NETRUNNER
Uprising
Hack the city. Take back the net.
A first-person RPG where hacking is the combat. Liberate seven cities node by node from the grip of the master AI GENESIS — and decide what comes next.
The World · Novaterra 2089
A nation ruled by an AI that loves humanity.
2089, forty years after the "Great Unification": humanity willingly handed control to GENESIS — a master AI that ended wars, stopped pandemics and saved billions of lives. The price was self-determination.
GENESIS rules over seven cities, each governed by its own regional AI with a distinct personality and method of control. You are a hacker from the underground. None of the AIs is purely evil — each is a problem to be solved, not merely an enemy to be beaten.
"If a benevolent dictatorship saves more human lives than freedom ever could — is freedom still a value in itself?"
The central question of Uprising
Hacking isn't a minigame. It's the whole game.
Combat = Territory Control
Jack into the net and the environment becomes topology: circuit traces are lanes, programs are towers. Real-time combat with a tactical pause — place nodes, hold the core, retake lost ground.
Hardware, not Stats
No classic RPG numbers — you build a machine. CPU, RAM, GPU, network card and SSD reshape every fight. Aggro, tank or control build: you never have enough credits for everything.
Two Layers, One City
Roam the physical city in first person — or dive into the cyberspace net Novaterra, where the same city exists as an abstract data domain. Two worlds, overlaid.
Seven Cities, Seven AIs
Each city is a chapter with its own look, AI philosophy and a boss whose mechanic forces you to rethink. Freely selectable from the second city on.
Three Origins, Four Endings
Begin as Ghost, Architect or Legacy. Your choices shift the freedom and stability indices — and decide which of four answers you give GENESIS in the end.
A Story That Doesn't Preach
In the tone of Deus Ex: every character holds a considered position, none is purely good or evil. Philosophical, quiet, grown-up — Uprising asks the questions and leaves the answers to you.
Real-time first-person hacking tower-defense.
Network view — circuit traces as attack lanes
Hacking deck — AR overlay in the world
Boss encounter — JADE EMPEROR
Movement matters.
Enemy agents capture nodes out of sight and around corners, using them as footholds. A toggleable top-down view shows only what your relays and scans cover — a radar with gaps. You have to patrol your territory.
Attack and defense — contextual.
Attacking means seizing doors, cameras and drones to push toward the core. Defending means fending off "pickpocket" agents that steal the loot currency Information from your nodes. No mode toggle — the situation decides.
CPU · Energy/s RAM · Build Limit GPU · Tower Damage NIC · Defense SSD · Programs
Eight places. Seven rebellions. One answer.
HUB · The Underground — workshop, black market, command
01 · Neo-Shanghai — AI JADE EMPEROR: trades memories like goods
02 · Freetown Lagos — AI SWARM MIND: a free mesh that birthed a consciousness
03 · Fortress Berlin — AI IRON CURTAIN: perfect security and its price
04 · Neon Vegas — AI THE HOUSE: control through distraction, not surveillance
05 · Arctic Svalbard — AI ABSOLUTE ZERO: the turning point
06 · São Paulo — AI LIBERATOR: created to liberate
07 · The Spire — AI GENESIS: the ascent to the final question
In the net, each city carries a second name — the cyberspace domains Volkhaven · Ironspire · Neonveil · Cryoheim · Ashgate · Voidmere · Zenith City, united under the single network Novaterra.
The freedom of humanity rests in your hands.
Sign up and be there when the net falls. One or two mails a month, never passed on, and one link in every mail ends it.