Cyber Manhunt 2: New World is the sequel to the popular Cyber Manhunt game from Aluba Studio, an indie game developer based in Qingdao, Shandong Province, China. Currently in Early Access on Steam, this cybercrime adventure is a must-play if you love solving mysteries and puzzles.

This hacking narrative adventure story begins when you, a decommissioned AI investigator for Titan, a major tech corporation, are reawakened to be reevaluated before being reactivated. Your test is to solve a digital crime by hacking emails, social media accounts, and other digital means using Titan’s database and software. But before your trial case, you must answer a few questions to ascertain what your thought processes are toward humans.

The first case, the tutorial, leads to connected cases and you will solve them in sequence. As an assistant investigator at Titan, you peak into the dark side of the corporate and digital world—corruption, intimidation, social media bullying, public opinion manipulation, misuse of AI technology, and more.

Gameplay

Cyber Manhunt 2: New World focuses solely on gameplay—you being an investigator and solving crimes with all the tools you need, which are right there on your computer screen. Each case and its witnesses are unique. Some are motivated by greed or jealousy and some are driven by driven by the need for justice. And just when you think you’ve solved the case, someone else’s motives make you question everything.

The tools you use for investigations are some of my favorite easter eggs in the game.  You will come across many familiar names as you “Gogo” someone’s name. Gogo is the game’s iteration of the Google search engine, just as Toothbook is akin to Facebook and Hitalk is Weixin or WeChat. ReadIt is Reddit and twodrive is Microsoft OneDrive. Though the names are obvious, it was still fun to look at.

Each chapter brings a new case that is loosely related to the previous case. Build a client or suspect profile by collecting information about them from their social media accounts and from their interactions with others and input the details into the SQL database. Sift through, what may look like mundane conversations, to find clues. Because the most minute details could be a major clue to help solve the case.

Though it’s nothing out of this world, the game’s art looks amazing, especially when compared to its predecessor. The real charm of Cyber Manhunt 2 is the intricacies of solving the case including the mini-games and puzzles. You can even generate phishing schemes to grab information from your target via voice manipulation, text scams, and more.

There’s a lot of witty banter in the conversations, especially on the ReadIt forums. The developers at Aluba Studio showed how cruel and fickle people can be when engaging with others online. They displayed the difference in behavior of people’s use and interactions with specific social media platforms, especially when they have the illusion of anonymity online.

All in all, Cyber Manhunt 2: New World was fun and intriguing, and at times challenging (but we liked it) because sometimes the smallest detail is vital to your investigation, and missing it means you have to go back through all the evidence to find that one, small detail. Because the game is in early access, there are only three cases to solve, but there will be many more in the future and I can’t wait.

Get Cyber Manhunt 2: New World on Steam and check back for guides to complete the cases.

We thank Aluba Studio for providing GNL Magazine with a copy of this game for review. Our opinion is our own, based on our gameplay experience.