Hacker: Untold Evolution
Score: 78% ESRB: Not Rated Publisher: exosyphen studios Developer: exosyphen studios Media: Download/1 Players: 1 Genre: Strategy/ Puzzle/ Simulation
Graphics & Sound: PC (or in this case, Mac) gaming has the distinction of being capable of far greater visual sophistication, compared to consoles. The "capable" frame is very intentional, because we all understand that capacity is a function of your hardware, which is a function of your pocketbook. The computer gamer tends to insert the install CD while mentally (or actually) holding his breath, with a sigh of relief once the game actually boots up and runs. We want the highest end gaming experience, as long as our computer can bear the load. Hacker Evolution: Untold won't tax your Mac's hardware too greatly; assuming you can meet the minimum specs, there won't be any surprises. Most of the interface is made up of simulated console windows displaying text, and you'll be typing your way through the game. The graphics are nicely done, along the lines of schematic drawings and maps that display critical information on your progress. The soundtrack, we can only assume, is intended to match your average "hacker" playlist. The game's incidental sounds are the bleeps and bloops of computers talking to you or to each other, which enhances the simulated hacking experience. The production values in Hacker Evolution: Untold are excellent and really place you squarely in the shoes of a sophisticated computer programmer using the tools of his trade. Granted, the focus is on the sophistication of the gameplay rather than the graphics, so don't come expecting cut-scenes and sophisticated animation effects, and you won't be disappointed.
Gameplay: Okay, here's the part where I peel back the typical reviewer's supposed anonymity and objectivity to reveal some personal bias. I have spent a fair amount of time tinkering with *nix, command-line editing, and even some secure network protocols like SSH. Enough to know what I don't know... So my problem with Hacker Evolution: Untold is that it offers a simulation of something that isn't all that difficult to have "for real." Not that hacking servers and stealing money is something I've ever done, or that most people do on a daily basis. To the extent that Hacker Evolution: Untold lets players simulate the more difficult or illegal aspects of hacking, it is a great success. Where it doesn't do enough is in breaking out of the mold of just "screens in screens" to provide something that will actually raise your pulse and take you away from your drab home office or dorm room. The kind of thing that is missing from Hacker Evolution: Untold is being done now in many console RPGs and Action/Adventure games. Think about the hacking mini-games inserted into a game like Mass Effect as an example. Using your noggin in the heat of some battle, or while watching a ticking time-bomb count down, is more engaging than what is on offer in Hacker Evolution: Untold. The other bias I'll admit is a deep fondness for text-based adventures such as those from the Infocom stable back in the '80s. Hacker Evolution: Untold seems like more a throwback and upgrade to that style of gaming than anything current and cutting-edge in the console world. If the braininess of this game were combined with the visceral punch of something like Mass Effect or any of the more one-dimensional action titles out on consoles, we'd really have something to crow about. The play style in Hacker Evolution: Untold involves accessing remote servers or devices, analyzing their weaknesses, and then finding ways to exploit those weaknesses to serve your ends. The story behind the game is well thought out, kind of a hacker's armchair version of the kind of "A.I. apocalypse" featured in the Terminator saga. Instead of flexing your Linda Hamiltons, you'll just move those little digits around the keyboard and take out one challenge after another. The best moments are when mission objectives are interlaced and complex enough to make you feel the urgency and anxiety you would feel watching a hacker fighting the clock in some Hollywood summer movie. The worst moments are when the game drags and you feel like you could have as much fun firing up the Console app on your Mac and reading man pages...
Difficulty: Ironically, because we often complain about excess levels of difficulty, Hacker Evolution: Untold is at its best when the difficulty level is extremely high. As mentioned, if I want an easy command-line experience, I'll just read some mail in pine or practice writing my reviews with pico or vi. The more Hacker Evolution: Untold turns up the heat, the less it feels like a simulation and the more easily your disbelief is suspended. We want the computer to seem as smart as possible, and we like the idea that our puny human brains are running uphill against a superior A.I. adversary. Cracking those servers and avoiding detection is much more fun when the stakes are high. On the other side of the equation, playing at a higher difficulty level is a hugely frustrating experience. You'll fight your way through Resident Evil with nothing but a knife more easily than you'll beat certain levels in Hacker Evolution: Untold with the Dynamic difficulty settings enabled. In this mode, the game will adjust in response to your successes, to keep things interesting. The Normal difficulty is mitigated by a nice help system that you can refer back to at any time, and a ramp you climb in the early levels before things really get complicated.
Game Mechanics: The developers of Hacker Evolution: Untold did a really nice job simulating the experience of working in a console and from the command line. Some functions, like hitting TAB to auto-complete lines where you've entered enough unique data, work exactly as they would on a *nix system. Tapping the Up-Arrow to find previously typed commands is as handy in Hacker Evolution: Untold as it is while working on any command line. Touches like this really help to make for a more immersive experience, raising Hacker Evolution: Untold above the level of just an amateur imitation of the real thing. Clearly the folks that built this game appreciated and knew their source material. There are certain features available in the PC version of Hacker Evolution: Untold that didn't make it into the Mac version. A level editor that seems to be one of the key selling points for the game is currently PC-only, meaning that the replay value for Mac goes down considerably. Being able to mod the game is at least included for Mac, but the ability to edit and create custom levels is a huge omission. In some games, editors are nice-to-have. This is one genre where having the editor seems almost mandatory, since the audience for Hacker Evolution: Untold will likely be the same people that enjoy tweaking and playing under the hood on their computers. The final analysis on Hacker Evolution: Untold for Mac is that it is a nice consolation prize for those of us not playing on the Wintel platform. If you are a *nix geek wanna-be like me and enjoy the idea of hacking a server without the threat of being arrested, you'll want to give Hacker Evolution: Untold a whirl. There's a real evolution that needs to be brought to this game, where it is missing the kind of raw energy and excitement present in so many other genres. We're certainly seeing more of a thinking-man's approach being taken in other genres, so it only makes sense that more games built on more purely cerebral grounds try to ante up accordingly.
-Fridtjof, GameVortex Communications AKA Matt Paddock
Minimum System Requirements: Mac OS X 10.4, 1 GHz processor or faster, 512Mb RAM, 200Mb free disk space, 32Mb video card   Test System: iMac PowerPC G5 with Mac OS X 10.4, 2.1 GHz processor, 1.5GB RAM, 128Mb VRAM
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