Gripping, well-written story
Mentioned in ~1 in 4 positive reviews
“I never expected this kind of game to have a story that deep. It's honestly very underrated and I recommend it very much”
Steam review · 10 h played ↗
Hacknet
Worth buying? What 300 Steam reviews say.Worth buying? Here’s what 300 Steam reviews actually say.
Very Positive · 94%Very Positive · 94%Team Fractal Alligator2015Detective · Logic · Simulation
The verdict
Hacknet is an atmospheric terminal-based hacking game with a strong story, great soundtrack and a gentle intro to Linux commands. It gets repetitive and can softlock, so Linux pros and puzzle seekers should skip it.
Great for
Players who like story-driven terminal games, atmosphere and a light intro to Linux commands
Main risk
The same hacking routine repeats all game, and softlocks or Mac crashes can ruin a save
What players love
Immersive feeling of being a hacker
Mentioned in ~1 in 5 positive reviews
“Really fun and immersive hacking game. The terminal, atmosphere, and soundtrack are amazing. It actually makes you feel like a hacker.”
Steam review · 33.2 h played ↗
Teaches basic Linux and networking concepts
Mentioned in ~1 in 8 positive reviews
“Won't teach you hacking, but teaches you about IPs, ports, folder structure and Unix commands, which is the first step.”
Steam review · 12.1 h played ↗
Great soundtrack
Mentioned in ~1 in 8 positive reviews
“the music is legendary.”
Steam review · 3.8 h played ↗
Secrets, Easter eggs and freedom to explore
Mentioned in ~1 in 9 positive reviews
“The level of freedom you get is absolutely incredible.”
Steam review · 4 h played ↗
Easy to pick up, runs on low-end hardware
Mentioned in ~1 in 17 positive reviews
“The reasonably low specs needed to run the game also make it ideal as a 'travel game' on non-gaming laptops”
Steam review · 23.8 h played ↗
What players complain about
Repetitive gameplay loop
Mentioned in ~1 in 3 negative reviews
“typing the same half a dozen commands over and over”
Steam review · 10.6 h played ↗
Little puzzle or challenge
Mentioned in ~1 in 6 negative reviews
“Every time they want to make it harder, they just add one more command to this sequence and repeat the same process.”
Steam review · 1.2 h played ↗
Too simplified for Linux/security users
Mentioned in ~1 in 6 negative reviews
“Hacknet is straight up Hollywood hacking.”
Steam review · 15.3 h played ↗
Softlocks and game-breaking quest bugs
Mentioned in ~1 in 7 negative reviews
“This game doesn't have any softlock preventions I restarted more than 5 times because I deleted files with password/ip because I didn't know they contained important information.”
Steam review · 7 h played ↗
Crashes and freezes on Macs
Mentioned in ~1 in 15 negative reviews
“on Silicon Macs the game crashes every few minutes.”
Steam review · 1.1 h played ↗
Won't launch or black screen
Mentioned in ~1 in 17 negative reviews
“I don't understand how they have not patched this game to fix the initial black screen of death.”
Steam review · 0.5 h played ↗
System requirements
From the Steam store page
Steam Deck: Unsupported500 MB
Minimum
OSWindows XP
Processor2.0 GHz
Memory512 MB RAM
GraphicsOpenGL 3.0+ (2.1 with ARB extensions acceptable)
Storage500 MB available space
OSWindows XP
Processor2.0 GHz
Memory512 MB RAM
GraphicsOpenGL 3.0+ (2.1 with ARB extensions acceptable)
Storage500 MB available space
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