Uplink is one of the best hacking "simulators" out there, obviously it's not as easy to break into a system for real as it shown here, but it does a good job. The story kicks in after a few weeks of freelance hacking, accepting missions from other corporations to steal, delete or otherwise screw with other corporations info.

You work for the Uplink corporation, well known for being a place where hackers can pickup missions to gain credits and improve their Uplink rating, unlocking more difficult missions. After a brief tutorial which you can skip, you're dropped into the world with a few thousand credits and a low Uplink rating. Your first missions will consist of: Break into X's system and delete/steal Y file. It picks up later with missions like: Here's this person's account number for X bank, break into it and send us their bank balance or loan. Sometime's they'll want you to transfer Y Credits to Z account.

Security gradually increases over time, your basic internal servcies machine will only be running a monitor, which basically just says: Hey this IP is running software that's trying hundreds of passwords very quickly, start tracing this IP and mark those logs as suspicous. Then it introduces thing like Firewalls and Proxy severs, Proxy servers allowing you to read, but not modify files or logs and firewalls performing a similar role, you'll have to bypass them or disable them.

Bypassing is the "stealthy" route if done right they'll never know anyone broke into the system, but as a trade off you require a certain HUD upgrade and the bypassers themselves, which are quite costly.
Disabling on the otherhand is the "noisy" route, as once something has been disabled it will be noticed immediately. But these disablers are cheaper and don't reqiure the HUD upgrade but they take time to work.

Various missions pose troublesome though, most notably the "Trace a hacker who recently broke into our system" missions.
You accept it and go to their system, they say the attack occured at X time and you login with the details provided, but you cannot access the logs, you need admin access, so you have to go back, load up your bounch path, break in, look at the logs and match them to the time given, and then gradually follow the chain back until you reach someone's PC. However if you accept the mission when It's going gray on the BBS, these missions are almost impossible to complete, as the attacker has cleared their tracks and you don't know who did it. So you have to abandon the mission, which causes your Uplink rating to drop, heavily.

Unfortunately there is no offical sequel, but there is a spirtitual successor called Hacknet, comparing the two I call this the "Hollywood" hacking sim. It's not as realistic but it's more fun, you're given free reign to do whatever you wish.

Still an amazing game after all these years and definately worth picking up, I'd reccommend watching some tutorials if you're new.

This game has been out for 10 years and I just recently got it and instantly became addicted due to the amout of moral choices and stratagies this game has to offer. You can do anything within your limits, from robbing a bank, ruining lives, creating new identities and even betraying the company you work for, but im getting ahead of myself.

The story of this game is fairly simple, although its told in the first 5 minutes of the game ill say it here. You work for Uplink, a company that help you start your career by providing your own gateway and job offers and allowing you to buy software and hardware to help you on your journy.

Your journy can end in many differant ways and uplink will be forced to shut down your account and gateway forcing you to make a new account and start over. Here are a few ways your journy may come to a swift end, (Do not read if you want to experience them yourself) Being caught hacking into somewhere, Not paying a fine, Betraying uplink, abandoning too many missions, and many more But don't let being shut down stop you as it will help you improve greatly

This game is a great time killer and is definently worth your money. I have play for over 7 hours already and still haven't experienced all this game has to offer. The game provides everything you need to succeed, this game deserves a much larger following as it is a great example of how games are art.




And I like its soundtrack...

This is addictive. Don't know how many hours I've played this game off Steam before i finally found it here :)
Nice if you want too kill a few hours and are in the right mindset :)

Do you like the idea of being a classic 90s movie hacker? Do you want to get engrossed in a game from 2001? Do you want to rage and stop playing for a month after you forget to clear your interNIC logs? If so then this is definitely the game for you. Seriously though this game is amazing for something made 15 years ago. If you have little bit of money or its on sale just grab it, you won't regret it. 10/10

Mission: Modify
VVheatley: Why so much money?
Anonymous(Mission provider): We really don't like him

VVheatley: Who is the target?
Anonymous: A friend.

...So... If you don't like him, why is he a friend?

how do i transfer the money i steal into my bank of america account?!?!

I bought this instead of Watch_Dogs,
I regret nothing.

Day 15:

=>Is a rank 1 hacker
=>Muscle 50-some thousand c from contracts
=>Buy a bunch of upgrades
=>Steal an admin's voice.
=>Hack Apollo International Bank
=>Run Proxy and Monitor Bypasses
=>Hack into administrative account --no tracing--
=>Steal every account profile in the database. --no tracing--
=>Proceed to empty all accounts, net roughly 1.2 million credits --no tracing--
=>Live high and large
=>Gateway siezed because I forgot to delete logs. Save is destroyed.

10/10 would fail again

Finally after years of training online and offline, Hours of guides, Hours of grinding, Suffering. Regret always in the back of my mind for the time wasted on this. It has officially happened. I am a master hacker. Rushing through the logs deleting with the percision of a scalpel, never wasting a moment dedicated to filling my billion dollar bank account with more money. Trying to simulate the initial rush of robbing a bank. I rush in with a bounce network all around the world starting with InterNIC. I quickly start up my timer and turn on the proxy and firewall Disable tools. Brute force but neccesary for speed. It shuts off and I run the admin account I had stolen from early contacts. I'm in I copy all the accounts down, I find the prize i'm looking for. Killian Hoyal, a 967 million dollar account, a legend hidden inside of my personal gameworld. It had taken years of searching and doing favors to gain the proper knowledge to find this account. Quickly I delete disconnect from the server and rush into my log database at InterNIC, deleting all traces of my connection. Yes, I had finally found everything I would need to stage the largest bank robbery in the history of the world. From the comfort of my home. I go and make an anonymous bank account under a pseudonym. The bank is small so it wouldn't be a high priority target to search if the FBI caught onto my trail. Finally I take a deep breath, 4 minutes 11 seconds says my timer. Wasting no time I quickly connect to the bank where Killian Hoyals money is kept. Running bypasses, disablers, and all manners of illicit software designed to slow down any one looking for me, and to make sure I don't leave a trace. I log into his account using the details I found from the admin account. I go into transfer funds and make the trade to my bank account in Monrovia, Liberia. The transfer goes through. I go into his transaction logs and edit the log showing the money was sent to another hackers that had previously done me harm earlier on. I disconnect and reconnect to my account in Liberia. The money is there, perfect. I go into my transaction logs and delete the log showing the money recieved. Almost done, I connect to my home bounce and log into the logs. I delete the log showing me connecting to the banks in the first place. Just like that, his money is mine with no trace to be found of it. A job well done, I am officially. A master hacker.

After I beat this game. NSA called me and offered me a job, now I violate the U.S. citizen's rights for 73k a year. Thanks Uplink