The actual combat in Space Hack stays true to Diablo and Diablo 2. You point and click at the enemy to attack in a typical hack-and-slash manner. Gathering treasure and items is done pretty easily by clicking on the item, again, very similar to Diablo. The currency in Space Hack doesn’t rely on cash or gold, but rather power cells. The power cells can be used to trade for weapons, armor, health shots, and other interesting items. The game does offer lots of high tech items; it is after all very sci-fi. You will quickly discover that power cells are very important in the game because you must upgrade and maintain your weapons regularly. Space Hack really focuses a lot of time on fighting but it is rather repetitive, its point and click hack and slash. It doesn’t really change. If you are looking for a mindless RPG to waste some hours on than this characteristic might appeal to you. On the other hand, if you’re looking for something new and unique to hold your attention, Space Hack is not going to cut it.

Shoot. Kill. Repeat.

The graphics in Space Hack are pretty simple, but overall they do an adequate job and they do fit the game. The graphics engine in Space Hack does provide 3D detail and you are able to enjoy this by panning around Hack a full 360 degrees. Your view of Hack while playing is similar to Diablo though, so you can’t really get a great feeling for the face of your character up close, or the other characters in the game. The overall detail on the characters in the game is average; it’s easy to tell everything apart but the detail doesn’t bog the game down any. You do get a good look at the environments in the domes and they do look detailed and well done. The environments themselves vary wildly, going from forest to volcanic (yes, volcanic, someone put a volcanic environment on a space ship). Your enemies are primarily aliens and they come in all different shapes and sizes. The game boasts forty different alien creatures and 5 different environments so you should be fairly pleased with the look of the game and the variety of the creatures you encounter.

The storyline on the other hand, as it unfolds in the game, is pretty weak. First off, all your conversations with characters in the game require you to read pages of junk. There’s no interactivity with the characters other than clicking and choosing what to buy and trade with the merchants. You have to read through the stories that people tell you to learn about the missions and it can get pretty old. This aspect of Space Hack might remind you of PC games a few years back. It’s hard to see how many people could be attracted to this old monotony with the current crop of massively interactive games where the story unfolds through a series of spectacular video’s or cut scenes. Of course Space Hack is a single CD install, and most current games are 3-4 CD’s if not more. More often than not, you do get what you pay for in this world.

The amount of similarities between Space Hack and Diablo are enormous. If you found yourself playing Diablo for hours on end you might find yourself doing the same with Space Hack. The problem is that Space Hack, overall, is just plain boring. The combat is repetitive, and no matter your enemy or environment, it’s still basically the same thing. The interactivity with the characters is extremely limited, and you’re forced to read boring text to learn what’s going on. The graphics, although not bad, aren’t anything to get excited about either. Space Hack just seems like it arrived on the video game scene about 5 years too late.

In The End, This Game Hath Been Rated: 50%. Space Hack is like a bad sci-fi version of Diablo or Diablo 2 set in outer space. Unless you’re dying to spend hours on a Diablo throwback, it’s likely that you will think of Space Hack as just another hack and slash RPG arriving on the shelves a few years too late.

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