Uplink: Difference between revisions

''[[Uplink]]'' is a game that could best be described as a [[Hollywood Hacking]] [[Simulation Game|simulation]]. The whole premise is that you, an unnamed agent of the Uplink Corporation (an underground hacker-for-hire service), have just joined up in the ranks. Using your PC, you move up the ranks of Uplink agents by hacking different companies' computers and servers.

 

Compare with [[Net Runner]]. A fan sequel, called ''[[Codelink]]'', is on the works.

{{tropelist}}

* [[All Crimes Are Equal]]: An unintentional example, but someone will go to jail just as readily for rape, murder, and arson as for jaywalking, spitting, and littering.

* [[Apocalypse How]] : Between Type 0 and Type 1 {{spoiler|if Revelation succeeds}}.

** The v3 and below Trace Tracker somewhat subverts this in that it will sometimes jump around a little, but still stays fairly consistent. V4 shows your [[Exact Time to Failure]]. The MapTrace HUD upgrade, despite costing more than the best Trace Tracker, does ''not'' show how much time you have until the trace is complete, only many bounces your hack has been traced through.

* [[Extreme Graphical Representation]]: Justified, because it ''is'' a representation of [[Hollywood Hacking]].

* [[Feelies]]: Although even these are virtual:

** The passworded "Game Bible"

* [[Fan Sequel]]: ''[[Codelink]]'', currently in open beta. [http://codelinkv2.com/web/ Here's their dev blog.]

* [[Final Death]]: Get caught during a hack or passive traced, and your account will be suspended. To all intents and purposes, that game file is dead (justified in that Uplink disavows all knowledge of your actions, prevents you from ever reconnecting your gateway computer, and generally pulls the plug on your actions, while also implying that your gateway contains the only information that can lead directly back to you).

* [[Nothing Is Scarier]]: The blank screen when your account is suspended.

* [[One-Gender Race]] / [[Gendercide]]?: Not acknowledged in story but you will only see adult men in the databases. Well, it was made in 2000, back when [[There Are No Girls on the Internet|there were no girls on the internet]].

* [[One World Order]]: There is only one government, which makes hacking their databases very convenient.

* [[The Password Is Always Swordfish]]: Partially averted - admins will normally use random strings of letters and numbers, but give their [[Red Shirt|co-workers]] passwords from a list of common words shared by every company. Presumably, {{spoiler|God}} won a survey of easily remembered words, closely followed by {{spoiler|admin}} and then {{spoiler|password}}

* [[Playful Hacker]]: ''You'', [[Wide Open Sandbox|if you so choose, anyway]]. Gain access to someone's academic record and give them a qualification as a Registered Sex Worker! Change someone's government records from reading 'Single' to 'Married' (or vice versa)! Plant a Bestiality charge on some poor random bastard's criminal record for the lulz! Give them a qualification in Mathsology, Archeomatics or [[Stephen Colbert|Truthiness]]!

** Given that this is a British game, the most appropriate crime to pin on people is probably {{spoiler|buggery}}.

* [[Real Time]]: Time moves in real time, even though people reply to messages instantly. You can speed up time though.

* [[Save Scumming]]: Most clever players will back up their files. It's a bit meta, hacking a hacking game, isn't it?

* [[Schmuck Bait]]: ARC's email spells it out very, very clearly: {{spoiler|"DO NOT ATTEMPT TO RUN REVELATION LOCALLY."}} And yet there are still reports of people who have destroyed their own gateways in that very manner...

* [[Sequence Breaking]]: Instead of following ARC's instructions, {{spoiler|1=you can destroy the whole Internet by yourself as soon as they send you the first version of Revelation. In fact is easier than sticking to the storyline since nobody else knows about the existence of the virus, therefore Faith hasn't even been conceived. The only difficulty added to this shortcut is that one must infect about twice the amount of computers that Revelation 3.0 would need, as well as amassing loads of money early to build a decent rig for the task (usually via [[Game Breaker|bank hacking]]).[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wiZp9CUwGhg This speedrun demonstrates it.]}}

* [[Sensor Suspense]]: The Trace Tracker is an absolute necessity, since it shows you how close you are to being backhacked and identified. Much of the strategy in the game consists of finding ways to increase the amount of time you can spend on a system before they start getting too close.

* [[Shout-Out]]: Protovision's machine is a homage to ''[[War Games]]'' (it's the only machine you can't crack with the Password Breaker - you need to recognise the shout out to get the password ({{spoiler|JOSHUA}}, of course), and Introversion (the developers) have an in-game website which mentions ''[[Johnny Mnemonic]]'' and ''[[Mission Impossible]]''. And then there's the [[Steve Jackson Games]] server, which has of course been pinched by the US Secret Service.

** The Protovision machine's depiction of [[The Big Board]] is like a foreshadowing of the their following game ''[[DEFCON]]''.

* [[Take That]]: "Once again, the Global Criminal Database has been hacked. The system appears to have more security holes than the popular '[[Microsoft|Micro Software]]' written in the late 20th Century". '''OUCH'''.

** Or maybe they just added big numbers, because [[Bigger Is Better]].

* [[Twenty Minutes Into the Future]]: It's set in 2010. [http://forums.introversion.co.uk/introversion/viewtopic.php?t=2354 Now officially recognised as being set in the past.]

[[Category:The New Tens]]

[[Category:Humble Indie Bundle]]

[[Category:Video Game]]