System Requirements

OS: Windows 95+ CPU: 486+ RAM: 16 MB HDD: 20 MB VIDEO: Open GL compatible graphics card SOUND: 16 bit sound card Age: Teen

So you want to hack? You think you're l33t? Well you better act fast and cover your trail, because if you mess up you'll wind up in jail or worse. In this game you play an Uplink Agent who makes a living by performing jobs for major corporations. Your tasks involve hacking into rival computer systems, stealing research data, sabotaging other companies, laundering money, erasing evidence, or framing innocent people. You use the money you earn to upgrade your computer systems, and to buy new software and tools.

As your experience level increases you find more dangerous and profitable missions become available. You can speculate on a fully working stock market (and even influence its outcome). You can modify people's academic or criminal records. You can divert money from bank transfers into your own accounts. You can even take part in the construction of the most deadly computer virus ever designed.* You don''t have to ruin people's lives if you don't want to. You can pick and choose from the missions available. You have two different ranks you can achieve. You have your Uplink Agent status that gained or lowered depending on your success rate at completing missions. The demo allows you to go up to Confident status. You also have your Neuromancer status or morality level you achieve by the missions you choose to do. Jobs that require you to be real nasty prefer experience before they hire you.

You work for money or credits and the more difficult or nasty the job, the more it pays. If you're good, you can sometimes get them to advance you on the money or you may be able to ask for more. When you start the game you are given a basic gateway and 3,000 credits. Before you even think of hacking a machine you will need to buy a password cracker and a trace detector. Usually the software packages are available in many versions, try to get new versions as you can afford them. There are many software applications to help you with your hacking. There are log deleters, dictionary hackers, proxy and firewall blockers etc. You can also upgrade your memory, CPU, modem and security. This game takes place in 2010 so you can get a CPU as fast as 200Ghz. Not to mention modem and memory in the gigaquads! Most of the starting missions will have you either deleting or copying files for money. Before you begin you'll need to start your trace detector and bounce your calls around the world to slow down the tracing process. Then you need to hack the admin account, once you accomplish that, do your business quickly and log out. Send an e-mail when you\re done and collect your pay.

From a Christian perspective, hacking in any form is illegal. So no matter what you do in the game, you're breaking the law. It's up to your character if you want to ruin people's lives as well. This is where your morals or Neuromancer levels kick in.

The game was easy to install, all you need to do is unzip and play it. Uplink is available for both Windows and Linux. The graphics are simple but good enough for what you are doing. The interface is real attractive and makes hacking look cool and easy. Sometimes the interface would be a little irritating though. Like when you are going through the tutorial, it doesn't always register your clicks and you have to redo that tutorial all over again. My other pet peeve is that you cannot save your game. It's in real time, so if you mess up it stays on your file. Before taking on missions I would back up my user folder, just in case.

The sound effects were appropriate, you would hear your gateway dialing into another system and the background music was very fitting. For controls, all you need is your mouse and keyboard. Even though the game is super compatible and ran fine on my system, there are still patches available that fix bugs present in the full version. If you plan on getting the game, be sure to get those. The game sells digitally for $5. It's a good price for a single player game. If you don't mind stealing, destroying or ruining computers or people's lives, I'd recommend the game.