When you start hacking, the first thing you need to do is probe the target system to discover its ports. This is generally done by using the Probe command in the console. The screen will change and look similar to the image above. You will notice that the new display indicates how many open ports are required to hack the system. This is shown in the top-center pane of the screen in the image above. You need to use your software tools to open at least that many of the ports. Once you have enough ports opened, you can use the PortHack command to break into the system.
The first type of ports you can crack are the SSH ports. As you advance, you’ll gain tools that can crack the other types of ports. The red bars in the image above show each of the ports that were detected on the target system when you probed it. Some systems have more advanced security measures in place. These are firewalls and proxies. You don’t need to find tools for these, as you already have them at the start of the game. They are built into your Hacknet OS.
In the screenshot above, two of the ports are shown in green. This indicates that we have cracked them and they are now open. You can also see in the left-most pane that our software tools are running. The green bar is a progress bar that fills as you break into the proxy or firewall on this system. If a system has both a firewall and a proxy, then there will be two of these bars, and you must break through both before you can even think about cracking the ports. Here the bar is green, indicating that we have gotten through the proxy.
Your software tools show up in the left-most pane when they are running. In the image above, there are three shells running. These are initiated by logging into a system you have previously hacked into and running the Shell command in your console. These shells are how we break through a proxy. You can only run one shell on a given system. The more shells you run at once, the faster you can break through a proxy. On each shell GUI on the left, you click the Overload button. They will then overload the proxy with junk traffic. For a firewall, you simply run the Analyze command repeatedly until you’ve cracked the firewall password. Then type the Solve command followed by a space and the password to bypass the firewall.
You may have noticed in both of the previous screenshots that there are some yellow dots. These represent systems that you currently have shells running on. When you’re done with a hack, ALWAYS remember to delete the logs on the systems you used! That includes the ones you ran shells on. You may also have noticed a timer in the lower left in both previous screenshots, too. This is a trace timer and it will appear during some hacks.
The presence of the trace timer means you are being traced. You must complete the hack before time runs out or you will be caught. Once you are traced, they will have your IP address and know where you are. If the trace timer is getting too low, you can disconnect from the target system and try again. The GUI on most systems has a Disconnect button, but you can also disconnect by typing dc or disconnect in the console. Another super handy tip is that you can auto-complete a command in the console by pressing Tab. If the auto-complete isn’t sure what you want, it will show a list of possible options in the console.
As you can see, Hacknet is a fairly deep game. There is also a notes program shown in the upper-left corner in the previous image. Some missions give you notes that will be displayed here. Each note will have a Close button that deletes it. If you explore the file system of your own virtual computer in Hacknet, you can find your downloaded tools in there. The notes in your app are also there, stored in a file called Notes.txt. The virtual computer system running your Hacknet OS has limited memory, so you don’t want to keep too many notes open at once. Some hacks may require you to run multiple tools simultaneously, so you might need to close most or all notes if you need to do that.
The game has a very nice interface and there are some additional themes you can find in-game to change how it looks. Overall, the graphics may be on the simple side, but it’s a hacking game after all. Even so, the graphics are nice to look at as you play. The music tracks are quite good and really create a sense of danger as you go about your virtual hacking. The sound effects all get the job done pretty well, too.
The gameplay in Hacknet is quite enjoyable. You’ll spend most of your time hacking into systems and looking in files to find out secret information. Some files may be encrypted and you’ll need a special tool to decipher them. In some cases you have login credentials so you can just log in rather than hacking. There are also a number of additional commands for the console not mentioned in this review.
Hacknet is a fun hacking game with a bunch of missions and an additional hidden story path to explore. Your ultimate goal is to find out what happened to the fellow hacker named Bit. The game also features some achievements to earn. I should also note that the Hacknet Labyrinths expansion DLC is set to launch sometime later this month, making the game deeper still. It was originally set to launch in December 2016 but got delayed. Hacknet will take you around 10-20 hours to complete, depending on whether you go back and play again for content you didn’t see the first time, like the hidden story path. The game is available on Steam for only $9.99. Hacknet is the game that asks if you have what it takes to hack your way to answers about the fate of a missing hacker.
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Review copy purchased by reviewer.
