And as such, it's deeply engrossing. Telling people too much about this game is akin to ruining it, so I'm going to ramble a bit and try to give you a feel for just the sort of excitement this game inspires. It's definitely not for everyone; graphics junkies and those who require things to shoot will definitely want to steer clear. But those of us who remember some brilliant games of the past and always wanted to one-up Matthew Broderick's character from
WarGames will feel right at home.
Remember the game Hacker? I played it on my Apple file://c back in the day. It had no instruction book, just a floppy that you stuck in. When it started, you were presented with a login prompt. After successfully breaking into the system, you had to start manipulating a box to select parts of a robot, and you eventually went on to exploring the world with the robot as your avatar. The game itself wasn't that great, and once you figured out the core conceit it was perhaps a little mundane. But the feel of being thrown into a situation you barely understand and having to fend for your life--and enjoying it--is monumental.
I found myself experiencing the same sort of feeling with Uplink. Unlike Hacker, Uplink sports a sleek interface, a nice tutorial that gets you started, and extensive in-game help to get you hacking. But once you get past the first few parts of the game, it really does delve back into the 'fly by the seat of your pants' feeling that the opening moments of Hacker gave.
The core conceit of the game is that you're a hacker. You work for the Uplink Corporation, dialing into a 'Gateway' that is indistinguishable and therefore allowing you to work in anonymnity. [If only things worked like this in reality.] After logging onto the Gateway, you're presented with a large range of options. You can connect to various computer systems across the globe. You only know about a few at the beginning, but you can always log onto Internic and browse the listings, and you can get various 'missions' to complete from Uplink and the corporations that need shady folk like you.
This is where the game gets truly interesting. Hacking into a computer is not a trivial process; you have to have cracking software, trace-detection software, and you'd better hop between a couple of machines before you go to the main one, to make sure that you don't get traced too quickly. Even after you've committed your naughty act, you need to clean up after yourself, deleting logs that show your presence and the like. Every run is going to be different--the passwords change, the trace is faster, the security tighter.
Most importantly, though, Uplink lets you do all the things you wish you could do in other games. Want to break into the bank? Want to hack the government's systems? Want to change your records? Do whatever you want. If it makes sense in the milieu of the game, chances are good that Uplink will let you do it. And after you're done with the intriguing plot, there's always the load of secrets that you can discover. The CD itself has a number of them, including a ZIP file that's encrypted that you must break. And the game's equivalent to 'CD verification' will bring a big chuckle to the face of anyone who computed in the eighties.
I could say much more, but there's really not much point--this is one of those games best explored on your own at three o'clock in the morning while drinking highly caffeinated beverages. It just feels right, in the hacky sense.
