The player amasses money, software, gateway hardware and skill in the course of performing jobs for various clients, and hacking servers of global corporations for profit.

During the missions Andromeda contracts a hacker to steal files from "The Darwin Project," digital lifeforms that exist and reproduce on the internet.

The government is also helping fund Arunmor's Faith project, and is closely monitoring ARC, though they lack concrete evidence to warrant raiding the site or arresting any employees.

If the player has supported Arunmor, they are tasked with running a counter-operation, hacking into infected systems and using Faith to restore them before they are destroyed.

Revelation is wiped out completely, and the damning evidence against Andromeda leads to a federal raid and the subsequent arrest of suspected staff members in the company, along with a number of Uplink agents.

The leader of Andromeda then issues a statement, making no apologies for releasing Revelation; he argues that the internet has become a mere extension of Western capitalism to serve the interest of elites, rather than the bastion of free speech and anonymity it once was.

If the player is successful, the virus claims their own Uplink gateway, ending the game immediately and implying Andromeda have succeeded in their goal.

If the player fails to cause enough infections within fifteen minutes, federal agents seize their equipment and arrest them, dooming the Revelation project to a premature end.

Uplink focuses on emulating highly stylized, Hollywood-esque hacking, as seen in movies such as Hackers, Sneakers, WarGames and Swordfish.

Chris Delay stated in an interview with PC Gamer UK that they did not pay for advertising of the game at all — it became known purely by word of mouth.

Legal proceedings were undertaken when Strategy First filed for bankruptcy and ceased paying Introversion royalties, but the Hacker Elite version remains available from various sources.