Ludography
50/100
Players10 ratings
65/100
Critics4 reviews
More scores
Metacriticcritics
73/100
Metacritic usersuser score
53/100
GameFAQsTough
3.37/5
Player reviews
57% positive538 reviews
Steam Deck
Verified
Runs on
Windows, Mac, Linux
Price
US$13.37

Where to get it

Hack 'n' Slash cover

2014 · Double Fine · Action-adventure · Adventure

Hack 'n' Slash

Hack ‘n’ Slash is a puzzle action game about hacking — reprogram object properties, hijack global variables, hack creature behavior, and even rewrite the game’s code. The only way to win is not to play... by the rules!

Released
9 September 2014
Platforms
LinuxWindowsmacOS
Genres
Action-adventureAdventureBeat 'em upIndiePuzzle
Developers
Double Fine
Publishers
Double Fine
Modes
Single-player
Perspective
Bird view / Isometric
Themes
ActionEducational
Country
United States
Languages
English
Time to beat
4.5hmain story6hwith extras6hcompletionist

About

Hack 'n' Slash is a video game developed by Double Fine Productions. Prototyped during Double Fine's open Amnesia Fortnight 2012, Hack 'n' Slash is a top-down action-adventure game similar to The Legend of Zelda, though with in-game weapons and objects that allow the player to hack the game's world to achieve victory. The game was released to Steam's Early Access on May 6, 2014, for Microsoft Windows, OS X, and Linux computers. It left early access status and became a full release on September 9, 2014.

Players say

Media

The articlegameplay, story, development, reception

Gameplay

The player controls the game's primary character, Alice (a reference to the common Alice and Bob placeholder names), armed with a "USB Sword" from a top-down view. While the player can use the sword and other weapons and tools to explore dungeons and fight enemies in a traditional manner, the sword itself can also interact in special ways with any game object, including enemies and obstacles, that has a USB port. At this point, the player can alter the basic parameters of the object to alter their behavior. Examples include adjusting the movement speed of an enemy, or setting a container's hit points to zero, causing it to collapse and release its contents.

The player can also hack Alice's variables, such as her name or health points. For game objects that lack these USB ports, the player can use limited bombs that pause the execution of code from objects caught in the explosion, allowing them to temporarily hack the object's code, such as setting a flag that gives these objects a USB port to be hacked further.

Development

Hack 'n' Slash was one of several ideas presented for voting for Double Fine's Amnesia Fortnight 2012 project, where users would be able to vote for the game concepts they felt they would want to play the most. Hack 'n' Slash was an idea presented by senior programmer Brandon Dillon, as a Zelda-like game with the ability to hack the game's features. The title received the most votes and was one of five other titles that Double Fine stated they would develop into full games. A full commercial version of the game was announced in December 2013, with expected released on Windows, Mac, and Linux in the first half of 2014.

The announcement also revealed that part of the game's funding will come from the Indie Fund. The announcement also contained a single image that linked to a large compressed computer file that users have decoded to find out information about the game's world.

Reception

Hack 'N' Slash received "mixed or average" reviews, according to review aggregator Metacritic.

IGN gave the game a 7.7 out of 10, writing, "for all the very smart, ambitious, and never-before-tried stuff that Hack N'Slash does so well, it has a tendency to drop the ball on the easy stuff. Its maps are a nuisance to get around, with slippery controls...[it has] a tendency to get so wrapped up in being clever that the gameplay suffers for it...", and ultimately concluded that programmers would have a good time with the game. Eurogamer praised the game's graphics and the manner in which the game demanded the player's attention, calling the title "something of a perfect storm of indie game design", while criticizing its unfair obstacles, obtuse visual cues, and lack of polish. GameSpot and PC Gamer found the game's humor to be both unique and clever, and took issue with how "if you're not familiar with making games yourself, you may find each joke is lost on you whilst solving its associated puzzle, and is only funny in retrospect after its completion".

Releases by platformdates and regions as published

PlatformReleasedRegions
Windows9 September 2014Worldwide
Linux9 September 2014Worldwide
macOS9 September 2014Worldwide

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Description adapted from its source, CC BY-SA 4.0.