1st note: I played the demos of both Uplink and this game, so I can compare between the 2. So: 1.Uplink doesn't scale well at modern screens and the letters look tiny (which is bad for people with bad eyesight), while Hacknet has a ton of resolutions to choose from and scales well. 2. Now on gameplay: Hacknet's interface is nice and polished, with 3 distinguishable panels showing the currently executed program, the screen of the target pcs and the command line (not to mention the email icon in the top right corner-you receive mails from this Bit character who wants your help). The tutorial is very intuitive and the available anytime "help" command gives a list of all commands available. The music is very nice and puts you in the high-adrenaline-hacker mode (just like Uplink!), and the atmosphere is very immersive (1st pcs you crack belong to script kiddies, and their masculinity complex is satirized via emails found on their pcs :-) ). Also, in the 1st missions at least, I didn't feel the time pressure to quickly get out of the target system before getting thrown out, unlike Uplink (and in fact didn't notice any throwing out). All in all, this game is very immersive and definitely easier and better-looking, in comparison to Uplink. I give this game 5 stars (and not 4, as would normally happen because I'm usually pretty strict with my gradings and seldom give 5 stars to anything) to balance out all these unjustified bad reviews who didn't even give this game a chance (maybe they thought it was "artsy" or something?). @ everybody else: If you're interested in hacking/cracking, grab this game! (even if you aren't familiar with r-l programming stuff -I'm not either!)
I bought that game from a bargain bin a few years ago at a good price (8 euros) and played it. However I ieft it at some point and here's why: 1.First of all, the plot is bad. I mean, the main hero , Desmond, sits all day in a machine (the Animus, I know) and is a prisoner of Abstergo. A totally pathetic role.Plus I didn't like his character. 2.I preferred Altair, however I found him too obedient to his chief and having generally a lack of free thought. I didn't also like, while finding the stealth and killing quite to my fancy, the fact that I was being ordered to kill people I barely knew (I guess that's why the game tries to prove just how bad these guys, the assassination victims, are) 3.Also, the game after a point gets repetitive(in short, I got bored of constantly killing people) and it totally sucks that Altair can't swim (many times I drowned accidentally). Despite all these however, I fancied climbing on towers to watch down from there and saving people from the "bad" crusaders (After all, Altair is a faithful Muslim Arab and against the crusaders). In general, it's a game worth purchasing if you decide you don't care about the plot (which is very uninspired, to the point that I think that if that game was a book, it wouldn't sell well) and fancy being stealthy and touring the Holy Lands.
