.hack Part 1: Infection

I hadn't played a console RPG in its entirety since Xenogears. For those keeping score thats about 4 yrs. Unfortunately, I also haven't been able to kick that nasty EQ habit. Its because of games like Everquest and Dark Age of Camelot that i don't really get into the console rpg's anymore either. Ever since the big MMORPG boom why bother playing a single player rpg when you can interact with other real people! Yea ok whatever, even the greatest pimps can be a little nerd at heart.

Moving along, i hear about this cool little anime based RPG thats supposed to come in 4 volumes. But what really interests me is the premise around it. Now please remember this is a SINGLE player RPG, 1P, uno, for the retarded that means less than 2. Ok with that being said, you play a kid who plays an online RPG called The World. Things are not what they seem and your char's buddy, who is one of the uber kewl dudes in the game, finds out something is definitely not right in The World.

Just as he is showin your n00b ass the ropes, some nasty monster thing comes and owns him up so bad puts his ass in a coma. So now you get stuck with some book (which really has nothing to do with this game but is supposed to come into play in the later volumes) and some nifty bracelet that is invisible *shrug*

This is where i found the game most interesting. You interact outside of The World as well. You check message boards for new posts as the game goes along, you get email from ppl (including some of the hoes you meet in the actual game. w00t w00t l33t internet playas), you even get news updates from the real world. It kinda gives you an idea of what an online game is, cuz i spend too much amounts of time trolling EQ message boards... I also like the fact you could find different stages to access by coming up with different keywords. You come up with different keywords and they take you not only to stages that progress you thru the game but also to find creatures that might possibly have better weapons and armor. You also meet up with other ppl in the game and can recruit them for groups if they are "online". You just make a quickie The World call and they'll join up with ya. Although other than parts where you have to take someone with you i pretty much found it easiest to use the same 2 ppl in your group. In other words no point in lvling up other ppl if you don't use em.

The game plays alot like Phantasy Star Online. Good and bad, i liked the way PSO plays but the camera control was frustrating. Lots of GameFAQs nerds bitched about .hack's camera control but honestly i don't see how they could've done it better. You can zoom in/out and rotate left/right, only thing missing was a 180 degree flip button or something to that effect. Fighting is all realtime, which is cool except one thing. Here is my biggest irk in this game, why the fuck do i have to tell my groupmates what the fuck to do in every single fucking battle. I mean if you don't tell the casters to cast spells they sit around and do nothing. You have to tell them to heal, whether if its with spells or use items. And worst of all the menu just plain is ass cuz you can't move items you use all the time to the top so you don't have to scroll so damn much. But you get used to it after a while, so for that being the worst part of the game its not so bad. They also have a skill that only your char can use called the Data Drain. Its basically a glorified "steal" tactic from FF games. You can use it and it turns the enemies into a weaker enemy. You lose out on exp this way but you can "drain" rare items off some enemies (or junk items to sell). You can also trade items with npc's that run around towns, hell you can raise a donkey/pig too (when fully grown they reward you with a rare item depending on what of the 3 kind you raise.)

The story is kinda cool, while not exactly the greatest, it beats the typical save the princess/world/my dog fare. Basically what happens is something is hacking "The World". You are also actually a hacker when you get this nifty invisible bracelet that lets you hack into areas of The World that you normally aren't allowed to go to. Oh yea you never get to see this nifty little wrist adornment either. So anyway, your friend gets knocked into a coma in real life by this monster and it has been thrust upon your n00b ass to figure out what the fuck happened to your friend and other ppl around the world. Which coincides with all the strange things happening in the game.

Its obvious this game was made for 4 parts. Unlike Shen Mue on DC looks like they'll all actually come out. Sad thing if the others are any indication of this one, you've got about a 100 to 120 hour game spanning all 4 volumes. Unless you spend abnormal unnecessary amounts of time lvling in this game it shouldn't take you more than 25 30 hours tops to finish it. Honestly unless you absolutely plan on buying all 4 volumes to have em all, i wouldn't just rent this bitch and keep the save file for the next volume to come out.

[tB]FuckAss



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