‘Time Hacker’ VR Game Review

Time Hacker by Joy Way is an enjoyable VR puzzle game that seems designed for those of us with short attention spans. Time Hacker is about a secret agent who can freeze time, and hijack the minds of his enemies – so he can force them to kill their co-conspirators. It’s a silly concept, but it works really well, especially in VR.

Swinging my arms wide to freeze time, then waving a hand to hack a badguy and aim his arm to shoot his buddy; this was all done in one smooth motion, and felt entirely badass. Of course, as the game progresses more quirks are thrown onto enemies and players are given additional options for takedowns.

The game’s developer, Joy Way, has created this quickly paced game with puzzles that can be finished in seconds. That is, assuming the player is familiar with the level, its enemies, and its hidden traps. With the benefit of time hacking (And the game’s excellently optimized performance) we can quickly reload and retry levels, or even edit them with the game’s Sandbox mode.

 I did find that many of the game’s puzzles could be easily solved with little effort – though there were a few exciting exceptions. I’m still stuck thinking back to this one level I didn’t solve that involved a crashing jet, a pile of explosive barrels, and several distressed civilians.

One thing Time Hacker does right, is its presentation. While yes, the game looks lower budget in its interface and cartoony style, I think that was an excellent decision. It gives the game an overall B-movie feel, which I think is perfect – we need more B movie games in VR, especially puzzle games. So, thank you for that Joy Way!

I do recommend Time Hacker, especially to lighter puzzle game fans. If you’re looking for something super hard and complicated to solve, this probably won’t do it for ya. Interested readers can download Time Hacker from Viveport Infinity or through Steam.

Note: Time Hacker is still in Early Access, and this review could change down the line. If my opinion on the game changes massively I’ll be sure to update this post.

Follow the IndieSamAdonis Reviews Steam Curator page for all sorts of interesting VR experiences and adventures.

Advertisement

‘The Room VR: A Dark Matter’ Review

The Room VR A Dark Matter from Fireproof Games is one of the top virtual reality games available. That isn’t me being controversial, it’s a fact – A Dark Matter is one of the only VR games on Steam rated Overwhelmingly Positive by users. There is good reason for this widespread approval of the game, because dangitall this game was great.

Innerspace VR Announces ‘Maskmaker’

Innerspace VR has already won my respect with their previous game, a Fisherman’s Tale. It was a really cute puzzle game that grew more weird and trippy as players went further into the story. It was from the street cred from their last game that I’m so confident I’ll enjoy their next game, Maskmaker. My first move after reading about its announcement was literally to add it to my Steam wishlist.

‘Lego Builder’s Journey’ Review

Lego games are known for being quick to jump into with lots of replayability and a wide range of characters. Lego Builder’s Journey does none of this – offering an emotional journey of puzzle solving and tight visuals to contrast the typical Lego game style. The game is simple – each level presents itself as a diorama, and we must place Lego bricks in the correct place in the right order. Sometimes this means building something cool; in one level we are in the basement of a house and must disassemble furniture and electronics to create a little robot friend. More often though, players are tasked with constructing bridges or walkways for characters to move forwards.

Controlling the game can become frustrating, especially with any of the levels that required precise timing. To move and place blocks, we tap the object, then drag it, then hold a decently long press over the spot we want it to go. I feel like this system needs refinement. If the hold was slightly less long, and dropped bricks would pick up quicker and smoother, the game would vastly improve.

Another complaint I have, while admittedly mild, is I wish the main menu system worked better. As of writing, the level select screen is painfully devoid of information. We see a picture of each level and can scroll through all the completed ones, but there is no way to know anything about the level. Something as simple as a number to match each level would make things so less frustrating when trying to compare levels and the game’s overall length.

Lego Builder’s Journey does an admirable job flipping the Lego franchise on its head to give us a minimalist but satisfying puzzle game. While I doubt that I would ever play through this again after finishing it, I did enjoy the music enough that I could see myself playing the soundtrack some time. I am certainly recommending this one, especially with the hope that the touch controls will be improved sometime soon.

Lego Builder’s Journey is available on Apple Arcade for iOS.

Tell me about YOUR indie game! Give me a shout on Twitter!