Exploit

Description: Information is freedom. As a hotshot computer security cracker, you will solve over 50 puzzles and fight against totalitarianism, abuses of power, and terrorism.

Another puzzle game. This week seems to be fraught with puzzle game reviews, doesn't it? This game is mercilessly difficult. A seductive mistress that lures you in with the promise of a potentially fun, but not too challenging, puzzle game, yet leaves you with a bad case of blue balls. The tutorial teaches you what to expect, but the one thing it doesn't tell you is that you have to take into account timing, too.

I won't go too deep into the story, because I feel that the description sums it up better than I ever could care to. As for the game itself, the premise is to send packets of data to the correct area using the tools the current puzzle gives you. The first chapter gives you a decent challenge. What you'd expect from the entire game, really, if there was any justice. There was the perfect balance of ease and challenge, and solving puzzles without outside help left you with a sense of accomplishment. Coupled with a somewhat believable, even if fictional, story and cause and effect, and the fact that the puzzles were at least somewhat interesting, this meant the rest of the game was going to be just as good, right?

If anything, the game would have been much better off following the same course. Not only does the story get a little strange, but puzzles ramp up violently in difficulty, leaving you clicking frantically to try to get things done with the correct timing. In the game's defense, it at least gives you a means of beating a level by allowing you a one-time.. uh.. advantage, but it's a paper-thin defense at best, especially since, as far as I could care to tell, you only get one, and there's still forty levels to go through to get the second badge. Sigh.

The game achieves what it set out to do, even if it starts off sailing smooth and then hits a bumpy road. Maybe I'll sit down to the game and try to rapid-click my way through it at a future time, but I got frustrated as hell and just couldn't sit through any more of the game. For all of my dislike of impossible puzzle games, I figure it's an enjoyable game if you're one of those people that have a knack for these kinds of games, or have the patience to sit through it. The story might be worth sitting through.

Rating: 7/10

Achievement: .Sol Editor (Easy - 5 Points)
Description: Complete the tutorial.
Tips: An easy five points.

Achievement: Information Wants to Be Free (Medium - 15 Points)
Description: Complete chapter 3 of story mode.
Tips: I have yet to find the time or patience to sit through this one. If you can't get this one, good luck with..

Achievement: Charlie's Mom's Sweet Treats (Hard - 30 Points)
Description: Complete all 20 challenges.
Tips: Not much I can say here to help you, seeing as I don't generally bother with challenges until I've beaten a game. Considering that challenges are there to do just that - challenge you - there's a good chance that these ones may easily be on the impossibly hard end of the scale. Good luck!