Unhack

Noooooooo Weedy, YOU are becoming dear Creator's MISTAKE!

Somehow, even though along the way I found soo many reasons NOT to like this game, like:
Cons:
too short, too easy
no achievements, no points store (or bugged / view on community market)
the few settings there are do not carry over between sessions
Incompatible with steam overlay + no screenshots (unless you manually add compatibility -> see Guides)
False promise of Weedy showing using The Mod
story ok but not very realistic (bogus hacking / programming) or deep
gameplay not very challenging or enticing
DLC also too short and easy

However, I guess the cons didn't convince me, even though in quantity and quality they seem to outweigh the
Pros:
small price
kind of #Hack as a (Mini-)Game instead of series, so more or less innovative haven't played a similar game before
Good BGM (but too loud)
Nice, simple and relaxing gameplay
Trading cards
unforeseeable Plot Twists and actual emotions
Several puns and character interactions / development
Good voice acting (of AI only, Player's lines aren't voiced in main game or DLC).

SO I guess what I'm saying, somehow I actually liked it and it seems ok for
the small price (bought it on sale) and
old age (first game developed by invert mouse, so check out their other similar visual novels or innovative games if you liked this one, along with of course the Sequel to this one -> Unhack 2).

And yes, would have loved to see that famed costume mod in action
(I think it would have made for a good DLC idea), puny perverted human me.

Now, on to Unhack 2, which I hear is supposed to be even better.
I'm certainly excited in anticipation.

I have a special appreciation for visual novels that are interwoven with gameplay. This one certainly doesn't disappoint in that category!
The mini-game style gameplay requires you to find the right timing. It's not overly difficult, I played on Hard (three lives) for all of the missions without issue. Each level builds upon the previous ones and has a new mechanic added keeping it fresh.
However what I found a bit inconventient was how the story gets auto-played by passing certain level points which leads to two outcomes. Either you naturally breeze through like I initially did and have to back up the dialogue at the end to read it or you have to periodically stop to read each piece of dialogue as it comes up. It's not that big a problem and I have no idea how to solve this for an ideal flow, though I believe I should at least mention it.
Nevertheless the story is quite nice and did get me a little emotional over the AI characters at the end.
Due to how short it is it doesn't go very deep into the subject matter present and isn't particularly complex, but in combination with the gameplay, the nice visuals and great sound design it is a good, simple game for an evening.
To sum it up, each piece comes together to make a quite good game I recommend.

A fairly short title combining action puzzles with visual novel sections. Is the idea of virus chasing enticing enough?

As an 'unhacking' specialist you are tasked with worm elimination. The task boils down to simple navigation of simple maze -like stages in order to exterminate computer worms or to reach certain places. There are ten stages within the main game and three extra in the DLC. You can select any stage from the start. Also, there are three levels of difficulty but even the hardest one doesn't pose any serious challenge. As for the story, while all stages contain some chatting sections, most talking occurs between levels. It is a fairly short and straightforward sci-fi story with mostly predictable events. There is only one ending so one playthrough is enough to see everything. Due to its length, characters are underdeveloped and some parts remain unanswered but it still is decent enough to enjoy. For the price asked, and when compared to similar titles at this price point, it is good enough to fill a few hours of your day.

The main theme here is sci-fi, or virtual space to be more specific, and it is more than clear. Stages look like electronic circuits and cold colours emphasise this style. Everything feels a bit sterile and somewhat empty, budget-like. Characters done in anime style also reflect the low budget as it's at best average. Still, overall design and visual quality is acceptable.

Electronic music is one of the strongest points of this game. I really enjoyed some tracks and the free soundtrack DLC is a cool bonus. There is also some voice acting which is unusual for such a cheap title, however, it is pretty bland. Character voices do not convey emotions well and sound pretty monotone. Not terrible but unnecessary feature.

No bugs encountered.

To summarise, a short action puzzle/visual novel with average anime art and decent soundtrack. If you enjoy the listed genres you might find it enjoyable but it is still a budget title so low expectations are almost a must: 5.1/10

Great game! I've played through all difficulties and loved the challenge and the story. I highly recommend this game for someone that likes a casual game with great narration and awesome voice acting. Music is also fantastic to the point where I've uploaded to my phone for listening on the go.

An instatnat classic, Makes me think of Megaman NT warrior, with a touch of Vocaloid. It knows what it is and who it caters to; A light novel puzzel game that doesn't take it's self too seriously as it appeals to computer science Otaku with a thing for AI Waifus.
To explain why I love this game, I think can be best summed up as; 'It's a case study in minimalism- how to do it well without sacrificeing depth.'
The puzzle elements are easy to grasp yet the nuance of skil isn't lost, The story and caracters are simple yet endearing, Overall It's a short and memerable experiance one can complete in a little over an hour- just long enough to carry it's self gracefully and end before it runs out of steam.
Minimalism asside, Everything else is great! Art is easy on the eyes, great voice acting preformances, story feels predictable yet still somehow manages to suprise. These production values are well worth your $4.
9/10 - Only complaint is theirs no payoff with the 'Costume mod' running gag.

Quick summary: a short, quirky game that is a little bit more than the sum of its parts.

(No spoilers review)

Unhack, a VN about a slightly perverted "unhacker", his female AI partner, and their adventures as they battle the forces of internet viruses.

Graphics: 4/10

Right off the bat, the game comes across as rather lackluster. Characters are expressive and the art style is consistent, maintaining the mood throughout, but backgrounds are exceedingly basic, while CGs are few, rather poor compared to the regular graphics, and only thinly connected to the plot.

Sound: 5/10

Unlike most indie VNs nowadays, this one is fully voice acted, and pretty well to boot. Sadly, it's matched by a fairly forgettable OST; it's... there, it just doesn't do much of anything.

Story: 6/10

The core of a good VN is its story, and here is where Unlink is at its weirdest: on one hand, the plot has lots of twists throughout its meager length, unusual enough to be surprising but not so much as to strain credibility, which keeps things interesting. But on the other, it is rather short, which means there's next to no world building and very little development for any of its characters.

Longevity: 0/10

A bit over an hour for both the main game and its DLC, with no branching whatsoever outside the failure screen for dying at the minigame that forms the core of its gameplay; which, while fun enough, offers no reason to replay once solved.

Conclusion

So, nothing really stands out besides the voice acting, and even that is mostly by the standards of indie VNs. But even so, I enjoyed it; perhaps it's the uniqueness of its premise, or simply the fact that nothing in it manages to overstay its welcome. It feels like a really focused labor of love from start to finish, if that makes sense.

Still, even at its regular low price I'd have trouble recommending it; the value is just not there. But on sale, or thought of as a small donation to an indie dev, I do believe it's worth a buy: in spite of its flaws its got plenty of charm and, as the saying goes, I could think of worse ways to spend a lazy afternoon. Or maybe just a quiet moment during one.

Think of this game less of a VN and more of a quick puzzle game with some VN elements and excellent voice acting. The story, while short, did pique my interest long enough for me to clear the whole game (which takes around an hour or less). It also provides some decent backstory for its sequel, Unhack 2. It's nothing deep, however.

Gameplay is basically sliding block puzzles. You move across a maze of sorts with WASD and try to get the other side, sometimes while avoiding lasers and killing enemies through use of timed shots. The game isn't hard at all, and Easy mode even gives you infinite lives. It does get a little stale though, and I would've liked to see more intricate hazards.

There's no saving feature. That said, you're allowed to choose which "episode" you want to play at the title screen, so the saving isn't really needed (each episode lasts around 5-10 minutes depending on how fast you clear). I would've liked an indicator of what episode I was currently playing, but it's not that hard to quit and choose a different one if you select wrong.

The voice acting is superb. Probably the biggest name here is Xanthe Huynh of K-On, SAO, Persona 5 fame. That's not to say that the other actresses didn't do good jobs. Aimee Smith, Skylar Davenport, Rachael Messer, and Xanthe all performed wonderfully at bringing the characters to life, despite how short the game is.

I really do recommend Unhack. Maybe not at the 3.99 price point for something this short and a bit rough around the edges, but at a lower price I do suggest buying this game.

This short kinetic visual novel feature an anonymous male protagonist referred to as The Unhacker. As the best unhacker of Smash Security, the Unhacker attempts to investigate the source of the 5K Worm virus infection that is spreading across cyberspace with some help from his AI companions Weedy and Miss Debug. Suspecting their immediate competitor ACME Antivirus to be behind the creation and spread of the virus for financial gain and profit, the Unhacker attempts to hack across multiple different security systems in the form of 10 arcade puzzle/action minigames which involve moving a square icon across a maze to an exit without being destroyed by various environmental hazards and uncovers a sinister past on Smash Security and The Unhacker himself before confronting the source of the 5K Worm.

Although the arcade minigames can be played at varying difficulty with infinite retries and infinite health in allies at the easiest difficulty, it would be nice if the game allows the take screenshot button on Steam to work, as well as a gallery to list and show all unlocked CGs instead of having to replay a particular chapter and its minigame to obtain the CG. Having dialogue over various parts in the arcade minigame which often automatically skip when moving across the arcade minigame quickly to avoid the environmental hazards which move in real-time draw attention away from the storyline and plot. Soundtracks and overall game presentation is good after factoring in soundtracks and voiced dialogue. Recommended when at sale or in bundle discount as it takes less than 10 hours to finish all arcade minigames and read through the entire visual novel.

There is a fantastic charm that oozes from this game. The art is very nice and it has an almost personal feel as if they were deliberate design rather than being a trope.

The story is awesome. It takes place in a digital world of sorts with you, the Unhacker, as the protagonist. Weedy is the titular heroine that does much to give the game the aforementioned charm.The personal touch is all around this game, it introduces a strange world where AI's are alive? The AI's however are the focal part where the Unhacker is a catalyst between the interaction of characters. It's one of those games where the you find that the AI are the one's that you sympthize with.

Speaking to the charm, this game really embraces the anime feel in an mostly (in my experience) American way. The game makes use of many emoticons (or whatever you call them these days) that lend a very light-hearted tone, even when by the end you start to think it was Nakige (Emotional story).

I'll keep it brief, as much as this game actually, and point out that this is worth the $4. I payed way less on sale and wish I could pay more to support such an awesome game that made my day. There was love given to this project and even though the gameplay feels very simple it plays more like a story game with a mini game that drives the story..

In short, If you don't like the culture of the internet, you might not like this game; if you like games that are a little self aware and act silly, you'll like this game; if you like anime and visual novels, you'll LOVE this game. If you're the latter, Buy it, Sale or no.

A nice short puzzle game. Nice art likeable characters. a nice first start for a developer. it wasnt to difficult but it was entertaining none the less. Worth the small chunk of change in my opinion.

A short game with simple gameplay, but a nice distraction when everything is said & done.

It's inexpensive, moreso when on sale (full disclosure, I got it on sale, so under $3 for the game & it's extra content) but it also only took me about 2 hours to go through the game. Still, that's a better dollar/hour rate than going to the movies, so I'm not going to say much else about the length of the game.

The gameplay is simple, which is kinda nice in this insatance (especially considering it's a simple graphical representation of you being a super white-hat hacker [or, as the game calls it "unhacker"] via a colored square moving along a path) You use WASD, clicking with your mouse (I do not suggest using the mouse for the "unhacking" bits) or the number pad to control your little square, moving from point A to point B (though you usually stop along at points C F and P along the way) to achieve whatever goal the story put before you during each segment (episode) Sometimes there are enemies to avoid, sometimes there are traps to avoid. There are some pickups, and eventually some things you activate to move things along. Simple in execution, but with enough added as you play to keep it interesting (I was interested enough to blow through in one sitting, so take what you will from that)

The story is solid enough for what it is. It's all given through conversations between your character & the various AI's you work with (and their conversations with each other) and all the AI's have full voiceovers, which are pretty nice. It's a simple story, and I think that works in it's favor here. The story & gameplay mesh pretty nicely here. There were a couple little twists here & there, but with how things progressed they weren't terribly suprising. Not bad, but nothing to write home about.

As far as the art goes, it's nice. It sticks to standard VN art with the characters having only a few images during gameplay, with most changes simply being expressions, but that art is clean & seems to fit well with everything else in the game. After each level you get a screen that somehow relates to what just happened in the story, and they all look well done for a title from such a small group. I didn't dislike anything that was presented to me on my screen.

The music works very well as game music. It never gets overly distracting, fits the mood of the levels well, and is able to go on for a while with a smooth loop that won't suddenly jolt you with a harsh transition. I will say that the stage cleared music (played while the cleared screen image is up) doesn't always feel right with the story elements of the game. Not a deal breaker by a long shot, but just me stating my opinion.

All in all, I'm satisfied with my purchase and will keep an eye out for other stuff from these folks. It's short enough to play in a single sitting, and interesting enough to keep your interest long enough to achieve that. I'll probably go back and try a playthrough on the hardest mode in a bit (I only played on Hard, since it was midnight and I had just gotten off of work) but that'll be for another day.

Gameplay: 4/5
Visuals (inc characters) 5/5

I really enjoyed this game, the objective is to destroy the "5k Worms" across 10 stages along with Weedy and Miss Debug, the characters are fully voiced and the artwork is excellent! That, I was impressed with, Miss debugs *Yawnies* were cute too. heh...

The only things I would improve is fixing the Steam overlay in-game (it doesn't allow/work)
and the puzzles/stages could've been more challenging (but I did play on easy afterall)

Deffinately worth the money!
FYI: I had 100 minutes of gameplay before I completed it. (Time includes replying to messages and stuff though) so... I'd say it's a good 1 hour gameplay/story at least. Doesn't sound long but it's still worth it. :)

it's about you (the unhacker, or creator) fixing your own mistakes, but you only find out towards the end of the game that the creator (you) made the problems, including the "5k Worms" and you created Weedy and Miss debug (AI)

Thanks for reading :)

Fun puzzle game that's not too difficult to pick up, the characters are great, the "AI" are voice acted which is a nice plus and a nice story to pull you in. To be honest, full price may be a bit too much for this game, but when it's on sale and you can spare two dollars or so, go for it. The story is actually quite well done for a game that is so short. The "AI" all have their own unique "quirk" to say; as one constantly has to remind you that IT'S A SMALL 2, GET IT RIGHT! I'll try not to spoil too much, so I'll just say you are an unhacker working for a company that is trying to combat a virus. With the help of your AI sidekick, you two will take down the virus and learn the origins of said virus. What happens after that... well buy it to find out!

Also...I'll never see that costume mod :( Forever declined

Notes -
1. The game took me 1.4 hours from start to finish
2. The game involves moving a piece of block up, down, left and right while dodging the game's hazards and interacting with the area
3. It's quite a fun game... despite how I wrote #2
4. The dialogue was great in my opinion, made me laugh quite a bit
5. The ending made me a bit sad
6. I never saw Weedy in that costume mod ):
7. A2's name is hard to type ):
8. ..... AIs can grow up?

Unhack is a short little puzzlegame that can be quite tricky at stages.
The main goal is to move your block to the goal, some goals are simple "get there" stages, some are bossfight stages where you have to repeat a more or less simple (but still harder) mechanic 3-4 times in a row.

The puzzles at its own would be not that awesome, but they pack it in an quite tempting story where you take the role of an "pervy" [wants to try out his costume mods on the AIs, he gets "forever declined"] unhacker (someone who destroys viruses) that tries to do his job. He gets accompanied by AIs that talk to you at checkpoints. Those AIs are fully voiced in english.

Pro:
- Puzzles are fun
- 3 Difficulty stages (Normal with unlimited lifes, Heavy with 3 tries and Unbelievable with 1 live only)
- Fully voiced AIs, with cute voices.
- Actually has a story in a puzzler
- Cheap price
- cheap dlc
- music
- trading cards (cause many want cards...)
- great comedy moments
- for DLC: +1 for the troll ^-^
- Cute drawings of the AIs
- Soundtrack included for free.. like srsly i dont get why companies charge extra for them most of the time >.<

Con:
- dlc though has not much content (3 puzzles with story), fast finished, but still fun so i considder it not too bad
- In one or two situations the voices did not match the situation perfectly (a bit too calmly spoken)
- Dont know why this has the visual novel tag, it has barely anything to do with VNs (game still good)
- No achievements, i mean it would be nice to have a "complete every stage at X difficulty" Achievement, but its not that drastik.

Rating: ~8.4/10

I enjoyed this game.
though the game may not be anything fancy in terms of art style or game play both of which are not bad as i still enjoyed both, i think the story was what truely made this game shine, by the end of it i felt a little upset of how it ended and that this was the end, i wanted to play more even ;p when a game can do that to you, you know its a keeper ;p

the playtime on the game is roughly around 2 hours and if your like i am it will leave you wanting more ;p (not a bad thing)

just today i also bought the DLC for the game as well (£0.79) which has roughly a playtime of around 20 mins just like the game it is short, this DLC is a "prequel" to the game as recomended to be played after completing the game.

overall a great game and totally worth the money spent, would buy again ;p

Unhack is by no means a groundbreaking gaming experience. There are a few technical issues that may hamper your experience. The game will last under two hours, all told. All those gripes aired though, I can say I did find the game moderately enjoyable.

The gameplay of Unhack somewhat reminds me of Chip's Challenge, though much simpler, with more of a focus on action than puzzle-solving. There's nothing particularly interesting or challenging about it and it serves mostly as way to pass the time while serving up dialog, though difficulty modes with limited lives exist which change this into a very different experience, where you must play carefully and skillfully or fail the mission. That may or may not be your thing. I was mostly in it for the dialog and so stuck with the normal difficulty.

The visual novel portion of the self-described "visual novel x puzzle game" is similar to the gameplay portions in that nothing massively original or special ever happens, but nonetheless it's not a bad way to spend a few hours. The jokes are a bit cliche but manage to entertain nonetheless. The plot's pretty generic, but that doesn't matter either. It does a good job doing what it does and doesn't overstay its welcome (in fact it could have stood be just a tad longer). The art's not entirely to my taste, but it's good enough. I was surprised by how much I enjoyed the voice acting, and most of the lines in the game have voices (your own character does not).

Now, about those technical issues. The game is built on a web engine that really isn't designed for gaming. It's forced into full-screen mode with no resolution options and no ability to play in windowed mode. There's no Steam overlay support, and consequently no Steam screenshots (barring some nasty workarounds). There are no Steam achievements either. The game doesn't save any information, so it won't show you where you are in the story, and it won't remember any settings you change. The lack of saving may be the reason there's no gallery of the CG's that appear at the end of each chapter, which is a pity because it'd be nice to be able to go back and see those all in one place.

Unhack is not a game without it's flaws, but again, I enjoyed it nonetheless. "Good enough" would be a fair descriptor of it. There's a demo which you should absolutely try if you're interested in the game. It'll let you see how well your computer deals with some of the technical issues and get a feel for game's content yourself. You should be able to figure out if the game's right for you by the end of the second level.

This is a simple game. It's nothing spectacular but a fun puzzle game. It doens't take long to pick it up and the difficulties seem just right. You play as someone named 'Unhacker', delving into cyberspace to stop the 5K worm from expanding. The game is, well, simple: move your box, which Unhacker is controlling, to solve puzzles in cyberspace, the whole time trying to stpo this virus.The game is fairly short but, for the price of about 4 dollars, not even on sale, it's perfectly fine. There isn't much else to say about it. I bought it when it came out, beat it, and loved every second of it. The soundtrack is nothing to right home about but that's a minor point. Buy it and, for the price you pay, you won't regret it.

Unhack is an indie puzzle game with a story that is delivered in visual novel style. For a rather decent price, you'll get a hour or two of very nice story, well made backround music with anime styled sprites dubbed by english voice actors.

I will try to avoid all spoilers in these few words I'd like to share about my impressions.

First of all, for such a short game, the story is very nice. It has everything from a nice start to a well done climax. The characters are nice. To my suprise even the english dub is nice as the voice actresses are doing much more than just reading a script (although if I hear "Yawnies" again I'll probably go crazy...) I can't find praise for the humour in the game. I really enjoyed it, with all the crappy puns to various other surprises which are very pleasant compared to other indie VN games.

The main character uses a lot of emoticons in the conversations making them lively and with the humorous replies it makes the main character unique and memorable. Most of them are rather complex so understand the meaning, but there is no shame to look it up, or simply turn them off in the options, which in my opinion shaves a lot of uniqueness from the main character.

I would definitely recommend this game to anyone who wants to relax while enjoying a short story with a simple puzzle gameplay and backround music which fits nicely the setting.

As for gameplay, it is very simple. You simply move with WSAD (heresy to call it ASWD!!! *shakes fist* >:D). You progress the story by clicking on "next" or by simply pressing enter. You can skip some parts with F which is really handy in the higher difficulties.
The game offers 3 difficulties. I did play it on the "brutal difficulty designed specially to torture prisoners and for masochists :D" and it was quite enjoyable although there aren't any achievements to unlock.
What I didn't really like is the lack of windowed mode, lack of resolution settings. The steam overlay is a mess, with popups being cut apart and I had trouble making screenshots, which is kinda sad, because I like to take souvenirs.

Summing it up:
Pros: Nice story
Good price
Good BGM
Nice, simple and relaxing gameplay
Trading cards
FUUUUUSION HA!
Several golden puns and character interactions
Decent voice acting (Xanthe's voice reminds me of Estelle from Tales of Vesperia. Good stuff).

Cons:
Probably too easy for hardcore puzzle gamers even on the hardest dificulty.
Short
Lack of achievements
Fullscreen and 1 resolution
Incompatible with steam overlay + had trouble with screenshots
False promise of Weedy showing using The Mod
(personal) Yawnies

Ps. The character gave birth to the MANly style of speech. Which was hellowa confusing to a non native speaker like me (I know... Sucks to be me, man...). But yeah. MANly... :D
PPs. I will have nightmares from "Yawnies"

Played it for story :D

Well, there is nothing else to play this for, but that's a good thing. Characters are charming, puzzle / action part is rather easy and don't expect Sakura Spirit here, so story is all what's left.

So, it's not best story I ever seen, but it surely kept me interested. It gets from intentionally funny to downward ridiculous (I mean, you are removing viruses by firing a canon!), but it surely has its nice moments and it's perfectly worth those 4€ that dev is asking for. Aaaand... according to Steam, I finished it in 1.5h. Let's round it up to 2.

Only two problems with game:
1. Full-screen VN is bad VN. What happened to alt+enter?
2. Many dialogues are triggered by reaching field on gameboard. Moving to next field triggers next part of dialogue. In game where you want to move fast.
Unless you know that dialog is there, you will skip it by mistake. I skipped half of 1st level lines until I realized this :(