This review was written for Poopgang in 2005. The original screenshots were mostly lost, these new ones are from Neoseeker.
Format: Playstation 2
Developer: CyberConnect2
Publisher: Atari
Release: 26th March 2004
.hack//infection, .hack//mutation, .hack//outbreak, .hack//quarantine. A series of four “online”, yet most definitely offline, role playing games where you play a character that plays an online game. Sound confusing? To start with, it is, but once you get your head around the concept and accept it, you find yourself drawn in. To start with I’ll explain the background of the story.
In the year 2007 a deadly virus named “Pluto’s Kiss” is released upon the planet. The Internet comes crashing to a halt and millions die as computer systems malfunction. Only one Operating System survives the virus, and is quickly taken on as the worldwide standard, that OS is Altmit. The best selling game from this company is “The World”, a Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game boasting over twenty million players.
You control Kite, a naïve young man invited by his friend Yasuhiko to play The World with him. Yasuhiko, a legendary, veteran player known online as Orca, leads his friend through a low level area as a way of familiarizing you with the controls, the various aspects of the real time combat system and world navigation.
Not long into the tutorial, the game bleeds into “reality”. A system error occurs, summoning an anomaly in the form of an incredibly powerful enemy, known as “Skieth”, in an incredibly low level area. The creature attacks Orca with a strange beam, wiping his character out immediately. Kite, not knowing what to do, logs out from The World, only to find out that his friend Yasuhiko has fallen into a deep, unexplainable coma. Was it a freak accident, a coincidence? Or did the monster they encountered in the game have something to do with his friend’s illness? This quandary begins your quest to unravel the mystery of “The World” and save your friend.
At its core, .hack is an Action RPG which takes place within the previously mentioned simulated MMORPG environment. It’s simulated; that means that no online connection is required. Players will do as much communicating via message boards and e-mail as they will levelling their party and exploring new areas and dungeons. Non-player characters may react a bit differently than they might in an actual MMORPG, but the message board and e-mail interaction certainly lend some credibility in that respect.
The battle system is pretty straightforward with a considerable amount of hacking and slashing, balanced by some magic, skills, and item usage. Encounters are triggered by locating magic portals, which spawn monsters and an occasional treasure chest. Depending on the location, spawned monsters will have certain elemental traits, which are important to note when using magic. For example, using an opposite element can do extra damage while using a like element can cause less damage than usual. As players progress through the game and open new areas (more on this in a minute), the monsters do become more challenging to defeat.
Opening exploration areas is done via a series of keywords. Three different keywords can combine to open new areas to plunder. These keywords can be obtained via reading message boards, checking e-mails, and talking to NPC’s in the various hub towns. While it is possible to randomly combine keywords, it’s generally not advisable as some areas may have monsters that are far too strong for players to handle without being sufficiently powered up. Each keyword helps to set the stage for the new area’s look, weather, dungeon difficulty, and defining element (i.e. fire, water, wood, etc.).
The best way to succeed when exploring new areas and plundering dungeons, as with any MMORPG, can be had by forming a party of characters, rather than going solo. As with uncovering keywords, finding companions is also a matter of communication. Some characters will meet you in towns. Others will e-mail you. Once players make initial contacts with potential party members and they agree to join up with a party, it becomes important to maintain communication with them and to provide them with equipment and potential item trades in order to keep the relationship strong. Especially early on, when players are still relatively weak, having companions to fight alongside you could be the difference between life and death.
Visually, .hack both hits and misses. The character designs are fantastic—they’re colourful and detailed. Dungeon locales pretty interesting, too, with certain motifs like cathedrals or even the inside of a creature. The towns look pretty nice, too, as they’re bustling with character activity and loaded with shops. The inherent problem with .hack is the generic feel of some of the randomly generated lands. There’s considerable blurring of objects and textures on the horizon, and there’s a fair amount of repetitiveness. Again, since they’re not scripted, it’s not necessarily an overly negative criticism, but it’s a criticism nonetheless.
.hack’s front end is also well-done, with the ability to change your “desktop” wallpaper later on when more options are uncovered. One issue that may annoy some players is the camera. The camera requires constant manual adjustment during play, and in the heat of battle, it’s easily possible to lose sight of an enemy (or enemies) since there is no automatic camera adjustment. Once players adjust to this issue, it may become less of a problem, but it’s still worth mentioning here.
In the sound department, .hack boasts some better than average voice-over work that is full of character and combines it with some generally decent and memorable music. It’s certainly good to see that voice-over quality is improving, as with .hack, so that players can better identify with the characters involved in the game. For anime purists, Bandai has opted to keep the Japanese voice-over track intact, which is certainly a nice, authentic bonus. The music is consistently good, with a few choral-sounding arrangements mixed in with other, more diverse, types of music. The .hack soundtrack won’t necessarily fly off of shop shelves, like for example the Final Fantasy soundtracks, but it holds its own.
Although the main storyline of the first chapter of .hack ends pretty quickly (20-25 hours), it is possible for players to continue exploring and levelling up characters before playing the next chapter of the .hack series. Player data, including several items that are unusable in this game, can be stored on a memory card so that when you see fit to start the next chapter, the story can resume with the stored information.
.hack//infection is a good start for the .hack series, although there are a few problems that keep the game from becoming an instant classic. NPC reaction isn’t all that diverse, as it would be in a real MMORPG. The visuals, aside from the character designs, aren’t all that impressive. The game really isn’t all that long, and simply levelling up without extending the story doesn’t have any immediate reward. Still, despite these flaws, the .hack series is a good choice for RPG fans looking for a different experience than the usual turn-based fare.
On its own, .hack//infection may not score as highly as it could, but when teamed with the other three episodes of the series, it may be looked upon as a great starting point. .hack//mutation and .hack//outbreak seem like the fatty middle of the series, not delivering any conclusions or offering anything vastly advanced from the first volume, as well as the fact that taken individually you would feel like you’d walked into a cinema halfway through a film. .hack//quarantine also suffers from this, but would anyone really play the last of a four part series first?
Overall, taking the four games as one, I feel it has been slightly milked by Bandai, they could have easily fit the entire series on 2 discs as opposed to 4, and probably added a lot more to it. The total cost of the series is another hurdle to overcome, 4 PS2 games don’t come cheap! Scout around your local Pre-Owned bin, or check out the sales that many online retailers are currently running, you may pick up a bargain. But as it stands, .hack is an incredibly accomplished series, and is highly recommended to any RPG fan that yearns for something a bit different. [9]
Personally, I still think a proper online version of this game would be excellent.
