Hacknet

Will this teach you to be a hacker? No, definitely not, lots of steps are taken out to make it a fun game.
Will this teach you what it's like to be a hacker? Definitely, I'm a cyber security student and this makes me feel like I'm good at it hahaha!
It's a lot of fun, and worth the price, I got it during the Summer sale and I'd buy it again for the full price, the developers deserve it!

Having just completed the main campaign at the time of writing - with an expansion DLC and community-made storylines to go grab whenever I fancy - I find myself applauding a demonstrable, confident and competent passion project.

Sitting at a fake operating system staring at flickering text and pondering what move to try next has no right to be this satisfying, yet Hacknet remains - with very few exceptions - a title that rewards ingenuity, curiosity and player agency. People say this is one of the definitive hacking simulators, and if this is indeed the case, it's not just the fact that you can screw around so intensively in a simulated internet ecosystem that you actually break the plot - it's because you're doing what hackers actually do most of the time, which is sit back, let out a big puffy-cheek sigh of mild exasperation and mutter "ugh, how do we get around THAT one?!" or "oh wow, I probably shouldn't have been able to do this yet am being rewarded for doing so."

The game teaches a few handy command line basics for those not in the know, but it's not going to give you much of anything in the way of dangerous IRL skills, largely because the premise of the game is that a fellow hacker has created a catch-all exploit that can open any computer like a can of sardines with the right complementary toolkit. Obtaining these tools, deepening your dive into the rabbithole and exploring a series of both serious and darkly comical scenarios is very much the crux of the game, and it's enjoyable and often tense in ways simply sitting at a computer has no right to be.

At the time of this review I have 10 hours in, and that's the core campaign done and dusted - enjoyable throughout and very rarely apt to let any pacing issues slip. Missions are unlocked by communicating with shady friends (and sometimes frenemies) who closely guard IP addresses and web tools that can expand your arsenal and uncover the truth behind those lurking in the darkest reaches of the web, trashing our rights man, TRAAAASHING.

Coupled with a banging soundtrack and just enough thrills and spills to make you sit up and pay attention when you get too cocky, Hacknet couples both careful thread-pulling at mysteries and intrigue with heartpounding oh-god-oh-dear-god panic moments where the screen goes weird and you know you're up a creek you were never invited to with a paddle your trembling fingers now can't spell the name of, just as you need it the most.

Excited to try community and DLC plotlines next!

By far the best hacking game I have seen here with some "meta" elements added to it. This game is just as fun even if you don't have a background in cyber security. 10/5 stars

Before this game I was extremely averse to any idea of coding (scratch trauma). The game really walked me through what commands are and how to generally use them without directly giving me the answers, the directory function was super helpful.

I felt like I could actually visualize myself going through different files and directories without feeling totally lost like I used to. Sure it might be unrealistic to a real "hacking scenario", but how would I know that! Anyways I'm taking a python class now and this game helped me understand the basic concepts and how to move through files a lot better.

This game was frustrating initially for someone who knew literally nothing about coding in the beginning, but it was like a puzzle I got to figure out over time which was really rewarding. I would recommend this game if your thinking about trying coding. 5 stars!!!

It's not perfect. It's command-line has some infuriating limitations relative to the real thing.
But it is pretty damned good.

The game has a really cool and stylish UI, but for users who have been using Linux for a long time, it seems a bit "like a square peg in a round hole". I hope the game has more attention to detail. I use arch btw

---{ Graphics }---
☐ You forget what reality is
☐ Beautiful
☐ Good
☐ Decent
☐ Bad
☐ Don‘t look too long at it
☑ MS-DOS
---{ Gameplay }---
☐ Very good
☑ Good
☐ It's just gameplay
☐ Mehh
☐ Watch paint dry instead
☐ Just don't
---{ Audio }---
☐ Eargasm
☐ Very good
☑ Good
☐ Not too bad
☐ Bad
☐ I'm now deaf
---{ Audience }---
☐ Kids
☑ Teens
☑ Adults
☐ Grandma
---{ PC Requirements }---
☑ Check if you can run paint
☐ Potato
☐ Decent
☐ Fast
☐ Rich boi
☐ Ask NASA if they have a spare computer
---{ Game Size }---
☑ Floppy Disk
☐ Old Fashioned
☐ Workable
☐ Big
☐ Will eat 10% of your 1TB hard drive
☐ You will want an entire hard drive to hold it
☐ You will need to invest in a black hole to hold all the data
---{ Difficulty }---
☐ Just press 'W'
☑ Easy
☐ Easy to learn / Hard to master
☐ Significant brain usage
☐ Difficult
☐ Dark Souls
---{ Grind }---
☐ Nothing to grind
☐ Only if u care about leaderboards/ranks
☑ Isn't necessary to progress
☐ Average grind level
☐ Too much grind
☐ You'll need a second life for grinding
---{ Story }---
☐ No Story
☐ Some lore
☐ Average
☑ Good
☐ Lovely
☐ It'll replace your life
---{ Game Time }---
☐ Long enough for a cup of coffee
☑ Short
☐ Average
☐ Long
☐ To infinity and beyond
---{ Price }---
☐ It's free!
☑ Worth the price
☐ If it's on sale
☐ If u have some spare money left
☐ Not recommended
☐ You could also just burn your money
---{ Bugs }---
☑ Never heard of
☐ Minor bugs
☐ Can get annoying
☐ ARK: Survival Evolved
☐ The game itself is a big terrarium for bugs
---{ ? / 10 }---
☐ 1
☐ 2
☐ 3
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☐ 8
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☐ 10
---{ Author }---
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