DataFall Review
DataFall is incrementally boring.
DataFall. Credit: kNu Game Studio
DataFall is a cyberpunk-themed incremental game from kNu Game Studio. It’s not especially complex as far as incremental games go, and it doesn’t bring much new to the table. It’s fun at first, but that feeling fades quickly.
The game follows a standard loop: build, prestige—here called “ascend”—and rebuild using three currencies. Data is generated through clicks or passive growth, both upgradeable. Nodes are purchased with data and spent on improving clicks or boosting crypto mining. Crypto acts as the gate for ascension, with each reset requiring more of it. Once you hit that threshold, you can ascend at any time and earn prestige points, which provide permanent boosts to clicks, production, and periodic clickable bonuses that appear on screen. The game boasts “bosses,” which are just a static shape in the middle of a window that you have to click enough times before a timer runs out.
DataFall. Credit: kNu Game Studio
The problem is how quickly the loop goes stale. For me, the gold standard here is Orb of Creation, which layers systems and currencies in ways that constantly give you something new to think about. DataFall is far simpler, and that simplicity turns into repetition fast. New systems like the Paragon Lab, Relic Shop, and Black Market unlock after enough ascensions, but the modifiers granted by these aren’t enough to make the game more interesting or engaging.
The game’s presentation doesn’t do it any favors, either. The UIs on the sides of the screen frame a central field where a robot hops across a grid, with cubes representing upgrades scattered around it. It looks crude and overly simplistic, and, frankly, the amount of screen real estate the game devotes to this scene is wasteful. Most of your interaction boils down to clicking anywhere to generate data or chasing the occasional bonus. You can equip cosmetic outfits on the robot for small bonuses, but they don’t make the game look any better.
Incremental games are having a moment, and there are plenty out there that do more with the format. DataFall isn’t one of them. I put in the time so you don’t have to, so try a different one instead.
DataFall
DataFall is incrementally boring. Try out one of the many better incremental games out there instead.
