Cyber Manhunt is the game equivalent of playing Mr Robot. Least, that’s my assumption having only heard about it and watching half an episode that features Freddie Mercury. Yes, you guessed it, this is a hacking game, but the way the mechanics work gives you the impression that you could do it in real life.
This is the second indie title in less than a week that has captured my imagination, so much so with its social commentary that moving to that cave and getting off the grid seems even more of a paradise than a tin hat wearing pipedream.
That other title is Silicon Dreams. If you haven’t read the review, have a look-see and go check out the game. As for Cyber Manhunt, from Aluba Studio, it’s another low key title in terms of presentation – that’s not a bad thing, it’s just that your focus is on gameplay rather than the latest ray-tracing device.
Cyber Manhunt (Demo)
The introductory mission is to locate the password for a backend system as there’s a hole in the data you hold. How do you retrieve such a thing with nothing to go on? Well, here’s the creepy reality: it starts with social media.
With only a username to go by, you soon have the target’s real name on Toothbook (guess which platform that is, and no, it’s nothing to do with that bird). Scroll down the page, and you’ll see baby photos with a date of birth – just enough to run a security check on the database, then BOOM! you have their address, ID number, telephone and who their favourite TMNT is.
Cyber Manhunt could be described as a horror title, as it’s plausible and just goes to show how easy it is to find data on someone who’s not too careful
I love anonymity – not because there’s something to hide, but want an easy life and some privacy. Playing this game reinforces those beliefs and why social media is a necessary evil to entice people to come here and read my opinions in the first place.
Back to the game. Once you have enough data, you’re promptly going through emails and creating a profile for yourself, posing as another person. It’s essential to do your homework here as if you reveal yourself as an imposter, you fail your goal.
Take Some Notes
Note-taking is recommended – a bit like the Lacuna Prologue and also Chinatown Detective Agency. These games are mesmerising when it comes to engagement, and Cyber Manhunt joins those alumni too. While you can click and collect clues that you can copy and paste with a click to use in the Gogo search engine, some clues aren’t so obvious, but there I was with Notepad open, jotting down usernames, Toothbook IDs and more. It paid off.
Still, it’s easy to miss some of the clues, and at the end of a mission, the time it took to complete and the revelations unlocked will present themselves, and you’ll have the option to replay them.
Cyber Manhunt is fictitious (it better be), so the place names and all are made up, but it’s coherent enough for you to follow along
The art style is mixed – when characters talk, it could have done without the animation. Like a visual novel, characters show up on-screen when speaking (voice acted), and their mouth moves like a Team America puppet. It’s not bad, but a static image would have worked better.
The rest of the presentation is on par with most user’s desktops (minus the… ahem… porn) as the social media platforms and search engines are super realistic. Granted, they aren’t going to blow you away, but they function as you would expect, though don’t try to be clever with searches.
That is perhaps one of the downsides of Cyber Manhunt in that it is pretty restrictive with interactivity. Primarily you are working towards a relatively linear goal, which isn’t a negative, but sometimes you feel you know the answer; you just don’t know how to show your workings out.
Still, Cyber Manhunt is a fascinating title, and I, for one, embrace this technique of using real-world examples to some degree and making actual notes as you progress. More importantly, it’s pretty cool to be a hacker when you think Agile is a stat and C++ the results of a good essay.
