Hacknet Type, break in, find the truth

You work in a command prompt. Scanning a network, probing a machine's ports, cracking a firewall and pulling files all happen through commands based on actual UNIX tools, not clicking glowing cubes in a 3D menu. A break-in has a shape: connect, probe, open the right ports, grab what you came for, then wipe the logs before a trace timer catches you. Miss the timer and things get uncomfortable fast. The commands are simplified, so nobody is asking you to write code, but after a few hours you will know what SSH and FTP are and why the up arrow is your best friend. It is difficult early on and then it clicks.

Bit built the most invasive security system on the planet, then died. Fourteen days after his last connection, his failsafe started mailing instructions to a stranger: you. What follows is a story about privacy, corporate greed and the hidden powers of the underground, told entirely through emails, files and the systems you break into. There are no cutscenes and no faces, just text on a terminal, and that is the trick: your imagination fills the gaps. The ending lands hard, and the side contracts you can accept along the way are well written little stories of their own.

Hacknet is one persistent network, not a set of levels. Nothing pops up to remind you that you are playing a game: you read an email, follow a lead, and end up three nodes deep in a corporate server reading memos nobody meant you to see. The whole thing plays out on monospaced text against black, with glitch effects when an attack lands and network maps that look like proper diagrams. The soundtrack does a lot of work here, with underground artists including Carpenter Brut and Remi Gallego driving the pace when a trace is running. Headphones recommended.