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 peoples 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.
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I wonder what would happen if you were to hack into Uplink themselves?
The idea is that you've been hired by a special group to perform hacking for clients they connect you with. Each job comes with a task and a price, but you're only as good as your hardware and software. Some jobs require specialised items so you have to start small and work your way up to more complex jobs. Failure means risking your reputation and losing your acquired assets.
All of the different tools and how you use them plays out like an 80's hacker film as you target password fields and click a button to see numbers and animations play while the cracker figures out the password - the police constantly zoning in on your position creating a count down timer as you slip into bank accounts and transfer money, clearing up your logs after. It has such a fun premise and the gameplay itself has some great moments.
Sadly this is all undercut by the games poorly explained core mechanics and highly repetitive missions. Expect to be doing the same few tasks over and over to generate cash and then not know what to do with the new software. There are also some simple tricks which end up breaking the game and skewing the difficulty. Not to mention the game UI feels like you're in a Linux machine from the 80's which might seem charming but just becomes clunky and difficult to use over the course of a run.
This game is in dire need of a remake and I'd be the first to buy it if they did, but sadly this game is just a bit too rough around the edges for the fun to shine through. High marks for originality and ideas, but it just can't land the execution by today's standards.