We asked a cyber security expert to rate hacking gameplay

The concept of hacking gets bandied about a lot in games, even if it’s as simple as “press X to hack.” The pipe-swapping challenge in Bioshock and controller-vibrating word-scrambles in Batman: Arkham Knight provide a nice break in otherwise combat-heavy gameplay. Even a simple matching game can provide a nice change of pace.

While the hacking mechanics aren’t really meant to replicate the experience of actually hacking, we couldn’t help but wonder — do any of them get it right anyway?

We talked to Russell Brandom, cyber security expert and policy editor at The Verge, to learn the real-deal on hacking gameplay. From the circuit-board meddling in Mass Effect 2 to the automatic hacking app used by Miles Morales in Spider-man on PS4, we’ve got the details on which games manage to capture some of the hacking experience.