So I Tried…Hacknet

Each edition of So I Tried… I will try a game that I have never tried before. Will I find something new to love? Will I find something new to despise? I'll take a full half hour, no matter how bad it gets or how badly I do, to see if this is the game for me. This time I went for the PC version of Hacknet.

What I thought it was

A game about hacking, where you have to manually type in the commands. As someone who knows (very little) about hacking (from movies), I figured I’d have a look and see how I match up against whatever the story is. I may never go up against the hacker 4Chan, or even be in the same league as Lizard Squad, but I can take on an AI. Set on easy...

What it actually is

Hacking with keyboard and mouse-based commands. Correction, very difficult hacking… There are no difficulty settings, and if your memory for little details isn’t that great, you’re screwed. It relies on you remembering commands, or at least being able to type in “Help” every five minutes. Instructions come in at you from someone who has been kidnapped, asking you to help locate them as the previous person they asked has been killed.

Will I keep playing

It took me half an hour to get to the second email, and I got stuck… So it’s highly unlikely that I will continue playing it. I guess I’ll never be a script kiddy, or master hacker -- I don’t know my porthacks from my rms. It’s a well made game, and likely deserves the 9.5 we gave it, but I’m really glad I didn’t review it. I just don’t have the head for it.