Hack Grid Review: I'm Into The Mainframe!

Indie fan are ya? If you genuinely like indie games, especially puzzlers, give Hack Grid a look. Developed by Daisy Games, it’s a tough puzzle game, but give it a chance (plus have faith in your problem-solving skills), and you might surprise yourself.

Though a code was kindly provided, I’m not at liberty to say it’s the best puzzle game in the world. It’s not typically the kind of game I’d seek out. I predominantly like narrative-driven games, point and clicks, driving… hell – I like everything, but complex puzzle games aren’t at the top of my list.

I did pretty well in Dark Crypt, though it dented any self-confidence still left in my pockets, so I thought I’d give this a try. Despite being a narrative-driven whore, there isn’t any story in Hack Grid. It’s a DOS-based game – games actually ran like this, not that DOS app you use to play Police Quest. It’s ‘retro’.

But don’t let that deceive you! Hack Grid is bloody hard, but there’s something moreish about it that encouraged me to grit my teeth and get through to the end. The end of the standard difficulty that is. More on the others in a mo. So what’s the premise?

There are two colours: pink and turquoise, and initially, you’ll have two cross-hair looking icons that slide over one another to make them disappear. The stage is won when you’re only left with one colour. Using a grid-based system, these pieces can only slide horizontally or vertically as long as the circuits connect them. You can’t go back unless it’s dragging the piece onto the opposite colour, but there is an undo button (just one mind, too many mistakes, and you can reset the puzzle).

As the stages increase, 60 of them, new pieces are introduced. Some don’t move; others are like traps where you slide over a part, and while it changes the colour of the one before it, you can no longer move it. Other examples are the sliding doors that open and close each time. Do note that while this is turn-based, so to speak, Hack Grid doesn’t count your moves (perhaps why I enjoyed it).

That’s right – I enjoyed Hack Grid. Three things appealed to me: the simplicity, the CRT effect (can be toggled if you’re a hater), and the music. The latter is incredibly catchy – a bit like Dr Mario, but a few tunes add to the tension/ Fortunately, they cancelled out my frequent screams of “Noooooo!”. Surprisingly, these were in good humour as I’d often be left with two pieces of the same colour – a fail. But reset it, and start again. It’s all good.

I’ll be candid here: I winged a lot of it. Sometimes I couldn’t process its complexity by planning ten moves in advance, and on the odd occasion, it became stressful with that approach when it didn’t go to plan. When I turned off the pressure and experimented more, the game flowed, and even in the later levels, some of them were done in a few seconds. Some. Most of them were bloody hard.

And then we come to the difficulty. I’m stopping at the firewall difficulty for now. In the first few instances, the game introduced new pieces that could only move horizontally or vertically – not both. Aaarrrggghh! That brings us to Hack Grid Master Levels. While I was prepared to take a break from the firewall mode, Master Levels is a further 40 new challenges that introduce new pieces. To offer some clarity, no – I haven’t finished these, and truth be told, I’m struggling. Does that mean I can’t recommend it? Just because a game is challenging, that shouldn’t qualify it as bad. As devilish as these stages may appear, a degree of patience pays off big time, but I’d argue a forward-thinking strategy, too.

Daisy Games hasn’t endorsed these messages, and to be honest, I shouldn’t be giving them such praise as they’ve highlighted my problem-solving skills or lack of, and made me cry a handful of times. But for the level of challenge, value, and dare I say – brilliant accompanying soundtrack, it’s a no-brainer recommendation if you’re up to it.