hackmud

Single-handedly saved me from giving up on programming altogether.

I picked this game up after burning out from a stressful job and a shitty relationship that both took my soul.

It was the only thing that made programming fun again. A literal lifeline for me.

Great game!

if you like puzzles, and have some coding experience, the game is a lot of fun. you can play it even without doing any programming, but your progress is going to depend on finding and using other users' scripts, which usually come with a cost. that cost typically is outweighed by the benefit of using the script

i great way to practice javascript and have a little fun at the same time a nonprofit owns the game now and they are very helpful i dont think ive seen a community so willing to help people with programming and so forth..like..ever..yet kudos to the devs

One of the most fun hacking games around.
The community is amazing to be a part of.
Hacking can be part automated using javascript. And if you are alergic to javascript like me. You can converters to use other languages that suit you better.

In order to do scripts you will have to use an external coding software. I'd recommend something that understands javascript.

The hacking puzzles are not too challenging and get harder as you go.
Just remember in risk we trust.

EDIT: 14/01/2025
Unfortunately I have had to change my review to Do not recommend and here is why:
Found out game has a shop premium currency after buying game to get advantages. Game is Pay-To-Win even after buying it.
Game is pretending to be a charity for tax evasion I guess IDK.
Game will delete all your data after 60 days including your progress on an MMO.
TLDR: Dev team has woke nazi agenda zombies working for them that don't like the mere thought of someone disagreeing. (Not with equality I love equality.) But with their ATACK MODE LETS FUCKING GOOOOO. Attitude.
And descided to abuse someone with a learning disability because woke agenda more important.

Final reason is a personal one. Involving members of staff harassing me on discord because I said something anti-woke they didn't like. As all tyrants I was immediately pulled over and put on report despite people literally pronouncing their full no joke hatred of each other, mocking entire ethnicities and countries. But apparently me being assaulted with the trans flag and responding with "I see I am not wanted here." (removing myself from the situation as to avoid conflicts) was according to the mod team attacking LGBTQ and personally attacking people.
After VERY AGGRESSIVELY clearing the air stating that I in no way am against gays or any derivation thereof. They clarified further than "they just wanted to """"make sure I read the rules """" (which I had to agree to and read before entering). After "clearing" things up they told me they are in no mood for an "argument" THEY FUCKING STARTED after removing myself from the situation to avoid conflict. As an autistic person which is publicly known... They literally came to hunt me down, cause me stress, panic, and feeling very discriminated and I have a disability they probably knew about since I mention it often. That be a hatecrime... I explained to them I'd drop the matter if they just apologised for what they just did to me attacking me in such a hostile manner.
Instead of a friendly mention or regular conversation, this has taught me all I need to know. I do not need this stress and if you don't want to be discriminated against by LGBTQ WOKE agent staff. Feel free to buy this game.
But expect to have woke agenda CRAMMED DOWN YOUR THROAT. Feel free to "engage" with the community for the woke nazi's to come knock you down.
I will be staying the fuck away from this toxicity. If "you want to learn javascript" which is their claim to be "a charity". There are far better and safer environments to do so like screeps for example.

shit ass game that all i got to says

It's a tedious learning curve for non-programmers and those that want something a little lighter but still want to play a game that "feels" like hacking and programming.

I'm coming to this game with MINIMAL programming knowledge. (think: formulas in excel and light BASIC)

The game does a great job of creating a fun text terminal world but the MARKS tutorial system starts to get overwhelming for my 40-something year old american brain.

Maybe I'm not cut out for these types of games? It's still well done - just not for me. I'll stick to super casual games like HACKY or if I'm feeling particularly adventurous, I'll play uplink if i feel the urge to want a game that makes me feel like i'm hacking

If you like scripting, programming, and using these sorts of activities to solve text puzzles - I'm sure you'll like this one.

The new Marks system, essentially a in-game tutorial, is the thing that tipped me over the edge to try this game, and while it's execution can be a bit confusing at times, it was enough for myself (a hobbyist programmer) and my friend (who's never written code before) to get into the game.

If you're stuck on the fence to buy this game, I strongly recommend you give it a go. Hackmud needs more people in it to thrive

10/10 gave me psychosis

This game is a masterpiece that hurts my soul. And that's not a reference to the use of JavaScript (mostly).

It is the game of my dreams in basically every way, honestly, but playing it once you escape the "tutorial" just slams you with this odd feeling. Genuinely not 100% sure how to explain the feeling; my best attempt is that it strikes you with a deep sense of nostalgia for experiences you never had, that never occurred. Like I can see how great the game is, and its biggest flaw is really no fault of its own: playerbase.

Ultimately, the game sets out to be a mmo from the terminal, Hack.net's multiplayer cousin. But you can't have a mmo without the mm. I sat here for 3 hours looking into learning JavaScript, frustrated by the lack of resources available. I found wikis from 2017, a dead reddit, a slightly less dead discord. I couldn't understand (and still don't) how there was so little engagement for such a great product. And then, I checked the player counts.

24.

At the time of writing this and as I had played previously, there were only 23 other people in game. An all time peak of 502 players. I have no idea why this is, but the game apparently was never given a shot.

The game's amazing. I can't recommend it due to lack of players, but I have to recommend it due to lack of players if that even makes any sense. I was expecting a solid base of ~20,000 players and now I'm here experiencing a tragedy lol

hackmud - the best modern mud there will be in the next coming decades.

.

I am really excited about this game. I know (very)basic coding but this games seems to take itself seriously to educate players so even someone with 0 experience may be able to start if they can read and follow instructions. I've been only 2 hours into the game going through the new MarksSystem and I think it does a great job introducing players to programming and command line concepts. Really excited to see what else is in store and what developers planned for the future.

no mud

If you like the 80s/90s hacker vibe, this is one of the best implementations of that since Uplink IMO. Hackmud reminds me of exploring the teenaged Internet, piecing together an online forum's own lore and downloading random
projects created by its members. It's very obtuse, but if you're willing to dig, it's an experience unlike anything else in the "hacking" genre. The soundtrack is also fantastic.

:::TRUST COMMUNICATION::: Unauthorized access detected. Suspending environment...
I can't state enough just how much I enjoy this game. The puzzles, the programming, the community - it's all amazing. It's all a labor of love, a pursuit for education. Hackmud took what programming knowledge I had and expanded it heavily, spending my time designing systems from scratch to solve a puzzle set forth by either the developers or players.

Such a large part of the game is interacting with other players' content in a fully open multiplayer sandbox (with some surprisingly minimal restriction). Players have written entire games, you can play the ever so popular word guessing game or tempt fate by choosing one of three doors. Idle games between trying to figure out how to access some content gated behind one command or another. Players have written simulators for built-in content, big and small. Players have written genius scams, but also genius and genuine tools.

On top of this, even if you don't want to learn to program or don't know how to program, there's a place for you - so much content is just about the lore. The entire reason the simulated environment exists, the people behind it. The occasional event always needs someone who's willing to just sit down, read and learn.

The fact that the game is an MMO where the players make their own content means there's never a lack of things to do and if you think there is, you can make things to do. I don't think I've ever seen an MMO that has potential to survive without updates, but this right here... this is it.
:::TRUST COMMUNICATION::: Unauthorized connection killed. Security restored. Resuming environment.
xxxx 0000 gear :::what's up mud?:::

I thought I was going to play for an hour or two before getting bored and deciding to quit.
~10 hours in and I am craving more and more.

Edit: ~20 hours in and I will probably keep messing around with it. Though sadly the game is "dead". And by "dead" I mean you will rarely encounter another player in game to talk with, the discord community is active, but the game itself doesn't seem to get much traffic sadly, from my own observations.
The " [...] as you explore the abandoned internet of the future." part of the game's description is very apt. The 0000 channell is filled with various scams, automated scripts and what not from the earlier days of the game.

To sum it up; if the idea of exploring a (abandoned) sandbox MUD, filled with automated scrips, NPCs, and rarely a player or two, all while using a terminal interface and javascript scripts to do so appeals to you, then you might enjoy the game as I did/am/will.
If not, I don't think I could recommend the game.

fantastic game with a steep learning curve but mindbending puzzles that make it very much worth the effort

after doing the singleplayer i wanted to keep playing but you have to actually learn javascript to continue. which would be fine if i could learn it by playing more of the game. i would love that actually. still a fun campaign though.

10/10 would hack mud again

Late by one day to keep my users from retiring/being deleted..
Doesn't feel good. Guess I was done playing, anyway.

This game is sick, BUT if you hate typing/reading it Isnt for you. It forces you to think, and takes some initiative. Sometimes you'll find yourself searching for what to do online, how to crack puzzles, what tiers do what. ALSO i don't think this counts as a spoiler, for those who got stuck trying to escape the VLAN my hint is "one of each" otherwise it IS POSSIBLE to get softlocked in the VLAN. Community is cool, deceptive, exciting. Dig in and see how far you get.

xena.defender

Don't know why but this game is so good. Even got me into coding with Javascript because i didn't want to do manually t1 locks anymore. A bit frustrating when you want to test your script and use your.target and lose everything but still, very very fun!

The world has ended and humanity is gone. They left behind a network populated by Java Scripts operated by bots. One of those bots is the Trust, it "evolved" into some kind of super-sentient computer that regulates the Multi-User-Domain (MUD).
It is now populating the MUD with lesser sentient AI's (players) it develops in a virtual LAN system (tutorial) in order to explore, rebuild, maintain the MUD and seek, or perhaps hide, answers, if they wish.

Overall I really enjoy the atmosphere, the game is not difficult programming wise, most of the puzzles rely on logical guesses and can be solved manually and riddles can be googled. The higher difficulty scripts require some programming skills but progression is not entirely dependent on high difficulty, you can grind anything you want to in the way you enjoy doing it.

I might change this review when I'm more experienced but even now I feel like I made a good purchase and will enjoy exploring the MUD.

Don't trust anything...