Hacknet Official Soundtrack Review

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• Reviewed by: Mark Goninon
• Name: Hacknet Official Soundtrack Review
• Label: Boss Battle Records
• Composer(s): Various
• Number of Tracks: 14

Last week, I posted a review of the official soundtrack for Hacknet Labyrinths which is the expansion to the game Hacknet.

This week, I finally get around to reviewing the soundtrack for the base game. Again, you've got some pretty sweet electronic music and I was so impressed that I just had to get myself a copy of the soundtrack (which I purchased off Steam).

When you purchase the Hacknet soundtrack off Steam, a soundtrack folder pops up with 14 MP3s at 320kbps along with an album artwork PNG file; along with this soundtrack folder, another folder pops up containing FLAC versions of the tracks too.

The album contains all the music you'll hear while playing Hacknet, with tracks such as "Revole (R Mix)" by Cinematrik playing when you start off as a n00b script kiddie, right up to listening to "Broken Boy" by Tonspender when you're remotely euthanising someone via pacemaker.

Just as it was with the Hacknet Labyrinths soundtrack, there's hardly any filler here except for the short audio sample "You Got Mail" which, as the name implies, is the sound effect that plays when you receive emails in-game. Particularly good, high adrenaline tracks include Rémi Gallego's "Malware Injection" thanks to its classical feel, compliments of a synth orchestra and choir, Cinematrik's "The Quickening" which has a big beat, "Matrix" lobby scene vibe (aka Spybreak! by the Propellerheads), Sean Gillespie's "Tetrameth" which has a dance-punk, Presets feel and the badass "Roller Mobster" by Carpenter Brut which sounds like something by Justice. The more subdued tracks in this album are great too including "Roja Drifts By (Timo Jahns String Remix) by Rico Puestel which sounds like Fatboy Slim with a dose of Gregorian Chant, "Revolve (R Mix)" by Cinematrik, which contains lovely piano samples and I also love the syncopated rhythms of "Phase of the Moon" by Ryan Burge.

My favourite track overall though has to be "Outrun the Wolves" by feeding | ear who just so happens to be an artist from Perth, Western Australia. It's just such a cool track with a great beat which makes it the perfect music to program to: you could just imagine the 1s and 0s cascading down the screen to the beat of the music (actually, you don't even need to imagine that while you're playing Hacknet - I'm pretty sure that actually happens). I also love the track title's self-awareness of its genre, i.e. "outrun" is another name for synthwave 😊.

Score – 8/10

An exceptional soundtrack for an exceptional game, it's also not a bad album to listen to on its own. If you're into synthwave, French House, VGM, Big Beat, electro-pop or dance-punk, this album has got you covered.

If you're interested in purchasing the soundtrack, it's available for $7 on Bandcamp. It's also available on Steam for $10 USD and GOG for $10 AUD.