Unhack

Developer: InvertMouse | Publisher: InvertMouse | Release Date: 2014 | Genre: Indie / Puzzle | Website: Official Website | Purchase: Steam

Unhack drops you in the shoes of a brilliant unhacker who works for a firm called Smash Security. Along with your AI companion, Weedy, the unhackers job is to make cyberspace a safer place. Unfortunately, a new virus known as the 5K Worm is infecting machines worldwide, and it seems like nobody can stop it. Acting upon instructions from Weedy, the unhacker enters the systems of ACME Antivirus, where things become really interesting.

We can reveal little more about the story as Unhack is a concise game, but it manages to pack quite a few twists and turns in its ten levels. The game’s focus is stopping the 5K Worm, but along the way, you’ll encounter some new characters that will either help you or try to hinder you in your quest. As for the actual game, it is an interesting cross between a visual novel and a puzzle game. The visual novel side of things is kinetic, so you are not given any choices, and there is only one path through the story that leads to a single ending. Fortunately, the puzzle side of the game is more interactive and, depending on your chosen difficulty level, can pose a challenge.

Each level in the game basically consists of several mazes you must navigate in the form of a glowing square. Your square can only move in four different directions, and you can only move from one node in the maze to an adjacent one. The levels are all straightforward, so the real challenge comes from the obstacles in your path. These start simple enough as you grab keys to open doors, but eventually, you will have to deal with lasers, teleporters, traps, and even the 5K Worm. All obstacles tend to be lethal, but on the default setting, you have unlimited lives, so this isn’t much of an issue. Bump things up a bit, and your lives become limited, which means you can’t afford to be too reckless. Regardless of your difficulty, each maze also features a couple of special nodes with flags, which serve as respawn points if you reach them.

Despite the straightforward gameplay, Unhack actually manages to be a lot of fun, and each level introduces some new gameplay mechanic. Overcoming most obstacles tends to be a matter of timing, but you’ll also encounter the occasional level where you must defend cores from the 5K Worm or defeat bosses. Since your glowing square doesn’t have any means to attack or defend itself directly, you mostly need to focus on avoidance and reaching certain switches that can trigger attacks.

Visually, there’s little to say about Unhack; apart from that, the graphics are basic but decent. The puzzle sections are just flat, 2D mazes with white lines and colorful icons. The visual novel segments fare slightly better as all of the artificial intelligence in the game is represented by cute anime girls. They have a wide range of expressions and tend to be on the screen during the puzzle segments. Unfortunately, Unhack lacks widescreen support, so you are stuck with large black bars on the side of the screen. This could have been avoided by playing in windowed mode, but unfortunately, the game doesn’t support this feature either. In fact, the only options the game offers are adjusting the audio or turning emoticons on and off.

While the visuals could definitely have been better, we don’t have any qualms with the audio for Unhack. The game features a nice soundtrack by Matt Hamm from Brainfed, and owners of the game can even download it for free from Steam. In addition, talented voice actresses fully voice all the girls in the game. Xanthe Huynh, who voices Weedy, along with Skyler Davenport, Aimee Smith, and the rest, all do a great job with their characters and help draw players into the game. Along with the visual novel sections between levels, the girls will also sometimes talk to you while you are playing, which can be a bit annoying as it is easy to accidentally skip their dialog by moving past the node that triggers it. At least it is easy enough to go back and see what was said if you missed it the first time.

The controls for Unhack are as simple as the game, and all you need to do is press the WASD keys or numeric keypad to move in one of the four directions. Strangely enough, the arrow keys are not supported, which could be a nuisance for some players, but at least the mouse can also be used to move by clicking on the different nodes. The save system for Unhack is not the most intuitive we have seen, but since the game is short enough to be completed in a single sitting, this can be overlooked.

Unhack isn’t the longest or most challenging game on the market, but it makes up for it with interesting characters and a fascinating storyline. The actual gameplay isn’t bad either, and making your way through the mazes is quite addictive. The voice acting is definitely the game’s highlight and helps make the characters more endearing. We would have liked to see more than just ten levels that can be completed in less than an hour, but the game doesn’t waste any time when it comes to the story. Although Unhack is not going to be something that you play extensively or keep coming back to, it is a nice enough game to kick back and relax with if you are in the mood for something short and sweet.