[h1]Played On: [b]HTC Vive[/b][/h1]
Mr. Hack Jack: Robot Detective is the virtual reality game that puts you in the role of a detective robot, working on the force with other Police-Bots. Over the course of the game, players are tasked with solving the murders of several robots in each location; all while gathering clues, finding a suspect and a motive, figuring out the murder weapon, and all sorts of other detective stuff. There are even tons of hats to wear, including the one that can be stolen off of the cranky Police Chief-Bot, and that's nothing but a total bonus.
There are a total of four levels in this release, and each one must be beat in order to unlock the next. There's a bar, a really aesthetic rainy alleyway at night, a mansion, and a metalworking plant. The levels themselves are fairly small, and it doesn't take very long to complete all of the objectives and move on to the next mission. Most of the puzzles repeat themselves as well, such as the Simon Says mini-games and the mazes that you guide a cube through. Nothing here is very difficult, making it great for kids but still somehow fun for adults as well. In total, this game lasts roughly 1-1.5 hours.
At the time of writing there are still some pretty concerning bugs in Mr. Hack Jack: Robot Detective. The most notable problem being that when you get to the third level (this might happen anywhere, but it happened on the third for me and at least one other player) the right hand keeps dropping items every few seconds. At first I was concerned that my controller was biting the dust, so I exited to Steam Home and found that I was able to hold items indefinitely. I checked out a YouTube video and saw another fellow having the same issue in the same level. I went back in and luckily the problem had dissipated. However, it's a completely level-breaking but as it renders players unable to do the mini-games to progress.
The second issue becomes more avoidable once gamers get more familiar with the controls, but the problem lies in the locomotion system. With the right controller, you have to press down on the "up" part of the touchpad to teleport, and the left/right portions to turn. Sometimes the game registers pressing the up button as turning, and that can get a bit frustrating. It's also a bit clunky to use the right controller to do all the moving, and all the item holding as well. However, with practice and learning exactly where the sweet spot is, this finicky snag ends up becoming close to non-existent. That said, the left controller is practically unused except for visual purposes; some of the movement controls could've been put there instead.
Despite the work that needs to be done, Mr. Hack Jack: Robot Detective is a fun and creative VR game for the whole family. The experience is very reminiscent of both Job and Vacation Simulator, in way of the cartoony graphics and the incompetency of the surrounding bots, not to mention the subtle humor. Even though there's not a lot of content here, this release is worth supporting due to its well optimized nature, consistency of updates from the developer, and just the overall uniqueness that it provides. Hopefully there will be a bonus episode or two released in the future.
[h1]Rating: [b]4.0/5.0[/b] - Excellent, highly worth playing.[/h1]
The VR Network [url=https://store.steampowered.com/curator/33182845-The-VR-Network/]Curator[/url] | [url=https://steamcommunity.com/groups/thevrnetwork]Group[/url] Click for More
[b]The developer provided a free copy of this game for review, through The VR Network's Curation page.[/b]
