His ability to hack anything and everything in Ubisoft’s new open world game, Watch Dogs, makes Aiden Pierce practically seem like a superhero. By manipulating technology in his environment via his smartphone, he makes hacking seem simple, fun, and downright sexy. To fully appreciate how seamless hacking is in Watch Dogs, let’s take a second to remember how we got our hack on with the last console generation.
Bioshock / Bioshock 2
Initially, being a successful hacker in the underwater city of Rapture required a mastery of micro-plumbing. Practically a carbon copy of the Amiga title Pipe Mania, the mini-game required players to arrange sections of pipe to form a successful connection from one point on a grid to another. The game was not only fun, but in a steampunk universe where pipes replace wiring, it actually made sense, unlike the sequel’s hacking mini-game of stopping a needle on a colored dial. Like the rest of the game, Bioshock 2’s hacking mini-game was boring and downright unnecessary.
Fallout 3 / Fallout: New Vegas
Fallout proved that the only computer interface strong enough to survive a nuclear holocaust is that of the Apple II. Essentially a combination of Search-a-Word and Hangman, hacking gives players four chances to guess a password hidden in a grid of characters. The mini-game requires hackers to thoroughly pour over the screen to find said password, making the intentionally retro interface appropriate in both form and function, accurately inflicting the eye-dryness and migraines of 1980s computing.
Deus Ex: Human Revolution
As in most cyberpunk games, Deus Ex: HR takes a slightly more in-depth route when it comes to hacking. In keeping with the game’s stealthy theme, hackers must infiltrate mainframes while remaining undetected, strategically outwitting AI programs with worms, SPAM API, and other “computery” sounding things. Although rushing into situations, guns blazing, is an alternative available to less stealthy players in other parts of the game, there’s sadly no “screw this, I’ll just shoot everything” option for the frustrated hacker.
Grand Theft Auto V
Aside from “The Bureau Raid” mission, hacking isn’t a large part of most players’ criminal careers in GTA V. To successfully hack a system, players first gain entry via a tired “Search-a-Word” mini-game. Using the subtly named “Brute Force” program, hackers must then pause a few spinning dials on to form a password. This stunningly boring and uncomplicated procedure seems to indicate that cyber security officers must be just as intelligent as the rest of the San Andreas PD.
Arkham Series
The Bat-hacking doo-hickey (more elegantly referred to as the Cryptographic Sequencer) is slightly different in each Arkham game, but it’s basic design remains intact. By independently rotating each analog stick, Bats is able to find just the right frequency to overload or bypass inconvenient technology, even from a distance. While indeed capable of technologic wonders, the device’s most impressive feature is that it doesn’t require Mr. Wayne to continually remove his gloves to use the touchscreen.
Bionic Commando Rearmed
To break up all the action packed, 2D platforming fun of Bionic Commando Rearmed, developers at Grin found it necessary to toss a totally confusing, 3D hacking mini-game into the downloadable title. To hack terminals, players must get a ball to a goal inside a rotatable 3D cube by bouncing it off blocks and teleporting it through portals. Although completely inane, it was far less stupid and confusing than the “wife arm” of the Bionic Commando reboot that followed.
Alpha Protocol
No self-respecting spy agency would be complete without their own fair share of seemingly random, numerical secret codes. So of course, when hacking systems in Obsidian’s espionage themed action RPG, numbered sequences are what you’re after. To locate these codes, agents must move each analog stick independently to find the permanent numbers hidden amongst a giant, rapidly changing numeric grid. Once players players level up, hacking does become considerably easier, but to fledgling agents fresh out of spy school, attempting those first few hacks can leave them shaken, not stirred.
Sly Cooper: Thieves in Time
The Tom Arnold to Sly Cooper’s Schwarzennegger, Bentley typically stays in the van and helps out behind the scenes, except when it comes to hacking. Instead of an abstract number puzzle or boring logic tree, hacking in the Sly Cooper series plays out as a fun, twin-stick shooter in which Bentley himself pilots a ship to collect data keys and blast firewalls with his bit cannon. For those more interested in platforming instead of shooting, these mini-games can be annoying, but really, it’s tough to hate on such an adorable Tron homage.
Mass Effect Series
In the first Mass Effect, hacking was essentially a short game of Simon Says. In ME 2, it became a slightly more technical (yet arguably easier) endeavor, requiring players to match three boxes of spinning code and play a game of memory on a circuit board. Apparently, Bioware assumes that once mankind has mastered interstellar space travel and joined the rest of the galactic community, all technology will be vulnerable to attack by way of basic preschool games.
Saints Row 4
Set mostly in a Matrix-style world, Saints Row 4 expectedly contains loads of self-aware computer tropes and humor. What wasn’t expected was Volition’s decision to continually break up the joyous action of being up superhero and beating up bad guys with an unavoidable and terribly dull mini-game. In order to unlock the 30+ stores scattered about the computerized version of Stilwater, players are forced to play a reskinned version of Pipe Mania. Unlike Bioshock however, this version replaces the pipes with nodes and charm with irritation.
Splinter Cell: Double Agent
Being the experienced, shadowy government agent he is, Sam Fisher is adept at picking out static numbers in grids of flashing numbers. But in the Sam’s world, that isn’t the only way to hack. To decrypt an email, agents assign 3 digit, binary numbers to the sides of a cube while trying to avoid repeating sequences in rows and columns. This, of course, explains the rigorous Rubik’s Cube section of the NSA’s application process.
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Hack to the Max
Did we include your favorite (or most hated) hacking mini-game of the last generation? Let us know in the comments!