Exploit - Information is Freedom is an Adobe Flash game by Gregory Weir.
You play as an unnamed hacker who is asked by their fellow hacker (codenamed "sk3tch") to break into the firewall of the fictious military junta nation Locha, to test your skills as they've closed off their internet access from the world.
While hacking into their servers, you come across a Lochan native named Li Yolei under arrest for speaking against the government and plot to free him alongside his friend Gadao Koi. Things get complicated quickly.
- 419 Scam: One email caught by the hacker's spam filter is a very poorly-written scam from a supposed rich family in Locha who instructs the textbook scam of providing a small sum of money for a chance to get a larger one. Another one later caught in the filter is slightly more well-written as it claims to be from "Ameribank" but is still transparently a scam.
- Big Bad: Gadao Koi, who used your assistance to Li Yolei to smuggle himself to America and attempts to commit a terrorist plot.
- Bittersweet Ending: In the end, Gadao Koi's terrorism plot met a grisly end alongside him without any innocent casualties and Li Yolei is granted asylum while staying with sk3tch, but Locha is predictably still standing with its citizens still living under oppression and the dissenters being executed on the regular.
- Bland-Name Product: "Lchan" is an obvious Lochan riff on 4chan which sk3tch even describes as such (without mentioning it by name). It's a government-sponsored forum that's mainly used to spy on potential dissenters.
- Brick Joke: One of the first emails you get from sk3tch is a recipe for Lochan persimmon pastries. At the end, sk3tch reminds you to try the pastry recipe since they're really good.
- Cruel and Unusual Death: Gadao Koi meets his end after the hacker traps him in the service elevator he was using to escape the Ameribank building and tried to use one of his thermite bombs to melt through it, only to accidentally cremate himself entirely.
- The Dictatorship: The fictitious island state of Locha is presented as one, where the media is controlled by the military-controlled government who spread propaganda to the civilians and regularly publicly execute dissenters.
- From Bad to Worse: The hacker and sk3tch's attempt to get Li Yolei and Gadao Koi out of Locha gets them detained at Fort Zulu, then after you break them out, you both find out that Gadao is actually a Lochan loyalist who used your friendship with Li to sneak into America to start a terrorist plot and you've covered up his traces, so the FBI can't apprehend him without you giving up Li, forcing you to stop Gadao himself.
- Irony: One email the hacker gets is from their loving mother, who hopes they haven't gotten into trouble. By that point, the hacker had hacked into a foreign country to get two citzens out, broken into Fort Zulu's security systems and later has to stop a terrorist they accidentally abetted.
- Uncertain Doom: The unnamed Swifty Couriers worker who Gadao Koi stole his uniform from, with sk3tch hoping that he's just stuffed in a closet and not killed.
- Wham Line: After all the business in Fort Zulu, only Li Yolei shows up to Charlotte to be picked up by sk3tch, who then frantically informs you that they dug up more information about Gadao Koi and his family; turns out they were actually Lochan loyalists who supported the dictatorship and now Gadao's on the run to commit a terrorist plot.