Interesting Idea
If you someone who enjoys online games but doesn’t exactly want to be called a “n00b” then, in theory, .hack is for you. The game takes the premise of an MMORPG and bundles it into an offline package. You can still trade, you can still fight enemies in countless dungeons, all of it, just offline. Also being based off of the anime series of the same name, it isn’t your average type of game.
The basic premise of .hack (or dot hack, whichever you prefer) is you playing as a character named kite, whom actually is a character in a game. He is a character in a game called “The World” and .hack does good to emphasize that this is indeed a virtual adventure. The main focal point is actually the desktop of your computer, where you can play “The World”, view recent emails, or obtain some news about the outside world. The World even has its own fake forum boards where characters will post about specific places, events, and people.
Kite, a “newb” is starting the game along side his friend Orca, who appears to have made a name for himself in this online venture, decides to take him into a beginner level dungeon to show him the ropes. Once inside you see a small girl dart by being chased by what appears to be way too strong a monster for this level. Upon reaching the bottom the monster attacks your friend Orca, killing his character in the game and putting him into a coma in the real world. The monster runs and the little girl gives a book, which then (for reasons I can’t fully explain) turns into a bracelet. This is what makes Kite different than all the rest. With his bracelet he can do 2 things no one else can: Hack into protected areas usually containing hints about the virus sending people into coma’s, or data drain a monster, which essentially rewrites their data and turns them into a random item or something along those lines. This helps you to defeat seemingly invincible “data bugs” which are enemies affected by the virus. On your quest you will be joined by many partners, which will fight along side you in a party of three. There is actually a quite extensive system of telling your partners what to do using a menu screen, where you can set your character to do as specific a task as stand back and use a specific move on you to heal once you are hurt, amongst several other things. You can always follow the plot of the game, or just use random keywords to create a random dungeon for a bit of training or exploration.
The controls are very simply set up and don’t require much fancy work to learn how to use. More often then not the only problem will be with the camera. Its fine when in open areas, and using the right thumbstick seems a fine way to go about it, but sometimes in crowded areas the camera can be a bit of a hassle to work with. X attacks, square is used to issue party commands, and triangle is used for your menu screen. The attacking is very basic, almost sickeningly basic, and often times you will just stand in one spot and click X while waiting for the enemy’s health to slowly go down. This really can get boring, fast. The movement is pretty much just using the left thumbstick, or if you really must you can use the D pad, but that is just inconvenient and stupid basically.
Sound could be a big factor, with randomly created dungeons you don’t want to get bored of the same old stuff over and over again. Only problem is, after a while you probably will, as its nothing fantastic and much of the music sounds the same. The voice acting, surprisingly, is done quite well and gives you a feel as if there is another person controlling the partners you meet up with. The boss’ background songs are typically the most exciting, and often are heavy in bass filled percussion, but some other songs are catchy enough to keep you going at times. Most times, you won’t even notice the sound however; it’s just not that vibrant or unique, much like the graphics aren’t.
As stated, the graphics are very run of the mill. Nothing too fancy, you see some repeated textures and blurry textures at times, and most areas will look pretty similar. None of the colors are too vibrant, and it leaves a very sort of hazy feel to most of the game. The framerate is good, not too much slowdown, and the characters are done nicely. Mostly, the gripe is the stale backgrounds.
Replay ability is not fantastic in this game, seeing as how its only 15 hours long. They do add a secret dungeon, but that really isn’t all that long and odds are if you are going to play this game again, you’ll just go out and buy the next in the series.
This leads me to another of my gripes, the 4 game series. While many of you may not mind this, spending $200 on 4 games that overall only total to 60 hours of gameplay seems a bit steep. Seeing as how almost none of the plot questions are answered within the first game, anyone who wants to get the entirety of the plot will have to go out and buy a copy of the next game. I understand that its one way to make money, but it just seems a little unfair is all.
All in all, the game is decent, worthwhile for many RPG fans and fans of the series, but most of you could do with a rental. Odds are, however, you’ll just end up leaving this game to its lonesome.
