Hardwar: The Future is Greedy (sometimes stylized as HardW[a]r) is a 1998 science fiction simulation computer game developed by The Software Refinery and published by Interplay and Gremlin Interactive.
The game is set in the city of Misplaced Optimism (”MisOp”), a human colony on Titan, Saturn’s largest moon. MisOp has been left to its own by Earth humans, and while a modicum of civility is still maintained in the city, MisOp is largely a center of lawlessness.
Traders ferry around narcotics and body parts, pirates kill traders with wild abandon, and while the police will go after these corsairs, a little ‘donation’ is all that it takes to get them off your tail. Add to the whole picture a brewing, informal war between two giant corporations, and you’ve got entropy in Titan.
The player is a freelance moth (think one- or two-seater space jet) pilot, who can either be a trader (buy low, sell high!), a pirate (does “arr matey!” still apply in the future?), a bounty-hunter (for good guys with a mean streak or mean guys with a good streak), or a scavenger (it’s not that demeaning…or is it?).
What’s enthralling about Hardwar is that these ‘careers’ aren’t fixed, and you can switch among them as the situation (or your whim) warrants. Of course, you’ll be tailoring your moth ship as time goes by according to the needs of your profession, so it’s also an investment risk when you switch jobs.
You might be thinking, Geez, 1998? Man, that’s old!, but the truth is that the game’s graphics holds up pretty well to today’s (2006) standards. And when speaking about gameplay, well, I can honestly say that Hardwar is unmatched by any other game, old or new. (Not to brag, but that’s coming from a gamer who’s played hundreds of titles and explored almost every genre.)
When I say “unmatched”, I’m not referring to the technical aspects of the game. I’m talking about pure gaming experience here. Hardwar is unmatched not because it is the greatest, the coolest, or [insert adjective here] game in sci-fi sim history, but because it is unique.
While Hardwar follows a set of missions that, when completed, ends the game (and the fun) for you, you have the option of not following the storyline and playing the Hardwar world in an open-ended manner. You can leave the missions hanging if you want to; heck, you can even ignore the first mission altogether and still greatly enjoy the game! That’s what I did the third or fourth time I installed Hardwar.
