Uplink: Hacker Elite

A long learning curve to understand the game.

‘Uplink’ is a strategy game, in which you have complete cyber infiltration and manipulation contracts while managing your time, computer resources, and finances. I find the game repetitive, as you take on restricted types of contracts in each rank. While this is great for familiarizing yourself with the game’s mechanics and earning money for better equipment, it’s not very fun. ‘Uplink’ is also unforgiving. If you made a mistake and allowed a hack be traced back to you, even if it happened early in the game, it’ll come back to haunt you. At best you’ll be fined, at worst you’ll be disavowed and have to start the game all over again. I found myself disavowed at one point, but not recalling when I was ever caught. It’s hard to learn from your mistake when you don’t know or remember where you went wrong. Since the game only has one save slot, you can’t even resume playing from where you made an error. So in striving for realism by having you restart from the very beginning upon failing, the game ends up being repetitive, frustrating, and not that fun. Can you imagine yourself playing other strategy games in single-player mode (e.g. ‘Civilization’) and having only one save slot at your disposal? The vanilla version of ‘Uplink’ (2001) didn’t age well. The user interface is clunky and not user-friendly on modern high-resolution monitors. Yet, after installing the Uplink OS mod (last updated in 2017), I find the game much easier to navigate. While the aesthetic has been upgraded, the core gameplay remains unchanged, for better or worse. As someone whose first introduction to hacking simulation games was ‘Hacknet’, I find ‘Uplink’ sluggish and not all that exciting. Still, I think this game is a good introduction to PC hacking sims. So at around a dollar, it’s worth a try with the Uplink OS mod installed; but remember to check out other better hacking games afterwards. (1/5 for vanilla version; 2/5 with Uplink OS mod installed)

I have the boxed version of this, I got it when it first came out. Yet I still find myself returning to play it time and time again. I especially recommend it for those looking for a good game for their laptop as it's a very low overhead game.

Fun game, easy to learn and get started (even for a newbie), addicting as hell. Wish there are high resolution support. The UI/fonts look way too small for anything over 1024x768.

So in all honesty, I remember 'finding' this game online back in the day and giving it a download - I didn't know how well a hacking simulation would hold up or how it could be engaging. I didn't have much research under my belt so I was going in blind, and within a few weeks, I was lucky enough to find it on GOG to finally buy it. Uplink is an excellent game where you work your way up the ranks in the digital criminal underworld, starting from menial data handling to bank robberies, all from the comfort of your desktop. It has a total 90s hacker flavour from top to bottom, with a well-rounded soundtrack that hits a lot of dark digital beats. For anyone looking to upgrade the experience, a mod was made available that completely revamps the interface. It's called 'UplinkOS' and can be found pretty easily on Moddb. The graphical overhaul is enough to make it feel like a completely new game.