…and yet I did!
Hacker Evolution is a game that combines the “coolness” of hacking with the nerdiness of it all…
It’s not a hacking simulation (that would be super-boring), it’s a simplification of hacking mixed with some puzzle elements…
In the game, you have a console and you have to hack different systems, gaining more and more access, to move forward a simple cyberpunk storyline (which gets a bit silly at times)…
The game had everything to be boring and fail miserably, but it doesn’t! The game design gives a big sense of satisfaction when you crack a code, or more importantly, when you read a file on a server somewhere and you find out the next breadcrumb, while trying to manage your resources (servers from which to bounce, computer upgrades, detection level, money, etc)…
This is a highly niche-market game that kind of works perfectly…
There are two sequels that I’ve bought but not played yet (Hacker Evolution: Untold and Hacker Evolution: Duality), but the first one was great… My only complaint is that the game builds up on your success on the previous level, which means that if you screwed up somewhere on the way (expended more money than you should, etc), you can become unable to progress (not enough money to dump your detection level, for example, because you didn’t access the servers in the correct order in some previous mission, or you upgraded a piece of hardware)… and if that happens, you have to either use a “cheat”, or restart the game…
Still, it was a very enjoyable experience and a very good surprise!
You can get Hacker Evolution for cheap either in Steam or Exosyphen Studios’ website.