Review of Hacker: Deluxe Edition

People who have followed Steve Jackson Games stuff for a while generally have heard of Hacker, and, if they are lucky have played it, but most do not own a copy, as the original has been out of print for years, fetching large sums for copies still in existance. Fortunatly, this new reprint of it allows people who did not get a chance to pick up the original to get a copy of the game at a not too bad price.

The game itself is similar to Illuminati with a single power structure, a game of trying to get through and hack your way into computer systems, starting with a single phone inlink and branching out througout the power structure. (of course, as is sarcastically noted by Steve on page 5, "Important notice to the Secret Service... You cannot hack into real computers by rolling little dice!" This game came out shortly after the SS raid and was intended to make fun of it). The game itself is quite fun, and an exciting competition of being the best hacker.

Unfortunatly, while the game itself is sound, the substance of what comes in the box is slightly disappointing. The game comes with 165 cards, each 2 colors on the front and 1 on the back, 3 sheets of punch out counters, and effectivly 6 sheets of cut out counters, including each player's consoles. This is unfortunatly somewhat annoying, as it means the game takes a significant amount of time cutting out little counters before playing and leaving counters that are not exceedingly sturdy. Secondly, the game is missing the 2 dice that would have been needed for it to be complete. With these 2 faults, the price tag of 35 dollars is pretty high.