SPYHACK: Episode 1 Reviews

It's a good game for the price. Nice graphics.

It looks great, and sounds great. The gameplay is fairly simple but I can see it getting a bit more complex later. Unfortunately, I hit a snag on level 2 and couldn't progress. Get in touch if you want a hand with some of the English localization in the description and/or the main game. I am also happy to help out with voice acting :P I am looking forward to being able to progress. https://youtu.be/Et_Pm2fHdcs

Ok I have been waiting on this game and wow. I'm very happy with it and the colors are awesome!! Its a fun good game for sure.

Pros Looked great in the store Cons No save The Guide can't get past the demo level so you have no hope. Spent 20 minutes in game only to start again from the start another 20 minutes to waste I don't think so.Another Developer crossed off the list If you get it free waste an hour on it but don't spend money on this!

Warning: Do Not Buy This Game! Spyhack should have been a fun game but in reality it's really poorly implemented. All of the essential information is too vague. Missions involve too much guess work because no useful information is given. You'll find yourself wandering around the environment like an idiot trying to spot what you haven't clicked in order to move on. This completely kills immersion and takes away any sense of playing the part of a professional spy. Hacking is moronically easy, but despite how simplistic it is they actually give you a hacking tool, like they couldn't think of anything else useful to give you! And speaking of equipment, what is the point of being equipped with a taser if it kills the enemies rather than just stunning them? Might as well just give us the pistol and leave it at that. No ability to save progress means redoing missions from the start over and over. This gets really annoying. Interestingly, I have not found a single video or walk-though of people doing higher levels of Spyhack and I'm guessing that's because most people got bored and gave up on about the third mission like I did. Wish I could get a refund!

In a stealth game, the controls are very important. Not only can you not rekeybind, but the left-click movement is janky at best. She rarely moves immediately when you click. As you move your mouse--just in the normal course of moving your mouse--all kinds of objects like tables and chairs beep at you because you haven't hacked them yet. This is ragingly annoying. The aesthetic is goregous. But that's all its got.

[i] My Experience [/i] On the surface, Spyhack checks a lot of my boxes: it's a stealth game with a sci-fi wrapping that gives you good information on what enemies are able to see. It includes some conceptually neat hacking sections, such as using a robot that glides around on a track gassing your enemies, some turrets whose programming can be changed to target the opposition, and an RC car that can EMP enemy equipment. I really wanted to like Spyhack - I could tell that it was made with heart, and there's some part of me that is always rooting for these small indie studios. I found the broken English of my handler charming, and couldn't hold back a smile when after entering an enemy facility my protagonist exclaimed, "I thought they only manufactured jellybean vitamins for kids!" Unfortunately, the game just needs some additional polish. Issues that might be addressed include: [list] [*] Even if they aren't looking at you, enemies sometimes notice if you sprint by. How much noise am I making? Stealth gameplay is always improved by giving the player more information - for reference, look at Mark of the Ninja, Desperados 3, etc. [*] I had to restart levels twice because of physics issues. On one occasion, a disabled enemy robot (that I used the RC car's EMP on) prohibited me from accessing a terminal. On another, the RC car itself got stuck in a doorway and became immobile. [*] It's difficult (if not impossible) to interact with objects in the levels while the GPS feature is on (that highlights the objects that you can interact with). [*] The first time that I hacked the turrets in the final level and killed the patrolling enemies, the first turret turned off and I was unable to interact with it again. The second remained active, but I was unable to interact with it either. The second time I played the final level, neither turret stayed active (and I was unable to interact with either) after they killed the initial patrolling groups of soldiers. My handler suggested using the turrets to kill the heavy reinforcements, but I resorted to slowly picking off each of the NINE enemies that spawned with my rifle. [*] Oddly enough, it seemed that I was able to avoid detection by the turrets by sprinting about half of the time. On some attempts they were unable to track me, while on others they gunned me down easily. [*] The three cybertrap levels are just not enjoyable. The player spends too long in the cybertrap, and it doesn't have the same tactical feel as the rest of the game - it's more about reflexes, and dodging laser grids. [*] Despite achieving the hacking medal on each level that had one, the achievement never popped for acquiring all of the hacking medals. There was a part of me that wanted to try and get all of the medals for each level (especially since no medals were tied to the cybertrap levels), but I'm wary of doing this when I'm not sure that the achievements are working correctly. [/list] I enjoyed some of my time with Spyhack, and it's clear that the developers have potential, but I can't really recommend the game in its current state.