8 best hackers in gaming history - gamebasin.com
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8 Best Hackers in Gaming History - GameBasin.comTRANSCRIPT
8 Best Hackers In Gaming History
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With the recent launch of Watch Dogs, being a hacker has never been a more captivating idea to
the mainstream gaming audience. The video game medium has seen various incarnations of
hacking mini‐games, and a large number of gaming protagonists who occasionally like to moonlight
as hackers in their adventures. In many cyberpunk and science‐fiction titles, hacking mini‐games
aren’t unexpected, yet gaming’s representation of the activity runs the gamut from word‐based
recognition games to Tron rip‐offs, and everything in between. With such a large variety of
characters and mechanics it’s easy to view these as convenient filler, placed there for the sake of
advancing the plot where it would otherwise be impossible. As a result, the fine art of digital
infiltration has seen a large variety of interpretations, with some being closer than others. On one
end of the spectrum, you have puzzles such as the infamous Pipe Mania‐inspired mini‐game in the
original BioShock, and on the other you have far more accurate representations; such as that seen
in Uplink, a game all about hacking. To narrow it down, this list will focus primarily on the hackers
themselves, and each of their respective mini‐games, with the notable exclusion of Aiden Pearce,
a very obvious pick who has been taken out of the running in interest of fairness.
8. Commander Shepard
When either male or female Shepard isn’t busy fighting bug‐eyed aliens and arrogant bureaucrats,
they’re breaking into people’s belongings, rummaging through safes and breaking into the homes
of whomever isn’t as important as Shepard – which is everyone. In the original Mass Effect, hacking
plays out one of two ways, depending on the platform. On console, the player has to play a game
of Simon Says in order to get loot without losing precious resources. On PC, bypassing isn’t much
more realistic, and essentially plays out like a simpler version of Frogger. There’s also a plot‐crucial
Tower of Hanoi puzzle, but that’s best left forgotten. Unlike the original, no real skill or time‐
investment is required for the protagonist to excel in Mass Effect 2. Instead, quick reflexes and
sharp eyes are needed to gain the optimal amount of rewards. In this sequel, there are two mini‐
games; a memory‐match and another in which players must find the grouping of code that matches
up exactly to the target segment. The former is a pretty straightforward break from the action, but
the latter is arguably feels the most like actual hacking, as one has to carefully examine long lines
of code under a stress‐inducing time constraint. In Mass Effect 3 however, you just press a single
button. What makes all of this so incredible is that the Shepards don’t necessarily have any
background in engineering or technology. They have a career as a soldier, and still find time to learn
how to bypass firewalls? Now, that’s incredible. If only the Reapers could have been be hacked as
easily.
7. Lone Wanderer
Whilst much about the Lone Wanderer’s identity is shrouded in mystery, one thing is probably
certain: they were an expert hacker, even in the post‐apocalypse. Need a robot or turret shut down?
Lone Wanderer can do that. Have a safe full of bottle caps that needs opening? The Lone
Wanderer’s got you covered. Can’t open a door with bobby pins? Lone Wanderer will take care of
it. Aside from the wide range of terminals available for the player character of Fallout 3 to access,
what’s really incredible is the Lone Wanderer’s ability to somehow coerce the computer into telling
them how close they are to cracking the code. What’s most impressive perhaps, is that this post‐
apocalyptic vagabond can somehow learn all the hacking knowledge he needs by shooting people
in the face and doing odd jobs for people.
6. Adam Jensen
Who better to hack a machine, than someone who is part machine? Despite having technical
assistance in the form of co‐worker Pritchard, Adam Jensen still finds time to work around security
systems to get the job done, and maybe secure some extra cash on the side, because he’s cool like
that. Sure, his support team could probably do the heavy lifting for him remotely, as Pritchard is
on the sidelines the entire time (as video game hackers often are), but Jensen’s got this. In Deus
Ex: Human Revolution, the cyborg protagonist can invest a good deal of points into augmenting
their hacking ability, which means an easier time completing the mini‐game. This mechanic is far
more fleshed out than most games, which does make a great deal of sense given the game’s focus
on infiltration. Whilst hacking can make your life a whole lot easier, it carries the potential risk of
tripping an alarm and alerting everyone to your sleuthing. Who said being a hacker was stress‐free?
5. Isaac Clarke
For the uninitiated, Isaac Clarke is basically space MacGuyver. Part of what makes him so cool is
that he’s just a super‐nerd turned alien zombie‐slaying badass. An engineer for the CEC mining
corporation, Isaac is the go‐to tech guy, which is a spot normally reserved for a side
character. During his exploits on The Sprawl and Tau Volantis, Isaac will need to rewire some
machinery in a manner that might be considered illegal, if not for an infestation of undead horrors.
This involves a quick rotation puzzle in which the player must find the “sweet spot” a few times
without running out of time or getting their face eaten off by a Necromorph. To make the process
go a little faster, console players can also equip the Hacker RIG which, aside from looking really
cool, gives the added bonus of being able to complete the game in one less stage – a nice little perk
for players who actually bought Dead Space: Ignition, which featured an arguably more diverse
series of mini‐games (and not much else) in a far worse game.
4. Ratchet
The Ratchet and Clank series has been long known for its affinity with Metroidvania gadgetry,
allowing the player to access areas they otherwise couldn’t before after an initial pass through an
area. What makes Ratchet stand out as a hacker amongst the legion of others in the medium is the
sheer variety across a franchise that’s spanned over a decade now. These puzzles would often
escalate in difficulty, which puts a rather large stopgap in the pacing, serving as a break between
platforming and hectic third‐person shooting. The most interesting aspect of the hacking puzzles
in this series is Ratchet’s insistence in doing them over his robotic sidekick, Clank. Sure, a robot
would likely have an easier time doing it than a “squishy”, but Ratchet does the job anyway, even
if it takes him thirty minutes and an online guide to do it. With this in mind, Ratchet is more than
just a stand‐out hacker. He’s a testament to the persistence of organic life.
3. Subject Delta
After Jack clumsily sprinted across rooms to hack turrets whilst being shot in the face in BioShock,
the protagonist of the sequel takes a much more elegant approach. Hacking in BioShock 2 is less
of a puzzle and more of a quick test of time and precision. Stopping a dial in the right spot as it
moves back and forth isn’t anything to intuitive, but compared to the “hacking” present in its
predecessor, it’s the holy grail of game mechanics. Whereas most hacking systems pause the game
to give the player a chance to think, the challenge here occurs in real‐time, forcing players to be on
their toes. Whilst other hackers might grab a cup of coffee and relax as they think over their next
move, Johnny Topside has to hack on‐the‐go as he protects genetically‐engineered little girls,
shoots disfigured cultists in the face with a machine gun, and loots money out of trash cans. That
level of multi‐tasking has to be admired.
2. Bentley
Despite being a turtle, Bentley manages to hack just fine. More than fine, in fact. Whatever the job,
this reptilian computer whiz gets it done, and he does it in style. Whilst most other hackers are
content with looking at lines of code, Bentley is such a master whiz at hacking that he can transform
code into a twin‐stick shooter, which naturally makes the job much easier. Of course, Bentley can’t
do it remotely on his own computer; that stuff’s for chumps. Instead, he’ll jump through swinging
axes and spike traps just to reach the terminal he needs to break in Prague, or sneak by a slew of
guards to hack into a train, reversing its polarity to use it as a projectile. What other hacker can use
trains a projectile? None, that’s who.
1. Hacker
In System Shock, the playable protagonist is so good at his job, he is known simply as “Hacker”.
Indeed, his reputation as a hacker defines him, to such a point where his abilities are what
ultimately set him up for the rigorous journey against the horrifying and now‐iconic horrifying A.I.;
SHODAN. Everything he does involves screwing with the A.I. in some way, preventing it from
destroying the major cities of Earth and becoming an artificial god, because there’s only room for
one cyber god, and that’s Hacker #2 ‐4601. By the end of the game, he becomes the most famous
human being in existence by merit of his sheer hacking ability that he used to save the world,
requiring only a steady diet of hard drugs and magnum rounds to get the job done.
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