//HEX boasts itself to be an elite bank hacking simulator built by the three-dev team of Solis Studios. Players take the role of a computer whiz who joins an unnamed group of hackers with the common goal of stealing from the rich and giving to themselves. //HEX’s user interface and manual text commands set the player up to feel as if they could be legitimately hacking a bank, but that immersion quickly breaks down once the game begins.

The best part of //HEX is the setup for each virtual heist. If the player chooses to play solo, which will likely be the case, they control both interfaces: the Control and the Hacker. These two interfaces must work together in order to solve puzzles and crack open the vault, but the best part is the set up before the puzzles begin. Switching between roles, downloading tools, and entering manual commands as quickly as possible makes the player feel like “the guy in the chair.” Sadly, this is also the smallest portion of the game.

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What //HEX boils down to is a collection of time-based puzzles that are built to be a local multiplayer experience. Each interface is meant to be controlled by a different person, and they are supposed to use their communication skills to relay information to one another. The first problem is presented when attempting to find someone to play with, which can be very difficult given the name's relatively small stature.

Hex Console view

Secondly, past the initial setup for each mission, the game becomes confusing, frustrating, and not very fun.  //HEX is frustrating because it never properly explains how to play the game, but a lot of it is common sense, so this isn't always an issue - except in the most major parts of the title. The part that isn’t common sense is when the player is given a puzzle to solve. These puzzles can range in difficulty from pretty easy to impossible, and the only sense of a tutorial for each puzzle are optional speech bubbles that give players a general overview of each problem. Each mission has a time limit of only a few minutes, and the optional tutorial takes place within the mission's time limit.

//HEX also has a serious lack of goals or incentives for stealing the money. There’s no item shop or upgrade system that players can spend the money they’ve stolen on. There is no limit to how little money players have to steal from each bank. In fact, //HEX has the opposite. Players are only allowed to steal so much money as to not make the bank suspect any cash has been stolen at all. Players can steal $1 from the bank and receive a mission complete, which is amusing but also another example of where //HEX kind of buckles under the expectation of its genre trappings.

Solis Studios did take the initiative to hire voice actors for its game, but it probably would have been better off with none. The opening sequence scrolls the text slower than the voice can read them, so the text on screen has already been read aloud. The description for each mission is also narrated by a very distracted sounding hacker. His voice follows the player through the rest of the game, and he does a terrible job of hyping a player up for a mission. It’s hard to feel excited about a mission when the one assigning it sounds like they are going to die of boredom.

Hex role choice screen

//HEX may be a good game for two gamers who love solving incoherent puzzles together, but it’s definitely not a title most people should pick up. Solis Studios has stated that it will be adding more puzzles over time, but what it needs to focus on is improving the ones they already have.

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//HEX is available on PC. A digital Steam code was provided to Screen Rant for purposes of review.