Hackmud is a cyberpunk themed text-based hacking simulator for intel-compatible personal home computers. Get lost in a deep and complex world full of challenging puzzles as you engage in a rich narrative riddled with intrigue and deception.
Mostly Positive
840 Steam reviews
| LANGUAGE | AUDIO | SUBTITLES | INTERFACE |
|---|---|---|---|
| English | Y | Y | Y |
In risk we trust
"Hah! Look at all those obvious scam scripts! What are these idiots thinking?" he says, shortly before printing his character's sys.loc in global chat because he ran a trap script while rooting around for secrets.
This is probably one of the best, if not the best, hacking-themed games I've gotten my hands on. You'll spend hours solving puzzles, rooting through logs, and smashing through megacorp databases. And the community has contributed their own assortment of scripts and surprises you can mess with, to boot.
Just... remember to use scripts.get_level if you don't want to put your hard-earned GC in jeopardy...
I ascended and became a sentient program with my organs connected to my CPU. 10/10 game, I would highly reccomend if you dont mind losing numerous braincells needed to function on a daily basis.
I enjoy it, but if you want to play without looking at guides it is exceptionally confusing.
That is part of the fun to me, but there are plenty of people who would not like it.
Hackmud…画面効果やBGMはクールだが、これをゲームと呼べるのだろうか。
最初に断っておくが、俺はHacknetを期待して本作を買ったわけじゃない。ハッカーをテーマにしたアドベンチャーゲームではなく、シミュレーション、あるいはRPGを予想していた。ただ、これは…そういう常識の範疇を超える、驚くべきものだった。
チュートリアルで「これチュートリアル以外で使う機会あるのかよ？」みたいなどうでもいいコマンドの使い方を四時間くらいかけて大量に覚え、「おめでとうございます！チュートリアル完了です！あとは好きなように遊んでくださいね！」みたいなありがたいメッセージを頂いたあとでわかったことといえば、このゲームはチュートリアルを終えても遊び方が何一つわからないということだった。
そもそもチュートリアル自体、指示にない操作をエスパーしながら開発者が期待する暗黙の了解を解いていかなければならない難易度の高さを誇り（プログラマーなら簡単に推測して解けるという気もしない。彼らは魔法使いではないのだから）、そのチュートリアルでさえ「このゲームには色々な遊び方があります！無限の世界が広がっています！ハッキングでお金を稼ぎましょう！」みたいなことを言ってはくるのだが、色々あるのであろう遊び方がなんなのか、ハッキングの対象となる標的のアドレスをどうやって探せばいいのか、金の使い道は何なのか、というようなことを、このゲームは一切教えてくれないのである。
おそらく本作のキモであろう、外部スクリプトをどうやって入手するのか、どうやってスクリプトの内容を確認するのか、それで何ができるのか、どうやって書くのか、というようなことに対する具体的なアドバイスも何一つない。
わからないなら調べればいい、その目の前の箱は何のためにあるのか、と思われるかもしれない。しかし本作のようなマイナーなゲームはWeb上の情報が乏しく、しかもアップデートでシステムに変更が加わるため古い情報が役に立たなくなるという、二重の制約を負っている。
本作はMMOであり、コミュニティに属してユーザー間でやりとりをする必要がある、というようなことを、ゲームの紹介文やユーザーのアドバイス等で何度も目にすることがあるかもしれない。
その言葉はウソや誇張ではない。かなり真面目に、深刻に受け取る必要がある。なぜなら本作は、コミュニティに教えを請わなければ、基本的なゲームプレイの方法すらわからないからである。四時間のチュートリアルを終えた後でさえ！
「本作には非常に活気のある、熱心なコミュニティが存在します！是非参加してください！」…お定まりの誘い文句だ。俺の返答は？「いいえ、結構です」。他人とコミュニケーションが取りたいなら、俺はPCの電源を切って外に出ることを選ぶ。
さて…上に書いたようなことを、ゲームを購入する前に予測できなかったのか？と思われるかもしれない。いや、予測はしていた。これほどまでとは思っていなかったが。
つまり？じゃあなんで買ったんだ？まあ、つまりは、別に目的があったということだ。
launch trailerを観てみよう。ここで使われているのは「electroheist」という曲なのだが、サントラに収録されているバージョンは、Trailerで使われているものとはイントロのアレンジが異なるのである。
Trailerバージョンをいたく気に入っていた俺は、ゲーム用のデータの中にそれが存在するのではないかと思った。こんなマイナーなUnityゲーのハックで他人を頼るつもりはなかったから、これを確認するには自分で買ってデータを展開するしか方法がなかった。だから買ったのだ。
目的のデータはあったかって？無かったよ。サントラ版と同じだった。もっともゲームの現行バージョンはサントラに収録されていない曲が大量にあるから、それらのデータが手に入ったのは不幸中の幸いだったと言えるかもしれない。
せめて、世界観の説明となる古いvLanチュートリアルをプレイしてみたかったものだが…
I only regret waiting this long to check this out- very interesting text based game.
Plenty of resources. ATOM had been sunset- try Notpad++ if you are setting up custom scripts.
Helps understand the basics of arguments, variables, and values.. later functions and full on scripting.
players.top is GC maxed script-grind accounts at 1T200M and there is really no pvp since to get another player "loc" only works through chance npc drops and access.log. There is usually around 200 players according to the in game CLI command that tells you and it's obviously most new players; turnover..
the only reason you can't just run through the game with script is because kernel.hardline can't be scripted and you can't create #s./js-objects off strings because the JS runtime has window and other string>object methods sandboxed out so you can't call objects with their string names..
All user,project,pass scraping and t1 and t2 locks are automated regardless and have been a while.. :shrugs:
P.S. I found it hilarious that the JS experts on Discord didn't understand why someone would want to turn a string in to a object in JS even though I literally used a #s. object as string in examples.. Big Reveal: It would allow almost zero-interaction 24/7 botting that games breach resets.. Also, the game design is suspiciously close to DarkSigns which was also by a VB6&.NET/C#/VB/ISIL dev..
steam://openurl/https://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561198444707376/recommended/469920
I think you’ll notice that people who don’t like the game didn’t invest in it, and that’s telling. hackmud’s issue is conveyance: it’s not that it’s easy or hard, it’s that it’s impenetrably obtuse about what it even is. That’s my real problem—I can’t invest in something I can’t understand at a conceptual level. The best I can describe it: EVE Online meets The Path.
It’s rare to see a game you simply can’t “get.” Take Mega Man: if you can look at the screen and press buttons, you understand what it’s about—run, jump, shoot, move right. From there you gain a broader sense of structure: levels, power-ups, bosses. But at its core, it’s about jumping and shooting. I’m not talking about simplicity here. Factorio has bottomless depth, but it’s about building a factory. The factory must grow.
In hackmud you type one-liners, get a wall of text, then append arguments to that line until you get a new one or “finish.” For this, you’re rewarded with money. Sometimes. Mostly, you’re given another one-liner to process. It’s a “puzzle game” in that figuring out what to type is what you do. In that sense, it’s a reading comprehension test on steroids. Or maybe it’s for those who delight in the unknowable—what could be behind the next line? Which, I think, reveals what it really is: lore games thrive on communities who discuss them. hackmud simply puts that community inside the game.
The best I can figure, hackmud is a chat room. You have to want to be in one, because that’s the only truly novel content on offer. Talking about it—or about what everyone else is doing—is more interesting than playing it. If you love digging through games for lore, maybe there’s mileage here. But it mistakes what you could do for what you are doing, and misses the chance to draw you into its world. It ends up a series of rote, instruction-following tasks in a vague setting with no clear purpose.
To be clear: I hated my time with it, but I gave it an honest attempt. I’m not saying it’s badly made; I’m sure it’s deeper than my time revealed. In many ways, it’s an incredible technical showpiece. But what it asks you to do is boring and awful unless that narrow chatroom-meets-lore niche appeals to you. You have to really, really want what hackmud offers. For everyone else, it’s impossible to invest because you’ll never quite “get” it. Maybe I’m too dumb to get hackmud—but I suspect very few people have cracked that code.
Having played this game for around a year (excluding a 6 month break), I can roundly say that this is one of the most interesting games I have ever played - in 13 years on Steam.
hackmud has a wonderful community, is developed and run by a non-profit (always a good thing), and has an unmatched vibe when it comes to its subject matter. There is lore; there are puzzles; there is ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥, and casinos, and players blowing eachother up (at the top end).
I would write more, but there's a really engaging in-game event on at the moment and I want to get back to it :)
Bro.... I don't know who needs to see this but you can utilize the chat API to have your chat stream into powershell, bash or terminal using Node.js or Python. You could effectively read and send chat messages directly from your actual terminal window—whether it's VSCode, PowerShell, Bash, or similar. You can also run JavaScript scripts you've authored in editors like VSCode, Atom, or any other tool you prefer.
HECK YOU CAN create a chat portal on your phone bro.
This game is wiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiild dude. I do a lot of front-end development stuff and anything that gives me a gamified reason to keep brushed up on my JavaScript is a win in my book.
hackmud, developed and published by ComCODE, is a highly distinctive multiplayer hacking simulator that immerses players in a retro-futuristic cyberpunk universe. Released in 2016, the game has earned acclaim for its originality and depth, offering a text-based experience that blends puzzle-solving, coding, and online strategy. Unlike typical visually-driven games, hackmud relies entirely on text and scripting, challenging players to think logically and creatively as they navigate its virtual world, which feels both expansive and alive.
The core gameplay revolves around hacking systems, crafting scripts, and interacting with the environment through code. Players take on the role of digital avatars exploring an abandoned and chaotic online space, cracking protected systems, unlocking secrets, and manipulating the game's virtual economy. This emphasis on coding and problem-solving distinguishes hackmud from other simulation games, as players are encouraged to learn and apply real programming concepts in a safe, gamified context. Each action, from simple system access to complex script deployment, reinforces the game’s intellectual challenge and sense of accomplishment.
One of the most compelling aspects of hackmud is its persistent, player-driven world. The game operates like an MMO, where the actions of individuals or groups have long-term consequences on the digital ecosystem. Players can form corporations, engage in espionage, trade virtual assets, and influence the in-game economy. This dynamic world fosters a sense of immersion rarely seen in text-based games, making each decision meaningful and creating a narrative shaped by the community itself.
Community interaction is central to the hackmud experience. The game encourages collaboration and rivalry, with veteran players often mentoring newcomers and sharing scripts or strategies. This cooperative dimension enhances both accessibility and engagement, helping players overcome the steep learning curve associated with the game’s coding-intensive mechanics. Social interactions within this environment add depth, as alliances and rivalries emerge organically, giving the world a sense of life and unpredictability.
The game’s steep learning curve and text-only interface, however, may present obstacles for some players. Those without programming experience or a strong interest in technical problem-solving may find the mechanics initially daunting. While the tutorials and community support help bridge this gap, the game demands patience, persistence, and a willingness to experiment. Additionally, the lack of traditional visual cues can be off-putting for players accustomed to more graphically-oriented games, though for enthusiasts, this minimalist approach enhances immersion and creativity.
Despite these challenges, hackmud offers a deeply rewarding experience for players willing to invest the time and effort. Its combination of strategic depth, technical learning, and emergent storytelling creates a gaming experience that is both intellectually stimulating and highly engaging. The game’s retro aesthetic, cyberpunk tone, and persistent world make it stand out as a niche but exceptional entry in the hacking simulator genre.
In conclusion, hackmud is a pioneering and highly original title that rewards curiosity, ingenuity, and persistence. It is not designed for casual play, but for those who embrace its challenges, it provides a rich, interactive, and thought-provoking experience. With its emphasis on coding, problem-solving, and community-driven dynamics, hackmud offers a uniquely immersive virtual world where every decision matters and every interaction contributes to an evolving narrative shaped by its players.
Rating: 7/10
It's like great in concept but in practice its basically a type-and-bruteforce simulator. You could write scripts to make it slightly less tedious but it's not very enjoyable because the payoff is small.
It's a really cool game, but the tutorial feels like 5 ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ years, hell I'm still not even done with it and my dumbass brain got confused so I just stopped playing. Other than that its pretty solid.
recommended by a friend
impossible to do anything properly without an out of game guide
a few hours in, I thought I had seen the majority of how the game worked.
a few hundred hours in, I'm so deep in side puzzles, lore shenanigans, and building up infra that I've barely left the tutorial.
fun game that always seems to have something to discover if you're willing to go look for it. also has a welcoming and helpful community
+ fun programming puzzles
+ an active and helpful community
- zez stole all of my gc >:(
+ xena.defender is keeping my gc and upgrades safe!
(play time is slightly inflated)
all the old scripts I reccomended here are deprecated so I removed them from the review
I'm probably going to keep playing just because I have to be doing something wrong. It can't be this bad.
It looks and sounds good but the gameplay is literally just: read text, guess how to form a one-line javascript object based on arbitrary info from the text you read, that's it.. the "hacking" gameplay is just javascript keypairs..? and so you just automate what is basically a bunch of different brute force attacks against simple puzzles.
Completed one easy "quest/mission" - 50,000GC
Completed another one with 6 levels of security - 57,000GC
NPCs are.. "scripts", which you also write "scripts" to automate.. but you can only upload 1 to use in-game until you Init your Sys which costs 1,000,000GC.. so you farm.. scripts.. by logging into chat channels.. to get a list of scripts.. in that sector... I just can't wrap my head around it and I'm a software engineer by trade. It's like the more I found out about how the game is played the less excited I became.
Once it seemed like the game is just automate these premade puzzles with arrays of the answers to unlock the next tier of difficulty I just quit. Boring af and not even useful for learning JS since it uses a bunch of made up functions.
If you want an actual game that uses actual coding try Bitburner cause this.. this ain't it my guys.
This wasn't fun to me. It also has nothing to do with programming, it's more like puzzles
ótimo game, muito divertido!
Wtf all my progress was wiped? There is no universe a game that does this can keep me playing
Imagine being the smallest fish at all times.
yessir
Login once every two months or everything will be wiped.
cool game
hack the planet
Look, I havent got far in the game but it is an interesting environment to code your own systems in :)
Yes, I have a lot of hours, but that doesn't mean I've progressed far. I've spent a lot of time exploring different ways to optimize early game stuff and build things like information stores.
I found it not super clear how to approach puzzles and that can frustrate the newcomer somewhat. But the community is friendly. I see some people on but I don't know the scope of active users. But just having a couple I can talk and scheme things with is enough for me.
I wish there was a better way of accessing scriptors programmatically and dynamically without hardcoding every scriptor you could possibly want to use.
If you don't have patience, this game is not for you.
The game assumes you know or are willing to learn javascript, and it differs a little bit from "normal javascript".
If you get stuck and don't know what to do, there's always the discord who can help you out if you are stuck and can't get ingame help.
https://steamcommunity.com/id/chirpxiv/recommended/469920
Pretty fun coding type of game over all, I tend to hit a wall whenever I hit tier 2 locs tho :/
great game!
cool concept, unfortunately dead.
Community is led by gate-keepers and lacks any potential for upsetting or threaten the established order. Most elite h4ck3rs are just dudes with gigantic botnets farming all the T2 npcs, which is hella retarded.
UPDATE: Since this review was posted, things have gotten significantly worse. Sean (the dev) posted a public statement attacking the creator of this review as well as another ex-volunteer that has expressed issues with the game. At least 5 volunteers have resigned in response with several more quitting the game entirely. Read this article for a summary of what happened: https://samual.uk/hackmud-april-2025-rundown.html
ORIGINAL REVIEW:
I hesitate to write this review, knowing that it will probably burn some bridges even though that is not the intent. However I know of no other way to get the attention of the developer(s), and I have lost faith that they will fix these problems on their own.
For context: I am a veteran player of hackmud who started around a month or two after launch, and over the course of 8 years have accrued tens of thousands of hours in the game. The last major update to the game was the "hackmud 2.0 update" or "binmat update" in mid-2018. This update was not well-received and afterwards the dev (seanmakesgames) took a long break from the game. Over the next 6 years we had a couple minor updates such as the monuments + beacons release in 2020, and a few player-driven events, but nothing on the scale of 2.0.
This was until 2023, when the dev resurfaced with a new plan. hackmud was to transfer ownership from Drizzly Bear to a new nonprofit started by Sean called ComCODE. The goal, per their website, was to "teach technical and economic literacy through open-ended gameplay." Most of the remaining veteran players including myself were invited to become volunteers for this new nonprofit. The proposal was that volunteers would be allowed to work on parts of the game they were interested in. Given the lack of attention to the game over the past few years, most of the volunteers jumped on this opportunity. However it was quickly clear that this would not be the case.
Fast-forward to today: Since ComCODE's founding in late-2023, they have released one significant update to the game, this being the "marks system". This was a rewrite of the tutorial and can mostly be attributed to a few very dedicated volunteers. Volunteers that were originally told they could contribute to the parts of the game they wanted were later told this was a "distraction", and only allowed to work on a handful of curated projects, each of which required oversight and sign-off by the developer.
Eventually many of the volunteers were burned out by this bureaucracy and broken promises, and either quit contributing or resigned from the volunteer team entirely. To this day only 2-3 individuals have access to the entirety of the hackmud codebase, and they are all either paid staff or the developer themselves.
Why does any of this matter? Because hackmud is in trouble, and the staff are in denial about it. Despite putting on a positive front, hackmud the game currently spends more than it makes. hackmud is primarily funded by donations to ComCODE, and staff are in a death-spiral to raise enough money for the next quarter rather than worrying about the long-term health of the game. There is also a severe air of "toxic positivity" where players and volunteers are not allowed to be negative about the game in public channels.
Examples being the two most recent events.
In December, staff announced "the take", a PvP event that would include the first major change to PvP balance since the 2.0 update in 2018. This change was an update that disabled "panic dumps". Without going into detail, panic dumps are a loophole in the binmat mechanic that allows users to execute a script to "panic" money and items away to another user before getting breached. Because this happens during the binmat game, this makes it impossible for attackers to meaningfully steal from each other at the top level. This has caused endgame PvP to grind to a halt for several years, and users that have not played the game in 2 years are still present on users.top due to this mechanic. Needless to say, many players were excited to see this go away.
As the event progressed, it became clear the patch was incomplete. Panic dumps were disabled, but due to an oversight, the very last script run of binmat was ignored. This allowed users to continue to panic their money away, just only in a single script run. As almost no one in the game has enough money to be prohibited by a single script run, this effectively negated the patch entirely. Rather than admit this was a bug and implement a fix for it, the staff cried "huge success" and then retconned the intent of the patch entirely. Volunteers were prohibited from labeling this a "bug" in public channels, and to this day it remains unfixed, with no public intent to fix it.
The most recent event was a hackmud game jam. This event was announced several weeks in advance, but staff were suspiciously silent about the voting system and criteria. When the event began, it was discovered that players would be given 3 votes each (split across three submissions), and "judges" would be given 50x that amount each. Given the average player count of hackmud on a good day is ~30, this completely negated player votes entirely. Players complained about this, and a few days later the judge votes were silently removed (with no announcement whatsoever).
When the event ended and the votes were tallied, players waited breathlessly for a winner to be announced... and waited... and waited... turns out staff silently decided to axe the entire voting process and the voting script now reads "The winner was: everybody!" Once again no announcement was given about any of this. The hackmud team's refusal to be honest with their players and instead spin everything as a "win" is insulting to them and to the people contributing to ComCODE. It's fine to make mistakes, but the dev seems to believe that bugs don't exist if we simply don't acknowledge them.
This entire post might read as a rant from a bitter former-player, but I truly do love hackmud and the community it has created. hackmud is a unique game that has taught programming to dozens of players including myself. In spite of all the issues I mentioned, I want it to succeed.
However with the direction the game is heading, I cannot recommend it in good conscience. The hackmud team needs to be willing to acknowledge their mistakes and work with their players to improve the game, and so far they have been unwilling to do so. If things do not change, I do not believe the game will survive another 6 months.
Hacking-Simulation in a Multi-User-Dimension (MUD)
The scripting is real
automation and out-of-game bot building all possible
also hacking other users scripts and bankrolls is encouraged by the rules which are more like a conduct.
This fun-to-use coding environment teaches you real world pogramming (JS) and thinking skills.
The worlds content is defined by the users, also including the economy and PvP aspects
For those eager to explore the MUD offers a deep lore and many things to discover.
Upgrade your system, defend it...
...write scripts to rob a corp
do whatever you like in this dystopian 90's style hacker version of the "future" internet and get ready to craft.
It's even possible to code your own games inside the MUD and let other users play it.
They could even write a bot to beat your game or abuse your public scripts for their own goals.
It's up to you...
...All you need is just a KEYBOARD!
GO WILD, defend yourself, get ready
----edit:
I really enjoyed the lates hm_gamejam_v2 Event (missed v1)
A lot of players contributed their own minigames and scripts for voting.
Also the rewards were given out to the whole community of participants because there was no rivalry.
Everbody contributed to the same point-pool ans unlocking better rewards was a group goal.
The MUD was very lively during the event and many many ideas have been pitched for the future.
Previous users also came back to participate and enjoy the new style of event.
There's more to come and explore.
IMHO the game is constantly growing by the contributions of the active players.
No need to be a veteran here, every user can have a huge impact right from the very beginning.
Experimenting is encouraged!
Come and explore, play, build, connect...
Single-handedly saved me from giving up on programming altogether.
I picked this game up after burning out from a stressful job and a ♥♥♥♥♥♥ relationship that both took my soul.
It was the only thing that made programming fun again. A literal lifeline for me.
Всё было хорошо, пока мне реально не пришлось писать скрипт. Лайк за паучка и чат
Great game!
if you like puzzles, and have some coding experience, the game is a lot of fun. you can play it even without doing any programming, but your progress is going to depend on finding and using other users' scripts, which usually come with a cost. that cost typically is outweighed by the benefit of using the script
i great way to practice javascript and have a little fun at the same time a nonprofit owns the game now and they are very helpful i dont think ive seen a community so willing to help people with programming and so forth..like..ever..yet kudos to the devs
KERNEL HARDLINE IS THE BEST THING
One of the most fun hacking games around.
The community is amazing to be a part of.
Hacking can be part automated using javascript. And if you are alergic to javascript like me. You can converters to use other languages that suit you better.
In order to do scripts you will have to use an external coding software. I'd recommend something that understands javascript.
The hacking puzzles are not too challenging and get harder as you go.
Just remember in risk we trust.
EDIT: 14/01/2025
Unfortunately I have had to change my review to Do not recommend and here is why:
Found out game has a shop premium currency after buying game to get advantages. Game is Pay-To-Win even after buying it.
Game is pretending to be a charity for tax evasion I guess so it would seem but that's just my opinion based off the fact they don't teach anyone anything..
Game will delete all your data after 60 days including your progress on an MMO.
TLDR: Dev team has woke nazi agenda zombies working for them that don't like the mere thought of someone disagreeing. (Not with equality I love equality.) But with their ATTACK MODE LETS ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ GOOOOO. Attitude.
And decided to abuse someone with a learning disability because woke agenda more important.
Final reason is a personal one. Involving members of staff harassing me on discord because I said something anti-woke they didn't like. As all tyrants I was immediately pulled over and put on report despite people literally pronouncing their full no joke hatred of each other, mocking entire ethnicities and countries. But apparently me being assaulted with the trans flag and responding with "I see I am not wanted here." (removing myself from the situation as to avoid conflicts) was according to the mod team attacking LGBTQ and personally attacking people.
After VERY STRONGLY clearing the air stating that I in no way am against gays or any derivation thereof. They clarified further than "they just wanted to """"make sure I read the rules """" (which I had to agree to and read before entering). After "clearing" things up they told me they are in no mood for an "argument" THEY STARTED after removing myself from the situation to avoid conflict. As an autistic person which is publicly known... They literally came to hunt me down, cause me stress, panic, and feeling very discriminated and I have a disability they probably knew about since I mention it often. That be a hate crime... I explained to them I'd drop the matter if they just apologised for what they just did to me attacking me in such a hostile manner.
Instead of a friendly mention or regular conversation, this has taught me all I need to know. I do not need this stress and if you don't want to be discriminated against by LGBTQ WOKE agent staff. Feel free to buy this game.
But expect to have woke agenda CRAMMED DOWN YOUR THROAT. Feel free to "engage" with the community for the woke nazi's to come knock you down.
I will be staying the ♥♥♥♥ away from this toxicity. If "you want to learn javascript" which is their claim to be "a charity". There are far better and safer environments to do so like screeps for example.
EDIT: 31/01/2025
The team decided to do a game jam. To prove just how petty admin team is. The top script was a script named game.jam.
When you attempt to eat the jam you are stopped by. "LGBTQ WOKE agent staff" a direct reference to this review. Down to the wording and casing.
Since the chat was on the topic I though it was relevant to mention their game does not allow me to eat the "LGBTQ WOKE agent staff" as I was speaking with the script developer prior and was timed out for mentioning "LGBTQ WOKE agent staff".
Other than shutting down voting at the same time as submissions allowing no one with a late submission to get score. And not live streaming or reviewing the games IMHO a shame. People putting all the effort in and they can't even be bothered to pretend to care.
There was very little to this event.
But the sweetest part is that they then decided to ban both my discord and game accounts.
If you inspect the other reviews you will see this is completely within normal behaviour.
As stated before if all you do is play the game. You're fine. But don't engage with the discord or speak to staff as all they care about is enforcing their WOKE agenda. They still lack to teach anyone any actual programming in the game. They removed the in-game editor forcing people to download other softwares or even use notepad to write code. And having been running the mmo in this sad state of unfinished for a long time barely making any changes worthy of note.
The fact so many people are still supporting such an effort show a great lack of these type of mmo's in the market.
Stay away and the woke can't hurt ya!
And stay tuned to my review to see they next time they commit another act of censorship/blatant hate crimes.
Игра для "скрипт"-детишек (в хорошем смысле этого слова). Пассивно-агрессивно тренирует отработке доверия и даже немного навыкам программирования (в данном случае JS). Коммюнити дружелюбное, но все надо проводить через тактику "Доверяй, но проверяй".
Немножко старая, пустовато, в 0000 только боты. А так вполне точно передает угнетающее IT-будущее.
8/10
♥♥♥♥ ass game that all i got to says
It's a tedious learning curve for non-programmers and those that want something a little lighter but still want to play a game that "feels" like hacking and programming.
I'm coming to this game with MINIMAL programming knowledge. (think: formulas in excel and light BASIC)
The game does a great job of creating a fun text terminal world but the MARKS tutorial system starts to get overwhelming for my 40-something year old american brain.
Maybe I'm not cut out for these types of games? It's still well done - just not for me. I'll stick to super casual games like HACKY or if I'm feeling particularly adventurous, I'll play uplink if i feel the urge to want a game that makes me feel like i'm hacking
If you like scripting, programming, and using these sorts of activities to solve text puzzles - I'm sure you'll like this one.
The Sentience when i attain sys.Xfer_gc_from and have intel on their exact sys.loc.
btw heres my friends sys.loc [spoiler]thisisharrison.out_w8d4cy[/spoiler]
The new Marks system, essentially a in-game tutorial, is the thing that tipped me over the edge to try this game, and while it's execution can be a bit confusing at times, it was enough for myself (a hobbyist programmer) and my friend (who's never written code before) to get into the game.
If you're stuck on the fence to buy this game, I strongly recommend you give it a go. Hackmud needs more people in it to thrive
10/10 gave me psychosis
This game is a masterpiece that hurts my soul. And that's not a reference to the use of JavaScript (mostly).
It is the game of my dreams in basically every way, honestly, but playing it once you escape the "tutorial" just slams you with this odd feeling. Genuinely not 100% sure how to explain the feeling; my best attempt is that it strikes you with a deep sense of nostalgia for experiences you never had, that never occurred. Like I can see how great the game is, and its biggest flaw is really no fault of its own: playerbase.
Ultimately, the game sets out to be a mmo from the terminal, Hack.net's multiplayer cousin. But you can't have a mmo without the mm. I sat here for 3 hours looking into learning JavaScript, frustrated by the lack of resources available. I found wikis from 2017, a dead reddit, a slightly less dead discord. I couldn't understand (and still don't) how there was so little engagement for such a great product. And then, I checked the player counts.
24.
At the time of writing this and as I had played previously, there were only 23 other people in game. An all time peak of 502 players. I have no idea why this is, but the game apparently was never given a shot.
The game's amazing. I can't recommend it due to lack of players, but I have to recommend it due to lack of players if that even makes any sense. I was expecting a solid base of ~20,000 players and now I'm here experiencing a tragedy lol
EDIT: Welp, at this time I can no longer recommend this game. Had stepped away due to life happening, and came back to the dev abusing volunteers and blowing holes in his own boat. What a shame, this game deserved better.
hackmud - the best modern mud there will be in the next coming decades.
.
I am really excited about this game. I know (very)basic coding but this games seems to take itself seriously to educate players so even someone with 0 experience may be able to start if they can read and follow instructions. I've been only 2 hours into the game going through the new MarksSystem and I think it does a great job introducing players to programming and command line concepts. Really excited to see what else is in store and what developers planned for the future.
no mud
If you like the 80s/90s hacker vibe, this is one of the best implementations of that since Uplink IMO. Hackmud reminds me of exploring the teenaged Internet, piecing together an online forum's own lore and downloading random
projects created by its members. It's very obtuse, but if you're willing to dig, it's an experience unlike anything else in the "hacking" genre. The soundtrack is also fantastic.
[code]:::TRUST COMMUNICATION::: Unauthorized access detected. Suspending environment...[/code]
I can't state enough just how much I enjoy this game. The puzzles, the programming, the community - it's all amazing. It's all a labor of love, a pursuit for education. Hackmud took what programming knowledge I had and expanded it heavily, spending my time designing systems from scratch to solve a puzzle set forth by either the developers or players.
Such a large part of the game is interacting with other players' content in a fully open multiplayer sandbox (with some surprisingly minimal restriction). Players have written entire games, you can play the ever so popular word guessing game or tempt fate by choosing one of three doors. Idle games between trying to figure out how to access some content gated behind one command or another. Players have written simulators for built-in content, big and small. Players have written genius scams, but also genius and genuine tools.
On top of this, even if you don't want to learn to program or don't know how to program, there's a place for you - so much content is just about the lore. The entire reason the simulated environment exists, the people behind it. The occasional event always needs someone who's willing to just sit down, read and learn.
The fact that the game is an MMO where the [i]players[/i] make their own content means there's never a lack of things to do and if you think there is, you can make things to do. I don't think I've ever seen an MMO that has potential to survive without updates, but this right here... this is it.
[code]:::TRUST COMMUNICATION::: Unauthorized connection killed. Security restored. Resuming environment.[/code]
[code]xxxx 0000 gear :::what's up mud?:::[/code]
I thought I was going to play for an hour or two before getting bored and deciding to quit.
~10 hours in and I am craving more and more.
Edit: ~20 hours in and I will probably keep messing around with it. Though sadly the game is "dead". And by "dead" I mean you will rarely encounter another player in game to talk with, the discord community is active, but the game itself doesn't seem to get much traffic sadly, from my own observations.
The " [...] as you explore the abandoned internet of the future." part of the game's description is very apt. The 0000 channell is filled with various scams, automated scripts and what not from the earlier days of the game.
To sum it up; if the idea of exploring a (abandoned) sandbox MUD, filled with automated scrips, NPCs, and rarely a player or two, all while using a terminal interface and javascript scripts to do so appeals to you, then you might enjoy the game as I did/am/will.
If not, I don't think I could recommend the game.
We need Chinese
fantastic game with a steep learning curve but mindbending puzzles that make it very much worth the effort
CODING GO BRRRRRRRR
nyaa meowww my girlfriend likes this gamee ^~^ i wuv her so i wuv this gameee
after doing the singleplayer i wanted to keep playing but you have to actually learn javascript to continue. which would be fine if i could learn it by playing more of the game. i would love that actually. still a fun campaign though.
10/10 would hack mud again
Late by one day to keep my users from retiring/being deleted..
Doesn't feel good. Guess I was done playing, anyway.
This game is sick, BUT if you hate typing/reading it Isnt for you. It forces you to think, and takes some initiative. Sometimes you'll find yourself searching for what to do online, how to crack puzzles, what tiers do what. ALSO i don't think this counts as a spoiler, for those who got stuck trying to escape the VLAN my hint is "one of each" otherwise it IS POSSIBLE to get softlocked in the VLAN. Community is cool, deceptive, exciting. Dig in and see how far you get.
xena.defender
Good game, very enjoyable. Gotta use your brain which is uncommon for most modern games.
Don't know why but this game is so good. Even got me into coding with Javascript because i didn't want to do manually t1 locks anymore. A bit frustrating when you want to test your script and use your.target and lose everything but still, very very fun!
Good.
The world has ended and humanity is gone. They left behind a network populated by Java Scripts operated by bots. One of those bots is the Trust, it "evolved" into some kind of super-sentient computer that regulates the Multi-User-Domain (MUD).
It is now populating the MUD with lesser sentient AI's (players) it develops in a virtual LAN system (tutorial) in order to explore, rebuild, maintain the MUD and seek, or perhaps hide, answers, if they wish.
Overall I really enjoy the atmosphere, the game is not difficult programming wise, most of the puzzles rely on logical guesses and can be solved manually and riddles can be googled. The higher difficulty scripts require some programming skills but progression is not entirely dependent on high difficulty, you can grind anything you want to in the way you enjoy doing it.
I might change this review when I'm more experienced but even now I feel like I made a good purchase and will enjoy exploring the MUD.
Don't trust anything...
mud gud
This was once a very, very good game with a heck of a lot of potential. It was in fact my favorite game and I'm very sad I didn't play it more when I had the chance.
As of writing this review Hackmud is deteriorating due to poor and dishonest leadership and community communication as well as the manipulation and abuse of volunteers. I cannot in good faith support this game anymore which I find miserable as this was and is my favorite game. It's a beautiful pocket universe where so much beauty could have existed but I don't think anything good will come anymore.
This is the kind of poison that would kill the game eventually, no matter what, in my experience as I've lived through this story before. If the one who manages a game doesn't care for their community or those who contribute it could never sustain itself.
I'm going to miss Hackmud. A lot. Like, a lot, a lot. And I hope something eventually fits into the hole it will leave behind.
Read this review for more info if you'd like more of the story but don't bother purchasing. I doubt it will exist for much longer anyways.
https://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561198444707376/recommended/469920/
no ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥? michael.♥♥♥♥♥♥♥
There's no better time to hop on the game than NOW, the game was overhauled with an all new tutorial update, definetly recommend checking it out now as it's a way better introduction to the game!
------------
Amazing game, although sadly a bit dead MMO aspect, because a lot of people moved to chatting on Discord instead of using in-games public chat. However that doesn't kill the vibe and just how much interesting exploration this game has. The tutorial at the start of the game is a bit long and tedious at times, but getting into the real thing makes it so exciting. There's a lot of different corporations to join, a lot of different places to hack, discover, try out. I wish there was a bit more to lose, like for example in Hacknet you can lose your entire system and have to find the person who hacked you and take your system back (although it's a scripted singleplayer interaction), sadly this game is more tied to your upgrades and your money, but nevertheless, it's a very interesting experience that I honestly recommend giving a try
Amazing game!
we're in <3
Top tier mud worth the cost of admission.
No real introduction dumped with a terminal and asked to prove my "sentience" by answering a few cryptic riddles.
Hacking was nonexistent for the entire 1st hour I was playing and the game was a basically a silly text based guessing game.
was asked for a password with nothing but "blue" as a hint.
was asked for a password with nothing but "smelly 4 legged animal" as a hint.
was asked to unlock a system again with no information as to how.
none of these puzzles felt particularly clever, unlike other games in the genre where a password might be stored on a hidden server or "encrypted" with base 64 none of these sorts of puzzles are present - at least not in the first hour.
can't speak for the MMO aspects of the game as I refunded the game halfway through the tutorial - if you can call being dumped in a terminal with nothing a "tutorial"
as a redeeming factor the UI, sound design and general atmosphere are good.
Pretty hard "game" and unforgiving to new players. You NEED ti kind of "work" and learn with much patience if you want to play this game and continue, but the reward for that is great. Basically teaches you javascript, which you pretty much need to get forward and have more fun and be able to do stuff.
Do I recommend for average players who want to just chill and play? No, absolutely not. Is it for people that want to learn and have fun finally having success in doing something and freedom? Yes, absolutely! As for what it's for it's the best out there and very good.
This game is great if you wish to learn Javascript. its in depth, and has a story behind it that has me quite interested but its also a puzzle game where EVERYTHING is a puzzle.
100% if you like hacking games, want to learn Java, or really like puzzles then get this game
Awesome coding challenges, awesome community.
Enjoying this. It's a learning curve for the uninitiated, but so much fun.
Fun game, helpful community, banger soundtrack, with good documentation to get started on its wiki and Steam pages. Absolutely not for everyone; keep reading for why.
In a nutshell: this game is best for players who enjoy, or want to learn to enjoy, messing with anything not bolted down in videogames. Coding experience is not required; in fact, this will give you plenty of challenge to learn good programming and security principles. But the meat of the game entails learning and failing in a sandbox environment that isn't always your best friend.
For those unsure if this is for you, I would say: if you're already involved in programming or computer security, you more or less know what to expect here and the experience is very enjoyable. If you're not, but want to learn in a structured environment with incremental challenges, try the catalog of Zachtronics and Zach-like games first to see if the text style of programming challenges meets your fancy. If it does, this will give you a community and fun environment to learn in that wouldn't be available in a structured, singleplayer experience.
In other words, there's more risk and more reward to this experience than the standard fare of programming puzzle games, and this experience is complementary with those styles of games. There's also very little like this out there (short of community programming/capture the flag competitions, which are typically more limited), which makes me happy this exists.
As for price: it's set pretty high for folks that don't know what they're getting into, and there are optional things you can pay for in-game if you want to support the developers (which raise the sticker price even higher, but are not required or pay-to-win). Because of this, I'd recommend reading the wiki first (https://wiki.hackmud.com ) to get a feel for what you're getting into. If it's your thing, it's worth it.
Super interesting and fun. The lore is deep and interesting and the gameplay mechanics are very fun. Community is super cool
In a few words, this is pretty close to real pvp/pve hacking, condensed into a charming, fantasy package.
If you can't live without a gui, and can't fathom how to control things with a command line interface, it's unlikely that this one is for you.
BUT, I will say if you've enjoyed playing games like uplink or hacknet, and felt like it was taking too much creative license from an authentic hacking experience, this is a steep step up, both in realism (in the sense that there is actual hacking of other players happening in this game), and in sheer challenge! You have been warned. I really like it though.
You will more than likely end up realising that you would really benefit from doing at least *some* coding, in order to be competitive in this world.
You can get by with using other players scripts for things like getting money at low levels, but this comes with risk (risk essentially being the core of this game).
How much time and effort that you spend on coding in order to progress in the game, depends on your strategies.
No coding? No problem. Exploration, socialising, fundamental risk-taking and hacking, just require your gamer skills. Play it right, and you can crack open a wealthier player, and strike it lucky.
Medium coding will allow you to elevate your game, allowing you to run custom scams, turning them into lucrative operations, maybe even outsmarting the better coders, with a mind to steal all of their stuff.
High coding abilities potentially turns you into a weapon. Write crackers, scrapers, management tools, and take the initiative to generally improve your own game experience. You'll have an ability to absolutely, and safely, trivialise hacking other players of lower levels, as long as you're savvy.
This game's uniqueness and potential to provide an experience like few other games isn't at all apparent at first glance but this is for sure a very inspiring and interesting game.
It's by no means perfect, and it can feel unfair at times.
DO NOT MAKE TYPOS. YOU WILL BE SAD
Some clever sneaky buggers have made public scripts that are named very similar to certain default scripts players rely on throughout the game (stuff like viewing your money and inventory). These sneaky scripts *immediately* pwn you, taking literally everything you own. Yeah. This game is not only mechanically very niche, but incredibly brutal when you mess up.
I really think this game would benefit from more players, but given that there's been a recent uptick of users, there's never been a better time to jump in the hackmud
in RISK we TRUST
As much as I want to like this game, I was pretty frustrated basically by a typo. You'll make a simple mistake and loose it all. There are no mechanisms for you to avoid that. I could grind back pretty fast, of course I automated everything, but I have to grind back to be able to be within script char limits. You do you, but being denied content by a typo is a no.
Really obtuse tutorial which is extremely long. Then once you finish it, people with scripts make it so that finding unbreached NPC's is impossible. Waste of time
hackers and coders dream game
This is the kind of hacking game I've wanted for a while
I'm not good at typing being dyslexic but I can do it. YOU CAN DO IT. It's fun engaging, and entertaining. I don't have much time in it but It's helped my typing and speed.
it's so good i bought it 3 timea
it's so good i bought it 2 times
This game wont hold your hand, and it wont spoiler anything.
It wont tell you the answers, and it wont lead you anywhere.
This game will drop hints, and you have to learn what these hints mean (Some are easy, some are hard).
Then you have to learn how to use the hints..
Oh and did i mention that you have to LEARN HOW TO CODE if you don't know already? yeah, it's JAVASCRIPT for the most part (as far as i am aware. Comments open so i can be corrected)
This game is a PAIN IN MY ASS. but it's the type to make me go: "Come on! you got this! Why arent you working?! WORK YA BASTARD! C'mon C'mon C'mon!!!" for 4 hours >_<.
it's a "One more turn" type of game, without turns actually being a thing. it will instill that persistence in you.
.
Son puzzles sin sentido ni lógica alguna la mayor parte de las veces. Es como una aventura gráfica en su peor estado, prueba y error hasta que algo encaja, no hay momento eureka ni progresión de aprendizaje porque no hay mecánicas, sólo prueba y error. Tremenda pérdida de dinero.
My opinion on this game is Very Positive™
This game is so strange, it's hard to put into words, so here are the best words I can use to describe this game in a review.
It's having to engage the imagination, logic and reasoning sections of the brain all at once while trying to figure out riddles, puzzles and the such. The game itself is relatively straight forward, but adds on the ability for the players to introduce content into the game as well, allowing the game to go farther than just what the creator could make. Learning it all will take more time than what I currently have (~60 hours) but it forces you to learn in a weird but fun and productive way, so why wouldn't a new skill set be worth it while playing a game.
I've enjoyed learning something new and talking with the small, but great community of Hackmud. I'm still new (overall) but still willing to try and learn more. I really like this game and what's available inside of it, I want to learn more and add on into the game and community as other have before me. It's something I never thought I would end up doing later in life, but I'm enjoying it.
i was here before the PirateSoftware nerds
I have always liked games such as hacknet and Uplink, and have tried building a few projects regarding multiplayer hacking games, but nothing that I made could compare to this, it is everything I was asking for from a multiplayer "hacking" experience. Puzzles with complex answers that get even more complected over time, requiring the use of making scripts (in 2015 JS) that make solving those puzzles and reaping the rewards easier. Everyone can have scripts, and you can run other scripts, but be warned as most people are out to steal your money, after all, it is a risk to trust.
I'm 20 hours into it and feel like there are still many more things to explore, for 20$ this game is very much worth it. And solving puzzles via scripting has to be very satisfying.
