The best hacking games on PC in 2022


Looking for a list of the best hacking games on PC? Game developers have long valued the ‘hacker ethic’ — the will and skill to grab a game by the scruff of its code, rip it apart, and put the pieces together in a new way. Id Software prioritized the nascent modding community when they were creating Doom, Valve courted it from Half-Life onward and the entirety of the MOBA genre stems from folks futzing with Warcraft III.

Of course, most players are just that: players. We see numbers and letters in a line of code; not meaning. But, there’s a lineage of games that have sought to deliver the fantasy of being in complete command of a computer’s functions; of using that control to wreak destruction, or to avert it. Whether part of the sci-fi world of a multitude of space games, encouraging team work in one of the best co-op games, or of course putting you in the hacker’s seat of an RPG game, we’ve got something for everyone in our list of the best hacking games.

The best hacking games on PC are:

Best hacking games - System Shock 2: a keypad and hacking screen to unlock a system in-game

System Shock 2

The hacking minigame in System Shock 2 is nothing special. Basically, you play a simplified game of Minesweeper where you’re required to link three mines in a row for a successful hack. It’s pretty basic. As far as abstracted versions of hacking go, I much prefer the weird pipe puzzles of BioShock, its spiritual successor. But, System Shock 2 is notable for its implementation of hacking as one of multiple skill trees that the player could pursue. While the player was cast as a hacker in the original System Shock, they had the toolset to roleplay a hacker in its sequel.

Many sci-fi RPGS released after System Shock 2 have followed in its footsteps — especially those with an immersive hacking simulator bent — offering hacking abilities as one route to accomplish a goal. None present hacking realistically; you’re not entering lines of code (and NieR: Automata abstracted the process to the point that it became a twin stick shooter). But, if you enjoy avoiding fights and rigging turrets to take out enemies, you have System Shock 2 to thank.

Best hacking games - Uplink: A world map on a screen

Uplink

Originally released less than a month after 9/11, Uplink is a throwback to a simpler…

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