Uplink: Hacker Elite

"A Unique Look into the World of Hackers"

Introduction – This game puts you into the seat of a hacker. You get a computer and many programs to achieve your goals. Most is freelance, meaning that you get random jobs to either remove someone, or steal bank accounts, or delete software, or crash company servers, and more. All of which leading to you hacking the planet

Gameplay – The gameplay is pretty fun. You actually have to be able to type really fast and keep track of numbers and where you need to go to get something or whatever software or information you need. It also makes you think on your feet, meaning that there is a time limit and sometimes all the information you need to get into and out of a system is not necessarily there. It added several elements that most games could not grasp. It added the need for your own security, how to set the right kind of gate points so that you would not get caught too easily, and programs to help you gain access and hack the planet that much quicker. One big disadvantage I found was that for the nerds like me who know a bit about programming, there was no ability to make your own programs. For instance one of the programs was a cipher script that would crack cipher encryption on a system, another program would crack passwords by running any and all possibilities through the system until the correct password was input, and another program would track the trackers of you. It would give you a time limit and noises telling you how close “The Man” was from catching you. And for someone like me that would type and not take the time to look at the countdown clock was very very useful. There were several large holes in the game though. For instance, one, when I finally got the money to buy all the security for my mission control, they found me and broke in before all of my system could be erased anyway kind of defeating the purpose of spending the hundreds of thousands of dollars buying the all of the security protocols in the first place. However, that is something that should be investigated, because the security could be something you need to turn on with a special instruction that is not specifically mentioned. Second, if you did no reading about this game and how to win, you might not be able to figure out very easily that they can still track you even if you are not connected anymore, that's how I got nailed the first time, a passive scan. Third, once you do enough hacking you will be asked to hack a bank and you will find an account that will have an exuberant amount of money. I found one that was $800,000 which was more than enough to max out my system and to get all the security. Once I got it, it was pretty much game over after that. Fourth, is that the main quests that they try and give you have a very short time limit for some things, and when I first started I did not want to mess with it until I had better programs and a little better system. Lastly, is that the point of the game is to hack the planet and crash the world, however, there is a simple command that you can type from the beginning of the game that will do the same thing anyway, that was a programming error making it that easy to kill the game.

Story – There really is no story you are a hacker trying to hack the planet and make yourself rich. However, there are points in the game where people send you specific missions to hack this one company doing evil things.

Graphics/Sound – The graphics and sound were more than adequate, the main screen to start your hacking was simple and easy to use, there was always fun music going in the background. Also a big point is the fact that they used sounds and frequency of sounds to give you a good idea of being tracked making it easier to concentrate on getting the hack done and not wasting time to look down at the countdown clock.

Play Time/Replayability – The playtime varies, sometimes it takes several hours to days depending on how you go through it. However, it could take a couple of minutes if you knew the code to hack the planet. Reliability was great it never slowed down or crashed any time that I played through it.

Final Recommendation – I would recommend this game to anyone who enjoys imagination games. And in the case of nerds like me being a hacker. If you can find this in a store I would pick it up, it's very simple and should be very cheap. I found this game on Amazon for $7 and for that much it is definitely worth it. I only tracked it down because I had a previous knowledge and wanted to play a hacker. So for anyone like me it is worth it to track down. If not, keep your eyes peeled when going through used game stores for it.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 09/19/07

Game Release: Uplink: Hacker Elite (US, 10/09/01)