Hacknet Review (Captain Titus)
Surprisingly good.
If you have ever played Uplink, you have a fair idea of what is going on in the world of Hacknet: as an aspiring hacker, you enter the murky world, learn through contracts and eventually achieve your goals.
Featuring a well-written story, superbly appropriate soundtrack and a smooth and intuitive interface, Hacknet does well to draw you in and recreate the feeling of system reconnaissance with a view to breaching. While I feel the work is intended to be done mostly through CLI with the various commands provided, those of a less technical mind can still use the GUI for most functions (not all, actually hacking in requires the CLI and the various tools needed to gain access), removing that as a potential barrier to entry. The game also does very well in recreating an intense atmosphere, mostly through the ticking tracer: as the time ticks down it does place some stress on you as you try to breach, grab whatever information you came for, wipe your traces and disconnect again - before the clock hits 0.
The Labyrinths DLC is outstanding and virtually a mandatory purchase along with the base game. While in reality it is a standalone "campaign", it diverges radically from the base game with its mission structure, the interaction with contracts as well as the story. In general, DLC is a nice to have rather than a must have, but in this case Labyrinths is an almost integral part of the experience.
You will find it easier (although it is certainly not a requirement) if you have some Linux/Unix skills before starting. All can be done through the GUI provided, but the experience is best if you operate through the CLI - for which it is best to understand and be able to use commands such as ls, cat, rm, mv and so on. Its not a full implementation of Linux (e.g. you cannot remove filename.* from a directory - you either need to remove each individually or do rm *; autocomplete also does not work past the first level of directory structure) but it is close enough to immerse the player; it is a minor point anyway. I would also suggest either keeping a notepad open on another screen, or having pen and paper close to hand: it will make it easier to keep track of IPs, usernames/passwords, files and so on. Attention to detail is important and can often be the difference between a successful hack and an unsuccessful one.
Small rant: The devs did a great job of adhering to the octet numbering in the IP addresses (no octet can have a number higher than 255); why did they not respect the class system in the address space rather than using Class D/E on the "internet"? Nitpicking, but for me it was slightly jarring.
It is a unique game and if the concept of a hacking "simulator" appeals to you, or if you have enjoyed Uplink in the past - do not miss out on Hacknet.
Played on Windows 11 Pro x64 without any issues.