Hacknet Preview

Hacking's not supposed to be cool. When you think of hackers, you either think of a bunch of wonks wearing V for Vendetta masks (I'm sorry Anonymous, I love you) or a single, lone figure hunched over a keyboard in a dark room. However, Hacknet, the upcoming title from Team Fractal Alligator, takes a crack at making hacking look cool.

Hacknet is a hacking sim, a genre that hasn't really been explored bar for Uplink, but if this game lives up to expectations then it may just be the title that put the genre on the map. The game puts you in the shoes of an anonymous would-be hacker who, in order to kick-start their career, has to learn the tricks of the trade and unravel the mystery left by Bit, a fellow hacker who has been presumed dead.

How will it actually work, though? You use a terminal (think DOS) to input faux-computer commands from a limited list: these are as harmless as navigating through a directory, or can be more malicious: gaining access to locked folders or shutting down firewalls. The gameplay is as simple as typing in those commands, but you'd be wrong to dismiss it as a mindless typing exercise.

Where Hacknet looks like it will prove most successful is in the gameplay itself. Some may be skeptical of a game where hacking is the main mechanic, but Hacknet creates a sense of taut excitement and danger within. You'll be tasked with breaking into computers, and an overwhelming sense of tension is always there; the feeling of “I'm not supposed to be doing this” always lurks on you, even though this is always obviously a videogame – you'll feel your heart rate and skin creep up. The feeling of doing something so illicit, be it deleting files or stealing them, borders on espionage, and it's hard not to feel like a badass when playing – especially when you have to clean the evidence (log files) on your way out. It's early days, but if Hacknet builds on this, we'll be looking at one of the most cool, immersive and exhilarating experiences of 2015.

Hacknet also looks to be packed with Easter eggs and secrets that will round out the game. For instance, if you go hunting in different servers, you can find a lot of interesting stuff; IRC logs or .txt files, for example – some might have key information, others just contain witty gems like “IRC is just multiplayer notepad”, as well as a host of other documents – but that's not all. Hacknet also includes a Cookie Clicker rip-off. Not entirely impressive by itself, but one would hope that's the tip of the iceberg, and that the final release will be bursting with fun distractions like that. Something to take the edge off the nerve-wracking hacking.

Hacknet will incorporate ice-cold presentation values into the game. Emulating the look and feel of an underground operating system, Hacknet's field of play uses nothing more than the aforementioned command prompt terminal, and a couple of other faux-dialogue boxes. These are minimalist-style, but also look dark and slick, appealing to the illicit feel of the game. That sense of danger is augmented with the cool electronic soundtrack, which also feels austere, but it all adds to the atmosphere.

So far so good. Hacknet is, from what we know, a beguiling little title that looks like it will get big returns from such a simple premise. Let's hope that the full-fat release can hack it on Steam.