Hex Hacking Simulator – Preview
Hacking has always been a mysterious thing that is wrongly represented by the media. It is kind of the same as lock picking in a way but in a digital environment. Games like Watchdogs gave us an insight into how these technomancers manipulate information to use against their opponent. In games, hacking is always easy mini-games that are enjoyable and will make you feel like a pro. Playing Hex, on the other hand, will only make you feel frustrated, as these mini-games are far from easy.
You will start your career by doing small jobs and making some chump change on the side. All new beginnings are tough, especially without a decent tutorial. You will get some instructions on how to navigate the game, yet an explanation of what each program does is absent. This absence makes Hex a long game of trial and error. Now at this moment in time, it is advised to check the steam discussion section, as there is a user-made guide that explains the applications in detail.
Now without the help of the user-made guide, you would have been left to your own devices and some puzzles are pretty hard to understand. During our tests, we did manage to get through a few missions, however, the game becomes quite boring in the long run. This is again due to the high difficulty curve that is uninviting for newer players. As Hex is a puzzle game, you should at least make it so that your first few missions are easier and that players can get used to the mechanics. Even with decent practice, you will sometimes only complete the mission with moments to spare.
When trying to steal money from a bank, you will have to exploit their weaknesses. An insider will always give you tips on which programs to run in order to steal the banks’ data. What seems to be a fun mechanic at first, gets pretty boring rather fast. You have to manually install and run each application, costing precious time. Due to this mechanic, if you are not that fast of a typer, this game is instantly ruined for you.
The way that the game is designed, is that you have control of preparing the applications and the hacker that is gathering the information via applications. This feels like it has been inspired by the game “Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes” and would work well if the multiplayer wasn’t currently dead. In solo play, however, you will be controlling both sides at the same time. It is unclear if you get extra time if you are alone, as we were unable, due to a lack of early access players, to test the multiplayer mode.
The graphics are simple yet decent. There are some animations in the game but the over usage of blue sometimes makes the experience a bit less appealing. It is understandable that the developers did not want to do the classic Matrix look, however from a distance, this just looks like any other puzzle game rather than a real hacking game.
The audio is also decent and although there isn’t a real soundtrack in the game the sound effects in place are good. One thing that the developers did put their time in to was the spoken story. Each mission objective is fully voiced and is of decent quality.
Conclusion
Hex is a game that could be good if the developers take serious action. Firstly, they would have to make the starting levels easier or, even better, just have a decent tutorial present. We are lucky that there is a fellow gamer that has posted an elaborate guide for the puzzles, due to the fact that they are never really explained, thus requiring great trial and error to otherwise understand. The concept behind the game is really great, but it will need some serious additions and work to become popular. The multiplayer mode is really dead at the time of writing, but that is normal in an Early Access project. The graphics and sound are both decent, and the voiced missions are a warm welcome that gives the game a more lively feel.
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