Is this game a masterpiece? It is another classic point and click adventure, obviously inspired by the old LucasArts games. After Voodoo Detective and Brok and a few days before the release of Return to Monkey Island... who said point and click is dead? This is a very polished pnc game, with a cartoon story that makes no sense in real life but is quite funny for an adventure. Time travel, robots from the future, holographic aliens, talking vegan (or maybe not) dinosaurs living together with cavemen... you get the picture.

You play multiple characters in different times, like in Day of the Tentacle. There is an IT support technician who accidently opens a time portal to the Prehistoric Age, full of dinos and cavemen, and who becomes hunted by ruthless time police robots from the future. There is a caveman who uses the time portal in the other direction and takes the place of the IT technician in the present time (he learns to speak after finding a dictionary). And then there is the ex-girlfriend of the IT support technician... and you can switch between the characters at any time, and of course manupilating things in one time might have effects many years later. The puzzles are (kind of) logical, but there are soon a lot of locations with even more items and hotspots. This game is not easy, but adhering to the LucasArts adventure design philosphy you cannot reach dead ends, and there is no way to die (more or less).

Technically there is nothing to complain, the game contains all "comfort features" that have become standard in modern pnc games. You have an unlimited inventory, which is shown permanently on screen. Just drag an item to where you want to use it. Nice idea, which works very well. Press the middle mouse button to show all hotspots, click mouse to skip text. There are no noticeable loading times between locations, double click on an exit teleports you to it. There is an integrated hint function (but only with some vague hints of sometimes limited usefulness), but it also invites you to the Discord channel of the devs. The game is fully voiced. The visuals are quite good, the animations are ok, cloud save works fine.

Conclusion:
Modern point and click adventure in LucasArts style. Especially inspired by Day of the Tentacle. Lots of objects to grab, locations to visit and hotspots to examine - not for casuals looking for a quick playthrough!

This is a fun Point-n-Click jaunt through time 😊

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What happens when the past "you" breaks through a time traveling portal?
You switch places of course! To prevent things like this from happening a robot designed to eliminate you is on your trail and you’ll have all kinds of things that need sorted to get everyone back where they belong.

You toggle between playing Justin in the present and in the past; sometimes the past must help the present, sometimes it is in reverse.

I’ve only played a couple of hours but have been so excited for this game I thought I’d pop out a quick “first impressions”.

It’s got really lovely, artwork, animation, everything we expect in a good point and click.

This game reminds me of Gibbous.

I see friends playing that have 10 plus hours in it so I'd say it has a nice play length.

With Gamescom I would hate to see this get buried.


Controls/Options:
There is an auto-save and a manual save; it will auto-save when you exit and during the game.
There is a built-in hint system that’s not a full spoiler.
Double click to advance text quickly
Space-bar for hot-spots
The things we are accustomed to in Point-n-Clicks in other words.

Well done devs!

Edited to add that I'm five hours in and still enjoying it. There are six save slots, quite adequate because of the auto save on exit and in-game auto-saves; the game is quite stable so this works fine for me.

What a hilarious point & click adventure ! I simply fell in love with Justin, Kloot and Julia from the very start. Like in (I guess) its inspiration, Dott, time does something here ! Doing something in the Stone Age will have consequences in the present and we can experience it, influence the course of events this way.... so one has totally different problem solutions. A simple example: ever had an allergy probem? E.g. cat fur? Simple solution: cats don't have to grow fur, if somebody in the Stone Age ... you get the idea !

Don't miss this wonderful game! Highly recommended

This game had potential but the big problem is how puzzles are paced out.

In other point-and-clicks, new locations are usually unlocked as you solve puzzles so that you're usually only managing 2-3 at a time. In this game, I felt like I had a dozen puzzles to juggle and only a couple were actually relevant. There were several puzzles I knew the solution to in Act 1 but that I couldn't solve until Act 3 because certain items hadn't been unlocked. This wouldn't be a problem except these games can be pretty moon-logic in how you accomplish a goal, so how should I know I don't need to solve the hidden floor puzzle if it might have more stuff to steal? Point-and-clicks are all about stealing until someone tells you stop. This led to me either blazing through puzzles with very little thought or getting very stuck even when relying on the hint system.

The game is also dragged down by the limited animations. A character will say something funny, a couple seconds of silence, and then another character goes into their line without much of a reaction. It makes everything feel much slower and less funny than it would be if they'd just trimmed up the silence or had some visual reaction from the character. Some of these interactions left me more confused than anything as one character would say something that seemed like it could be a joke while the other character stared blankly ahead for 2 seconds.

It's not a bad game. I'd still recommend it if you were a big fan of point-and-clicks and the LucasArts style of humor. But I wouldn't buy it over a lot of other similar options.

EDIT: Pontus, just wanted to say I appreciate you and your openness to feedback. Definitely will keep my eye on future games from you as I dig the overall direction :)

Obviously inspired by classic Lucas Arts games and especially Day of the Tentacle, but implemented in a modern way.

A classic and funny point and click adventure with inventory - based puzzles. I really loved the execution! I cant wait for the next game by the developper, i hope he doesnt change the formula!

Funs of the genre will adore this.

I don't think it is a bad game, but it feels rough around the edges.
Generally: The story is OK, but a bit short and the ending rushed. The puzzles are OK, but some combinations are not obvious/make no sense why you would do that. I didn't think it was funny.

In more detail:
I played the game through in 7.3h (just checked), it lacked depth in comparison Deponia, Moneky Island, or Day of Tentacle. Each act was a bit short. Often there was one puzzle per act that depended on finishing other puzzles. All the other puzzles were simple.

I think this game needs some work on world-building. It didn't feel like a world to be part of. It felt more like, these puzzles are the end to the means. I would have liked something like in Secret of Monkey Island, one sets out to become a pirate and one meets pirates goes on the 3 quests, learns sword fighting ... -> and that's Act 1 (more or less).
In this game, for instance, when the caveman comes to the present (first minute of the game). He learns the language with one tiny action and speaks perfectly English afterward. Instead, there could have been a "My fair lady"-storyline where he hears some words, meets someone on the street and this person teaches him language and pronunciation. There could have been funny moments puzzles and more. Instead, it just took one tiny action, and, most of the act, he can't even leave the kitchen with anything to do.

Also, there are too few NPCs. It doesn't feel like a city. In Monkey Island, you have plenty of characters that you can talk to but they have no story-relevant meaning. The world feels bland. In Day of Tentacle, it was OK, because it was a remote House.

Finally the jokes. Some were funny, but mostly it wasn't very funny. I love point & click adventures, so I continued. But it lacked "Monkey Island"'s silliness, "Deponia"'s irony, or "Day of the Tentacle"'s overly dramatic effects.
They tried to make it funny. For instance, you had two longer puzzles with sub-puzzles and in the end, it turned out, that you didn't need to do that at all. The main character just looks at you and seems annoyed. No funny comment/comeback, no other reaction that could have lifted the mood, it just left me annoyed as it was a pointless puzzle.

I admit it sounds ranty, but it's an OK game. But, it could have been better.

Justin Wack and the Big Time Hack is a charming point-and-click adventure that pays homage to all the greats! The "puzzles" aren't too difficult but they aren't too straightforward either - took me a long while to assemble the rabbit trap, for example. Being able to switch characters and eventually swap items makes it more challenging since some of the items Kloot may need can only be found at Justin's side and vice versa. There are hints to help but sometimes, the hints just mentioned stuff that you already know but have no idea how to 1. get the correct items or 2. how to combine them in a way that makes sense. Excellent voice acting, plenty of jokes, and I love the art style here as well.

If you're an achievement hunter, there are plenty of achievements to get here, but I did notice that I've missed some (that I've eventually gotten to in my second playthrough) if I play the game in the order I want. Some achievements will become inaccessible once you've pushed forward some part of the story, like the biker one.

Oh, and I'm not sure if this is intentional or it's just me, but I love the reference to "The Office" here - the way the characters turn to the "camera"/screen whenever (well, not always) they said something funny.

So, in summary, I can count on one hand how many great Point and Click games that have been released within the decade, and Justin Wack and the Big Time Hack is definitely one them! If you're a fan of point-and-click adventures like Hiveswap, Monkey Island, Deponia, etc, you'll want to play this game. It has a fun storyline with quality voice acting and art, snazzy 😉 characters, and of course, many interesting puzzles (with hints included... Thanks Daela!).

Sequel, pretty please? 😁

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Awesome ! One of the best point & click game of the year for sure.

- Lovely graphics & animations (screenshots and videos will just speak for themselves)
- Funny puzzles and great humour
- Good voice acting
- Time travel with multiple characters ! Is this DOTT 2 ? :)
- An enormous amount of references to classic point & clicks everywhere !
- Kinda difficult, wich isn't a bad thing ! And the game has a hint system if you ever get stuck for too long.

10/10

A very good adventure/point and click game! With obvious borrowings from Day of The Tentacle (it doesn't deny), it's a funny game with solid puzzles (there's stuff I overlooked and had to search for for quite some time) and lovable drawings. There's a catch-all animation that's so cute that I wasn't sad there's not too many of them. Works flawlessly on Linux PC and Steam Deck (including automatic save game exchange via Steam Cloud).

Charming. Some tough puzzles,