NetHak

NetHak puts the player into the role of a hacker in the 3rd decade of the 21st century. Logging into the game means logging into Cyberspace, the 3D virtual representation of today’s internet where the player roams the net and infiltrates computer systems in the search for juicy data and the secrets of the mysterious AI that control Cyberspace. Groups of players can build their own systems and have to protect them from other player-run groups. The whole economy is player-driven.

Background

The game is based heavily on books by William Gibson (Neuromancer, Mona Lisa Overdrive, Count Zero), Neal Stephenson (Snowcrash),
Charles Stross (Halting State), Ray Bradbury (Mirroshades by Night) and Orson Scott Card (Ender Series).
Also by movies and television series such as Max Headroom, Johnny Mnemonic, TRON, The Matrix and Strange Days.

Description

You log into Cyberspace and get a job from one of the Mr. Johnsons in The Chatsubo, a popular Cyberspace hangout for new hackers.
Seems like you have an easy job on your hand. Infiltrate the system of a start-up software design company, steal some design data (looking for some other hot files that might sell for a few credits on the black market) and upload them to a public terminal somewhere in Tokyo.
You are sure that this job will net you some reputation with The Panther Moderns, one of the most famous hacker groups in the Matrix.
You quickly load up a few intrusion programs and connect to the target system. Their Cyberspace complex has a yellow security code, which is kind of odd for a start-up company but you still head for the first datawalls that protect the juicy data that you’re after.

The barrier proves to be no match for your newly enhanced Hammer program and you quickly enter the system, running some detection programs to scan for Intrusion Countermeasure demons. The system seems to be clear of any anti-hacker protection. After breaking down a few more datawalls you find yourself in front of the database – shiny cubes of data just waiting to be copied to your storage memory.
Your datamining program finds a few encrypted files that are small enough so you could copy them all. As you download an ominously file called zeitgeist.x3 something goes wrong… The file has a hidden subroutine attached to it.
You see a darkly chromed figure of a grim reaper emerging from the datacube that quickly opens an interaction console with your deck and starts running some nasty tracing code.
Time to show this ICE that you aren’t having anyone locating your position in realspace. You quickly execute your Killer program on the ICE and are shocked to see that it can’t affect this Reaper. Better act quickly or this ICE will locate you and you will get fined (or worse) by the Netwatch Authority…

You got one ace up your sleeve: a newly bought virus that will infect the system and draw the attention of the ICE. Just a few milliseconds before you can run the virus the ICE has traced you. Damn! This will be expensive. But instead of the dreaded Netwatch Pop-up opening, telling you that you have been fined a few thousand credits for computer espionage and sending you back into the meat of your body, you feel a sharp jolt of energy passing through the cyberline,
into your datajack and finally into your brain… “Black ICE in a yellow system?” are your last thoughts before blacking out and waking back up in a hospital bed, the EEG reader next to you showing some strange brain activity. Next to you sits a man in black, a Netwatch badge dangling on his belt.

He grins at you with a plastic smile. “Hello, Mr. Dorsett… My name is Mr. Corto. I am an agent for the Turing Registry. I understand that you know who we are?”
You nod slowly.
“Good. We will have to talk about your latest run and what you experienced in that AI controlled system.
I hope you are fully aware of the consequences if you do not cooperate with us…”

Key Features

- A unique MMORPG setting
- Level-less character development
- A fast-paced, tactical PvE combat system
- Mini-game based system hacking
- Player-driven economy
- Group-based PvP combat games
- A compelling storyline
- Player-run game zones

Genre

Science Fiction, Cyberpunk, Near Future

Screenshots