HACKING

Players bypass or take control of electronic systems — cameras, turrets, doors, terminals — through a dedicated minigame or ability, opening alternate routes and tactical options.

• SOLO-DEV COST HIGH
• TIMING REAL-TIME / TURN
• COMMON IN STEALTH · ACTION · IMMERSIVE-SIM

Watch Dogs 2's environmental hacking (turning enemy cameras into weapons) and Deus Ex: Human Revolution's node-based hacking minigame both use hacking to reward a distinct, non-combat playstyle. Designers use hacking systems to diversify approach options (a hacker build solves problems differently than a gunslinger), to make the environment itself interactive and exploitable, and to add a puzzle-like minigame that breaks up combat pacing. Key decisions: minigame depth (a full puzzle layer versus a quick timing challenge), risk of failure (alarms, damage, cooldowns), skill-tree gating of what can be hacked, and whether hacking is diegetic (in-fiction terminals) or abstracted. Pitfall: a hacking minigame that's either trivially easy (a formality) or so complex it interrupts flow constantly — the minigame's depth should scale with how central hacking is to the overall build.

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