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 .hack//, September 21, 2004
Reviewer: Dyrou (Philedelphia, PA) - See all my reviews
It's only a game...a game about playing a massively multiplayer online role-playing game...
Plot
You play as a player who is just introducing himself to a MMPORPG called "The World." Your friend, a veteran player and your mentor of the game, mysteriously falls into a coma after his game character is killed...and the reason behind his incapacitation lies within the game, which is mysteriously ridden with viruses. You must infilitrate the dungeons and rid of the parasitic evil, in hopes of finding a cure for the plight of your friend.
Graphics
There are many different kinds of fields and dungeons, including grasslands, snowfields, deserts, dry sea basins, etc., and you'll infilitrate ruins, castles, palaces, even dragons' bodies.
In viral infected levels, the screen flickers, and programming code floats about through the area.
Sound
The music is very trance-like, white-noise if you will, but not necessarily purely ambient; it is constant, but not monotonous...
Definitely a plus on the part of the developer, you are offered the choice of English or Japanese voice-overs with English subtitles...the English voice-overs can definitely be embarrassing to listen to at times.
Gameplay
You check e-mail and read message board posts for objectives, which are updated with each mission.
The game is very open-ended; in manner, you can "create" your own dungeons by inputting keywords at portals, which specify the strength of the enemies, and the value of treasures within the dungeon. Naturally, greater rewards mean greater risks. E-mails and message board posts will tell you different keyword combinations for dungeons related to side quests and advancing the story, but if you want to level build like crazy too, you can input intense keyword combinations for dungeons with insanely powerful enemies and valuable treasure.
Gathering allies and communicating with them is effectively reminiscent of real MMPORPGs, you have to meet them, and they gives you the means to contact them so that you can add or remove them from your party whenever you like; of course, allies aren't always available, and that is a strategic limiter. You can also give and trade items to and with your allies.
Battles are rather reminiscent of Star Ocean 2 and other action RPGs; just press the "X" button near an enemy to attack, or call up menus to use your skills or magic spells. You can also call up menus for your allies to use specific skills or spells, or you can specify certain general strategies that the AI can act upon.
Overall
If you want a game that effectively emulates a MMPORPG without actually being one, .Hack is your piece of cake. All of the nuances are there, including characters who make irrelevant comments about the state of the real world, or other things that do not relate to the game at all. Characters even use emoticons and online speak in their text boxes :D LoL.
.hack//Liminality, September 19, 2004
Reviewer: Matthew Kensing "star_wars_ruler" (Yavin IV) - See all my reviews
NOTE: I have never played this game, this review is for the free DVD that comes packadged in it. Vol 1 of the .Hack//Liminality mini series. I would put the review in the DVD section but it was never available to buy alone. .hack//Liminality (called .hack//L throughout the rest of this review) is better then .hack//sign and FAR better then .hack//Legend of the Twilight Bracelet (the 2 other .hack anime) For those of you wanting to know Vol. 1 is 45 minutes long and has a .hack//Sign look NOT a .hack//legend look. The main difference between it and its counterparts is it takes place out of The World. I is the bi polar of .Hack//Sign which is about someone who is stuck in the game and in a coma on the outside trying to break out from the inside. This is instead about someone getting stuck in The World but it actually follows his girlfriend outside trying to find out whats going on. (confused yet? no? Your smarter then I thought!) anyway, his girlfriend Mai in Vol 1. is confronted by a strange middle aged man who you find out is the ex. president of the C.C. Corporation (guys who designed The World) anyway, He is attempting to find out how everyone is going in a coma, he comes across Mai who is unique cause she is the only person ever to wake up from it. In other words this is the opener for the series. But this is !NOT! a cheesy give-a-way spinoff mini series like youd expect, it has fantastic music, much better then .hack//Signs. (id mention .hack//Legend of the Twilight Bracelet, but its music sucked to begin with) anyway. Its also got beautifull animation, great dubbing, extras, and a suberb story, like i said it is the bipolar of sign. If you liked .hack//sign buy it. If you liked .hack//legend of thw twilight bracelett.. um you'll think this is the best thing since the wheel by comparison.
 Some things are too short--here's an example, September 17, 2004
Reviewer: E - See all my reviews
I got .HACK//INFECTION for my birthday. I was so excited. However, after playing and finishing the game, I must admit I was kinda disapointed.
Everyone says how long, and complicated the storyline is. There are four different games, each continueing from where the previous one leaves off, but...no. Okay? No.
First of all, I completed the game and all it's sidequests in less than 25 hours, and I bought .hack full price of a normal new game, where it only contains a quarter of a real game. Yep, i got cheated.
And secondly, all the game is is sidequests. Really all you do is little missions that could have absolutely NOTHING to do with the storyline progression! Well, i guess its to get you into the whole virtual World vibe, but still.
But I still had fun with the game. For the (short) time it took for me to finish playing this, I had my fun. Like i said, you mainly to side-missions miles off the storyline direction, but it was still pretty cool.
If you want my opinion, you should buy this series of games, but wait a year or so until the price goes down, then get it. Each of the 4 games is so short that they could fit in all 4 volumes into one game--you wouldnt be wasting 50$ each for 1/4 a normal game. (as u probably noticed, the game length is my biggest beef) but its true! someone should protest to Bandai for that.
It was still a good game though, but never as good as the Chrono, Star Ocean, or Final Fantasy series. |
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