Have you ever wanted to be a hacker? Well, there are video games that attempt to give you the “overall experience” of being one, without committing crimes and felonies to pull off such acts. Blackdoor is one such simulation title, and the team at Static Signal has updated things so that you can test yourself even more. Here are the details on the game and its update:

“You’re a hacker with a terminal, four terrible scripts, and an anonymous contact who needs files from places they really shouldn’t be. The scripts were free, and you can tell. Your port scanner checks all 65,535 ports, which is thorough and also going to take longer than you have patience for. Your password cracker just brute-forces everything and wakes up the intrusion detection system doing it. Both will technically get the job done, the way a spoon will technically dig a tunnel.

So you rewrite them, and the new probe only checks common ports and finishes in seconds, while the new cracker skips guessing entirely and reads the admin’s own password hints straight off the filesystem. Nobody told you to fix these – you just got tired of using tools this bad. That’s Blackdoor – you write the code, the code hacks the servers, and better code hacks them faster, quieter, and before the trace catches up. Not a hacking-themed clicker. An actual terminal.

Every server you break into in Blackdoor is alive now. Get sloppy while you’re still connected and the system doesn’t wait until you log off to notice anymore, it reacts in real time: rotating the account you just cracked, killing the port you got in through. Plant a script before you disconnect and it keeps working without you, ready to react the next time you’re back in-game and something it’s watching for actually happens. The people running these systems remember you too, push them too hard and they get harder to crack, or hand you off to someone worse. This is the update where hacking stops being a puzzle that holds still and starts pushing back.”

If you want even more details on the game, here are the key features:

• Write real code: A custom scripting language designed for hacking, not buttons or minigames. Your code runs line by line, and you see exactly why it’s slow.
• Hack servers: Probe ports, crack passwords, explore filesystems, escalate privileges, steal data. Every server has its own users, files, and weak points to find.
• Race the trace: Every connection starts a countdown that speeds up the more noise you make, and getting traced ends it right there.
• A real terminal: Tab completion, command history, a code editor – no theming, no skin over a menu, this is the actual interface.
• Upgrade your rig: Faster hardware means faster scripts, better tools unlock new capabilities, or just save your money and write better code instead.
• Story campaign: An anonymous contact, escalating jobs, a corporate conspiracy, and a secret that might be worth more than the pay.
• IRC: Hackers chat, argue, and accidentally teach you things while you work, and side jobs and tips both get shared along the way.
• Your approach: No fixed solution – write surgical tools or blunt instruments, find passwords in config files or brute-force them, and if you find a shortcut nobody else did, that’s the point.

If you’re game to hack it, pun intended, with technology, get the game now on Steam.