Hackers review - A Clash clone in different trousers

I'm all for innovation in mobile gaming. Or in anything really. It's that spirit of adventure and discovery that keeps things fresh, that makes finding a new gem of an experience feel so exciting.

But there's another sort of innovation, one that surprises you to start off with, before you realise that really you're just looking at exactly the same game you've played multiple times before, albeit clad in a different jumper.

And that's exactly what Hackers does. Sure it's got a splodge of high concept paint daubed around it, but scratch that away and the game hiding underneath is probably going to shock you.

Because ostensibly this is another hands-off-ish strategy management game. It's Clash of Clans with nodes, Boom Beach with hacking programs instead of soldiers, Game of War with tech talk rather than an oddly jogging Mariah Carey.

And the deeper you get into it the more you realise that for all the shiny graphics and funny names for things, the game is about as generic as things get.

You build a base, which is your home network, adding security programs to make it more difficult for other players to get into your mainframe and steal all of the good stuff you've got inside. You build b-coin mines and data storage areas, and connect everything with digital paths.

Then you bugger off to try and steal things from other networks. But there's no real interaction here. You choose where your hacking software starts, then it just goes off on its merry way.

As you dismantle more of the system you're attacking you can send in new units at different points to continue the charge.

Essentially you're throwing troops into attack. Everything is an abstraction, with your programs represented by glowing energy and the defence of the system a twirling counter that turns red once you're in.

But you never feel like you're hacking anything. More like a helpless bystander watching on idly as the system falls and some arbitrary numbers are added or deleted from your digital bank account.

And that disconnect makes everything lose its sparkle. Where in other strategy management games you at least get to see your troops charging into danger, here you're just watching some things flash in different colours.

And that's not the most inspiring thing to stare at. There are bits of innovation here and there, but nothing strong enough to tie you into what is ostensibly the same compulsion loop you've either dodged or let ensnare you a hundred times before.

There's nothing particularly wrong with Hackers, but it does feel like it wastes its core concept on a genre that it doesn't really fit into.

If you're looking for a slightly off-kilter strategy management game you might like it, but if you're looking for something with more bite it's worth steering clear.