Hate Plus is a different kind of game, and that's not a bad thing if you are looking for something new to try. Instead of being a puzzle, adventure, or action title, it is literally an interactive novel. The only "puzzle," if you will, is attempting to piece together what happened to space vessle Mugunghwa before the events of the previous game, Analogue: A Hate Story. Because there are some concepts originally introduced in that game, it's helpful to have played it before diving into Hate Plus, but it's not essential.

If you completed Analogue, however, you have the choice of either importing data from your save files or starting clean. How the story progresses and the interaction with your on-screen sidekick is completely dependent on which of the two AIs from the previous game you are partnered with--or if you are partnered with both. *Hyun-Ae is an adorable and somewhat naive girl with a big heart and an extremely tortured history (see Analogue for the whole story); *Mute is a security AI who is much more abrasive and sometimes struggles to fit in but interesting in her own right.

The "game" aspects of Hate Plus are minimal, even more so than in Analogue. The only things you do are choose from a series of log files to read, address your AI when she wants your attention, and generally read along with your sidekick. I'm not a person who likes to read books anymore, but presented in this format, the reading is engaging and fun. But don't take this to suggest that this is a PG story for anyone to read as there are many mature themes and outright NSFW topics discussed within some of the logs.

But perhaps the most fun is with interacting with your chosen AI. She will ask you to click on her from time to time to ask a question or discuss something with you; often, you'll be presented with a wheel of possible responses. There's no right or wrong, but how you answer definitely can influence her perception of you. If *Hyun-Ae is your sidekick, you'll even have the opportunity to bake an actual CAKE for an achievement. (Unlike Portal, this cake is NOT a lie.) And if both *Hyun-Ae and *Mute are along for the ride, their banter together is really funny at times.

In a game like this, presentation is everything, and Hate Plus does not disappoint, with charming graphics for the two AI's, a nice, clean interface serving as the ship's computer console, and an excellent soundtrack by Isaac Schankler, who also composed the music for Analogue. My favorite song of the soundtrack is called "Vision," which is heavily played during the playthrough with *Hyun-Ae. It's a beautiful song, one I find myself listening to quite frequently OUTSIDE of the game. I've heard very few video game songs that I can listen to in that way (the theme "Icarus" from Deus Ex: Human Revolution being one of the only others). It's hard to imagine a better interface or a more listenable soundtrack for the content of the game.

I did find a few minor faults with the game, however. One is the fact that after you download so many logs, you have to save your progress and quit. This is a mechanism built into the game design; the number of logs you can pull is directly linked to the power remaining in your character's ship, and when it drops to 1%, you have to end the game, thus giving the batteries time to recharge for the next session. This takes 12 real-time hours; there IS a way to circumvent this if you want. It's an interesting mechanic and not entirely artificial as it's linked to the story, but it would be nice to not have to use what amounts to a cheat to bypass it if you want to spend more time reading through the story. Additionally, I found control non-responsive more than in Analogue; I'm not sure if this is a problem or if it's another mechanic linked to the whole low-power-on-the-ship aspect of the story, but it's a minor irritation, though not one that I would consider off-putting.

And then there's the possible red herring of an achievement: Level Four Revive Materia. To this day, it appears NOBODY has been able to unlock it based on Steam's global stats (I checked this again before writing this). I've researched this on-line along with a number of other players, and it appears this achievement is not actually possible. However, there has been no word from creator Christine Love about this that I am aware of. I don't consider myself an achievement snob, but for anyone who would like to 100% this game on an achievements level, this may be off-putting until a way to unlock it becomes more clear. In that regard, anyone who considers achievements to be an important part of the experience should approach with a degree of caution.

Another possible turn-off for some is the straight story aspect of the game. Even Analogue presented one fairly frantic and involving puzzle around the middle of the game in which you used that game's console to enter a series of commands to stop a nuclear meltdown. Hate Plus does not include any true puzzles at all, with the possible exception of a sequence between you and the two AIs if both are accompanying you; I can't say more without revealing a MAJOR spoiler. But those looking even for minor brain-teasers or anything other than straight reading and interacting with your AI(s) may not enjoy Hate Plus as much.

But for anyone willing to approach with an open mind and take a chance on a relatively new gaming concept, there's a lot to love about Hate Plus. Put it this way: Analogue and Hate Plus are just about the ONLY games on Steam I have paid full price for without waiting for a sale, and the demo for Analogue hooked me on the idea almost immediately. Granted, the games are not expensive to start with, but the fact that I was willing to pay the release price is a testament to how much I like Love's ability to craft this type of video game. I'm looking forward to more such games from her in the future. Hate Plus is definitely a winner.

8.0 out of 10

Hate Plus picks up where Analogue: A Hate Story left off and continues expanding on the backstories and society of AIs *Hyun-ae and *Mute that may not have been so clear in the original game.

First and foremost, Christine Love's writing has improved leaps and bounds from the original game. There's a much sharper focus on fleshing out both characters and how the changes in the world directly and indirectly impacted their existences. Navigating through logs and the myriad of often confusing Korean names is made much easier thanks to a cleaner interface that features cross-linked profiles and portraits of the key players in the story.

There's no reason not to grab Hate Plus if you enjoyed Analogue. It's a much richer and fulfilling experience, and all the loose ends come together as they should.

Hate Plus is the sequel to "Analogue: A Hate Story" from 2012, continuing the story between you and your computer wife, or just a friend side investigator. After loving the previous game, can the sequel step up to the plate and be just as good? Or even better?! Perhaps...

Story: The story is focused on the events after Analogue, with you traveling with your selected A.I. partner to Earth and finally finish your mission, however it's 3 days long and the dialogue option is messed up just like last time. Luckily, your A.I. friend finds some logs about the history of the Mugunghwa before the Pale Bride (events of the first game). The game still has *Hyun-ae and *Mute, luckily not having to complete half the game this time to pick your character to playthrough with like last game. The logs in the game are even better than the last, it focuses on the previous events before the Pale Bride incident and has Old *Mute involved, a previous A.I. security version of *Mute, and your job is to find out what happened exactly to Old *Mute and the ship before the Pale Bride. Just as the previous game, the title sticks through the entire game. Hate Plus. It's a game that you'll find to be sickening with certain events, and it has many hateful characters and moments (In a good way!).
Same as Analogue, Christine Love shows us how superb she is at writing as the logs you sift through have an emotional punch to them all, and tells a little tale for each of the characters you read about, as some logs are just diary pages or even council meetings. Many logs are hard to read for either hateful reasons, or pure sadness; which Analogue did do, however, I feel that Hate Plus delivers an even more emotional tale with *Mute's side of the story, never before have I had such twisted emotions in a game and long after completing, I was still thinking about the events that occurred in the logs, along with the events that were happening with me and my A.I. wife.

However I feel as though *Hyun-ae's side is a bit too...cheery, or off topic. *Mute's side is figuring out what was going on with her old self, and how she's going to cope with the events from the past, however *Hyun-ae consists of cake baking, chatting, and just being lovey to each other. I suppose it's expected since *Hyun-ae was the focus in the previous game, however even *Mute in the previous game was more focused on the story as well. That's the only issue I have with the story here, but with *Mute's side, it's just perfect.

Gameplay: Surprisingly, the gameplay here in a visual novel style game, has improved quite well. Unlike the previous game, your A.I. partner reads with you with each log and gives you their thoughts on certain things in the logs while reading it. It gives more realism since in the previous game you would just talk to them after and didn't know if they were reading it with you, or they already read it beforehand...

There is one other major change than in the previous game. You have a certain amount of energy to download logs each day, ones you've downloaded all you can in one day and read them all, you have to power down and it's a literal 12 hour waiting process. For some, it was a bad choice, taking away the reading from the player for nearly the rest of the day. However I feel like it was a sensible choice and I was able to think things through more, just to focus on one day instead of trying to cram all the info of the entire game in one play session.

Whereas most gamers this year are picking The Last of Us, BioShock Infinite, GTA V for their GOTY. I'd have to safely say, no other game this year has been as amazing as Hate Plus in my eyes. No other game has twisted my emotions this much or had such an impact on me. While Analogue is an amazing game, Hate Plus is just a few steps away from being a perfect title. If you haven't played either, I suggest picking both up. I guarantee you'll be loving every second of it....and hating every minute.

9.5/10

Cake Baking for Waifu Simulator 4989

Analogue: A Hate Story takes place in the 26th century, where the universe is run by the Saeju Colony Historical Society. Dispatch Control sends their secret black ops team to do their dirty work, the Mugunghwa security team, led by *Hyun-ae. Following Dispatch Control's orders and assassinating those whom they believe are criminals, Mugunghwa security kill a man known as Emperor Ryu, but soon discover he was a civilian reporter, documenting civilian deaths caused by Mugunghwa security. *Hyun-ae and his team realize they have been duped by Dispatch Control and desert, becoming space pirates on the run from Dispatch Control's forces.
Ten years later, *Hyun-ae drunkenly attacks Dispatch Control's battlecruiser, the salvage ship from the beginning of the game, while near the ship of Mugunghwa. *Hyun-ae rams the salvage ship from the beginning of the game, hoping to gain revenge on Dispatch Control. The ships collide, forcing both to crash land on the hull of Mugunghwa. One of *Hyun-ae's men, *Mute, is critically wounded in the crash and *Hyun-ae is forced to find an energy cell to drive the ship's medical equipment. On the ship, a former popular tropical-like resort destination, the population has mutated into feral tribes and carnivorous plants. *Hyun-ae fights through to one of the salvage ship from the beginning of the game's escape pods, and retrieves the escape pod's energy cell, as well as an "instinct leash." The leash, when worn, begins to provide him strange tactile information, such as points for each enemy he kills.
*Hyun-ae returns with the cell, and while *Mute is under operation, the mutants attack their ship, leaving *Mute a disfigured cyborg. *Hyun-ae and *Mute, the only survivors, decide to work together to get off the ship, despite *Mute's disapproval of *Hyun-ae's thirst for revenge. The instinct leash leads *Hyun-ae to another escape pod, where they find a UNIX command-line terminal, a salvage ship from the beginning of the game security soldier who agrees to work with *Hyun-ae and *Mute, but only after they rescue Dispatch Control. As they battle through the ravaged city, a UNIX command-line terminal explains that Mugunghwa has been used by salvage ship from the beginning of the game security as a sort of training grounds, with the instinct leashes the soldiers wear as a means of ranking those within the test; those that scored kills would be the only ones that could get ammunition and other supplies to survive. When *Hyun-ae learns that a UNIX command-line terminal was Emperor Ryu's daughter, he tells her that Dispatch Control was responsible for her father's death, but claims he does not know who actually killed him.
The three make their way to the top of a skyscraper where Dispatch Control's pod landed. a UNIX command-line terminal accuses Dispatch Control of her father's death, but he simply pushes her off the side of the building. Dispatch Control then warns *Hyun-ae and *Mute that there is an armed "DNA bomb" on the salvage ship from the beginning of the game that will wipe out all life on the ship, and they must go and disarm it, as his rescue ship will not arrive in time. As they travel underground, Dispatch Control explains that prison convicts were used as the labor force to maintain the ship; they rebelled when toxic byproducts, created by the ship's solar radiation shields, were dumped in the underground prison. The convicts destroyed the shields, exposing the entire population to mutating radiation.
Aboard the salvage ship from the beginning of the game, Dispatch Control tricks *Hyun-ae and *Mute into arming what was actually an inert bomb, and leaves them to die. As fire breaks out aboard the fallen ship, the two are saved by a UNIX command-line terminal, who survived the fall by catching a power line on her way down.