core.sys – PS5 Review

core.sys, rather than an critical Windows system file, is a nifty little puzzle game from dev nipobox and publisher eastasiasoft.

Ostensibly you’re hacking a security system across sixty-four levels. The first few levels are more of an orientation than anything else, just to get you used to the basic movement. The beauty of core.sys is that it’s a simple but well executed premise. It could just as easily have ended up bogged down in over-complicated mechanics, thankfully that wasn’t the case.

Simply you move around in four directions with the d-pad, following the prompts. In typical eastasiasoft fashion, you’re bombarded with trophies at the outset. After a little while the main barrier to progress becomes evident. The central conceit of hacking a security system comes into play and you’ll face countermeasures in the form of a firewall subroutine. The movement aspect then becomes one of evading said subroutines. Get it wrong and you’ll be erased.

Practically, this means you’ll get bumped back to the last checkpoint and have to retry. This is no bad thing as it’ll let you learn the patterns of the countermeasures and subsequently evade them. As you progress, you’ll begin to get a feel for the most hazardous patterns, though one is the most troublesome. Once you’ve evaded several, you’ll be able to progress to subsequent levels. Get your movement phase nailed without any mistakes and you’ll progress. Make a mistake or two and you’ll hasten the security measures again.

The checkpointing feels a little arbitrary, though in the moment you’ll be focussed on  evasion as opposed to any of the other UI elements. You can mainline all the levels in one go if you really want to, but we spread our progress over a couple of days.

That didn’t make our finishing the final level and unlocking the platinum trophy feel any less premature. Only we were just getting into the swing of things when we finished up. We don’t expect a New Game+ sorta thing, but for the game to end so abruptly feels odd.  Yes, it’s nice that the platinum is unlocked at the end of your journey, but it’d also be nice to continue on your own terms.

In conclusion, core.sys is a nice little bite-sized puzzler that we just wish was a little longer. The crossbuy on PS4 and PS5 is a nice little sweetener and will lengthen your experience somewhat into the bargain. The relative brevity would be mitigated by the ability to continue playing, but we guess you can start over. The simplicity is a good thing here as it could have been so easily bogged down in complicated extra mechanics, but luckily wasn’t.