Justin Wack and the Big Time Hack Review
Justin Wack and the Big Time Hack is a game of discovery, a point-n-click adventure about a man named Justin. It tells of a tale about Justin Wack who gets transported back in time, while a caveman by the name of Kloot gets pushed forward into Justin’s time. This leaves the two out of their worlds and trying to survive and get back to their times.
Genre
Point-n-Click, Adventure
Release Date
Out Now!
Publisher
Platforms
PC.
Want to see some gameplay first?
Time and Love
Justin has not had the best of luck recently as he struggles in work as an IT employee. While his girlfriend Julia adopts a cat, which Justin states he is allergic to cats. The couple have a fight which in turn ends their relationship after Julia chooses the cat over Justin. This is the story as he embarks on a journey of time and love.
The game starts with the couple fighting over a cat, however once Julia picks the cat, we are back in Justin’s office. This is where he chats to his co-worker and proceeds to cook a tin foiled cover pie in the microwave. The result of his stupidity, a portal opens, and he is transported to a prehistoric era. Everything seems fine at first until Kloot, a caveman, jumps through the portal and it shuts.
Time Travellers
From here is where the story starts to unfold. There are time travelling robots out on the hunt for time travellers who they must stop. At first you are not sure of their intention, but it does soon become clear what they want. These robots call themselves The Guardians and they are on the hunt for both Justin and Kloot. Now it’s up to both our travellers to fix this and get back to their respective timelines and fast!
Style and Humour
While you have the story set in place, it’s the puzzles and discovering new areas to explore you will care more about. Each of the puzzles have their own unique style and humour to them. For example, the air guitar contest sees you visiting 3 people to learn different moves. While another will see you grabbing a bottle of ketchup and some glasses for a disguise.
Each puzzle has their own way of being completed and it’s up to you to find out how. There is quite a bit of freedom in playing the game, and you are given a journal to keep you on track. This journal acts as a guide on what goals you need to do in each level. Once all goals have been achieved, it will be time to move on.
Justin and Kloot
When you start Act II, you will be able to control both Justin and Kloot. This will in turn ramp up the difficulty in the puzzles. The items you pick up can be transferred between the two characters, but not at first. Some of the puzzles revolve around time, in that you must transfer between the two characters to solve the puzzle. Adding to this, when you get to Act III, Julia is then added into the fray, which in turn adds more dynamics to the puzzles.
Killer Robots
Justin Wack and The Big Time Hack is mostly enjoyable with it’s well thought out puzzles, locations you visit and the characters you meet. The game visuals are colourful and filled with an array of talking dinosaurs, hairdressers and killer robots. They characters do have a slight tendency to natter on and on, while throwing in the odd joke. If you ever feel the need to get help on a particular puzzle, you will have your very own tech support. They will always be on hand to help you out if the need should ever arise.
You also have an inventory on hand that you can gather important items for puzzles. This inventory can be a bit awkward at times when you want to use an item or when you are trying to combine them for a puzzle. The reason for its awkwardness is that when you have quite a few items in your inventory, you need to navigate each page to select the correct item for combining. It is however straightforward enough to use when you need to grab something from it.
While playing through the game, the enemies that you come across are a bit dim-witted at times and will often try to stand toe-to-toe with you when you are shooting at them, often resulting in them on the losing end. They never really see you as any real threat until you are right on top of them and most of the time try to hit you with grenades while standing out in the open. It’s quite easy to run at them and go for a melee kill before they can fire off a shot. Even if you missed your kill and are left slicing your machete about trying to kill them, they just seem to be in a dream world before they start shooting at you. Perhaps Castillo is working these guys to hard and they just can’t be bothered to protect him anymore and going through the motions, maybe.
Justin Wack is on the same levels as most modern adventure point-n-click games that are currently about. It does an amazing job in terms of how beautiful it looks with its 2D characters and backdrops. The visuals are hand-painted and aesthetically pleasing and looks to portray a style that suits the games humour. While the voice work blends nicely with the art style and the melodies work in harmony that accompanies the visuals.
Justin Wack and the Big Time Hack might be not everyone’s cup of tea. However, there is a quaint charm to the game that will make you wander through it. Fans of the genre will definitely love it and the puzzle are achievable, but never feel too overbearing or frustrating.
Overall
If you like your run of the mill point-n-click adventure games, then Justin Wack is the man for you! It features nice problem-solving puzzle, some good humour while not being too short on story. While it may not be the best of the bunch, you are sure to find it enjoyable all the same.
SSG Rating 8/10