Douglas's game of the week: .hack//INFECTION

Sim Kid · #1

The .hack//SERIES seems to have been .hacking into some people's brains. Not ONLY are they making another anime (*Crosses Fingers*Less grunting, less grunting!), but they made a card game. The .hack//SIGN anime was pretty good, but that had suffered what I call "The Galidor Effect", which is that if you miss one episode, you don't know what's going on, and that most of it was either Dialogue or Tsukasa Grunting. I don't nessecarily mind high dialogue unless it's a game but what wasn't dialogue was Tsukasa grunting, which SEVERLEY .hacked into my mind and activated .hack//GET_PISSED off in my mind.

The .hack//SERIES for the PS2 come in four parts. The biggest problem with this is that you have to pay full-price for all four parts, and all four games are like 1/4 of the average RPG. I hate having to pay full price for ungodly short games, but they do come with DVDs, which more or less is probably the reason they're full price. Hell, I even saw .hack//OUTBREAK FOR 65 ****ING DOLLARS!!! Initiate .hack//RANT. Where did I see .hack//OUTBREAK being sold for so much? At a stupid Wal-Mart, which has the biggest selection of Sports-games and crap-games in the world, and the few good games they get they sell at criminal prices. Because they sold the Classic NES series games for $25, they haven't even gotten through one shipment. Ever wonder why? End .hack//RANT.

Okay, I've been ranting about how stupid Wal-Mart is and why I don't like Bandai's tactics with their .hack series. Initiate .hack//REVIEW.

The character models of .hack//INFECTION are very good, they're very creative and colourful, and BlackRose is, hands-down, the best character model in the .hack series. The monster models, however, aren't very impressive except a few bosses. The outside backgrounds look a bit on the bland side, but the dungeons are better, some even look like Alien dungeons, complete with squishy floors. The towns also look okay. Nothing special.

There are no random encounters in the .hack series, monsters keep appearing out of portals, which remain invisible unless you use a specific item, and battles happen in Real-time. You can use Magic and dodge attacks, but to use Magic, you have to open up a menu. The battle system isn't really annoying or anything, but with the god-awful camera controls, knowing the battles are good will be the one thing that'll keep the controller out of Bandai's mouths.

.hack has some impressive voicework, and Ban Dai even added a feature to play the japanese voice-overs in the game. Some of the sounds are okay, when you walk, it sure sounds like like what it would sound like when you're on that terrain. The battle music isn't bad, but it's not good either. Well, I got a bit bored of it after awhile. Plus, I wonder how Kite sounds so much like Musashi...

The biggest flaw of .hack is the Camera Control. There were LOTS of moments where I wanted to kick Ban Dai in the stomach because of this annoying Camera control. I can rant about the camera control for a long time, but I'll only say one word about it: Hellatious.(sp) The other controls are fine, when you talk to another player, a trade option comes up and some of them have some nice items you may want.

.hack//INFECTION doesn't really have any replay value, since it's part 1 of a 4 part (And expensive) series.

The high side of the .hack series is the Storyline. Imagine, if you will, deciding to spend time with a friend online playing an RPG. Your friend is pretty well-known in the online RPG world and has promised to show you the ropes. You meet up with him, learn the basics of the game, and then meet up with a terrifying monster that your friend swears is not supposed to be in the area that you’re exploring. What’s worse, the monster seems surrounded by some kind of computer graphics that make you think that you jacked into The Matrix. Heroically, your friend tells you to run away before you’re killed. The monster systematically destroys your friend and you finally do get the wits about you enough to run. Things get worse, however; the next day, you find out that your friend now lies in a real-life coma, so you are trying to find out why.

That more or less describes the beginning of the .hack series, then you meet several player characters who'll join you and sometimes give you keywords. Keywords open up worlds which you explore. It's fun to mix them up and see what happens, but do NOT do that until you're at a higher level, because I mixed up a few keywords and then I ripped to pieces in that world by the monsters.

Overall, .hack//INFECTION is the best game in the .hack series. All of the .hack games after this suffer from the hellatious camera controls (DAMN YOU BAN DAI!) and bland looking backgrounds. Unfortunatley, if you think the series gets better after this, then you are wrong-The series is at its best at this game, MUTATION isn't really any better, OUTBREAK introduced new levels of game-induced pain, and QUARANTINE was just above average. Still, the storyline is probably one of the best ever, but do we really have to pay full price for 1/4 of a game? You don't have to harm the plot if you can just make it all one big game and fix that godammed camera. 8.00/10

Pros:
-=Great storyline=-
-=BlackRose=-
-=Great concept=-
-=Lots of Potential=-
-=Some impressive voicework=-
-=Some good looking Dungeons=-

Cons:
-=That *Restrains self from typing a long list of profanities* camera control=-
-=Could be a bit longer=-
-=Some bland looking backgrounds=-
-=Sub-standard looking monsters=-
-=The battles are okay, but mix them with .hack's camera control and you've got a headache so bad it'll make a migraine look like nothing.=-
-=some "meh" music=-

End .hack//REVIEW.

Okay Carter, you may now initate .hack//INSULT DOUGLAS.

#2

I've heard nothing but good things about this game. Rattan told me a heap too! Nice review... *gives Douglas marshmallows*

superplyr10 · #3

Good review. Now I wanna try this game once I get a PS2.