Hacker Evolution is more of a typing game, then a hacking simulator. I like the concept of hacker games. The sense of online omnipotence has a huge appeal. HOWEVER, this game actively punishes exploration. A lot of the game is trial and error. If you do not do things in order, you will have to restart. Restart the level? No, the entire game. Your penalties from previous levels carry over to the next.

If you ever feel the need to check out things off the developers predetermined path, they slap you with in game monetary penalties. ex: You see that a website called dot-hackers.net. Seems cool, right, so you go to check it out. You are penalized for looking up the website. Yes, they penalize you for LOOKING UP WEBSITES! Then they penalize you for logging on, and then they penalize you for downloading files. The only way to take away your penalties is too pay in game money. They penalize you when you make money. Every. Single. Time. So if you get the game, go ahead and save yourself some headaches and use the money cheat (xmoney) to give yourself all the money you will ever need.

The good thing about the game is that it had somewhat of a vision, but if you want a hacking game that makes you feel powerful, go with UPLINK.

I'll be honest, I used to enjoy this game a bit. And then I bought Uplink. Seriously, the fact that this game increases your global trace no matter what is completely stupid. I just wish it didn't take buying a better hacker sim to see how poor this one really is.

This review covers Hacker Evolution and its expansion, Hacker Evolution: Reinsertion, which is included with the base game. From the very beginning, as you start the tutorial, you realize that Hacker Evolution is all about the command-line interface. This has its pros and cons, but fortunately, it all comes together quite well. Scrolling up and down in order to read through information that has since gone off the small window can be a little problematic and sometimes confusing, as you will be fishing for short lines of detailed text in order to perform various text commands. The music is constantly of the techno genre, but it is overall enjoyable after you get used to it. Being that this is the developer's first (as far as I know) effort in the hacking simulation genre, it is much more polished, much more user friendly, less cumbersome, and with far less flaws than Uplink in every way. This still means that the game play will be slow at times, and you will need to appreciate this type of game in order to enjoy it. The missions are interesting, challenging, and with personality. You actually believe that you are part of the short story in meaningful ways, and after completing each goal, there is a feeling of accomplishment and significance. The story progression makes sense and manages to remain interesting, as each level provides new challenges. Also, if you do not have enough funds at the end of each level, in conjunction with a high trace count, you will need to start the game over from the beginning, which is a very serious problem, in my opinion. If you are not careful from the very beginning, the game simply tells you "your fault, start over". Which I suppose means that it is an attempt to go along with the simulation aspect of the experience. It is trying to be as realistic as possible. All missions are exceptionally designed, and it is clear that the developer took great care and attention to detail to prepare all of them, in conjunction with the storyline. It is also valuable to point out that even though the amount of commands is limited, all missions have a different feel to them, and must be approached from different angles in order to succeed. It is amazing how much excitement is offered in this game as everything on screen is mostly text based, with the exception of the background graphic and mission briefings. It is the most engrossing and captivating hacking simulation game I have ever played, despite the fact that it does not have many competitors. The overall experience is fresh, fun, and with an absorbingly interesting atmosphere. It is a game that should be used as the prime example and inspiration for what all future hacking simulation games should be and must be.

Hacker Evolution is good.

Only been playing this a short time, and I'm already enjoying it.
It reminds me of a game I used to love playing back on my Spectrum...called Defcon.
It's similar, but in Defcon it wasn't really a puzzle game like this, it was more an adventure.

I like how Hacker makes you feel like it's real...and how you really need to pay attention!

Paying to remove your trace is a little bit annoying, but I guess it's part of the puzzle.
(Meaning, that when you're disconnected, it should go down, as they can't find you when you unplug...but it should also go up when connected, not just when you hack things...)

Anyhoo, really enjoyable, and I'm only on the 2nd part...:)

Good Game

You won't be hacking the mainframes when you finish this game, but overall it is a decent puzzle game involving the concepts of network intrusions and data gathering. The whole game is presented in an Amiga amber color with a mostly command line interface and some point and clicking. You are presented with missions by invading companies, extracting data, and breaking computer securities by use of proxies and other tools you. With a pretty chill electronic music sound track to go with it, I had an overall good time with this game pretending to be a hacker. I hope you like typing. For a couple of bucks, it's not bad.