple runs to avoid farming and fuse the classes you mastered to get new prestige classes.
Meat sacks
Player biology is fully simulated, from brain activities to hormone levels and everything about what constitutes you can be altered and augmented: feeling聽too weak? Get carbon nanotube muscle implants!聽聽You are too smart? Get a lobotomy right now!
Gender is a social construct, but in Hypernet Explorer gender is fully commercialized!聽Alter your starting gender via surgical, magical and hypercapitalistic means.
Enemies have over 80 different biologies with different limbs and organs to rip and tear to weaken the stats of your enemies!聽Cut off a vital part or organ of an enemy to get an instant kill.
Dual combat
Combat is turn-based, fast and deadly: 聽choose between a traditional RPG combat system, where you learn skills as you level, or a card-based system where you聽 collect skills booster packs as you explore the world.
You can choose聽Permadeath or聽Roguelite mode at聽 the start of the run, but your companions don't have this luxury: if they aren't resurrected before the end of the battle they stay dead forever.
Living dungeon
You and your party are not that important, you are聽just a tiny little cog in the complex dungeon ecology and economy: every enemy you kill can be turned into聽 raw聽resources that can be tinkered and shaped into over 1000 items.
Also remember that you are not the only ones exploring the dungeon but there are competing parties of adventurers who can steal your precious loot right before your eyes.
Like the "Ancient cave" style hacks of SNES games, the dungeon聽is not a soulless algorithmically generated one but made of handcrafted pieces that聽 are assembled together in a way that somewhat makes sense.
Skill issue
You have more than 800 skills to learn: from wrestling moves to necromancy curses. Find trainers in the world, subscribe to an online course, or just continue practicing a "Generic Fireball" spell聽until you master it.
When you have mastered a bunch of skills, try to fuse them together to create brand new magic聽schools and concepts with聽348,195 possible combinations.
Hypercapitalism oh!
Names are power...and money is power!聽And it happens that Mario Draghi's name is written over a billion times on聽14.5 billion euro banknotes in pre-printing phase. This gives hypercapitalists who amassed huge amounts of euros huge arcane and political聽powers.
Invest in the OIL and SOUL stock聽market, buy real estate and squeeze rent from your tenants as you squeeze the black ichor of earth from deep oil deposits, burn your stock options in battle to summon powerful entities.
Scale every minigame and side activity with incremental games聽inspired mechanics: why settle for a measly greasy pizza place when you have an entire galaxy where to export the concept of "pizza"?
Brave weird world
Other than the Omega Tower, you can explore most of Europe's major cities and landmarks on foot, by hypermetro or RV.
The world may be magic now but history follows closely our real timeline and every major event that happened in 2001 is present and can influence your run, things are weird but can get too real.
CREDITS
Tyler Warren RPG battlers, Ashen Victor for the character busts,, Modern interiors by Limezu, TinyTales dungeon tiles,聽Chronicle tileset pack,聽聽Occult Steampunk,聽Creature compendium聽and聽聽Ocean's Nostalgia graphic, full credit list in-game.
All enemy sprite image were taken from 1700-1800 eras聽Enciclopedias, books and anatomical manuals.
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