13 out of 13(100%)reviewers recommend this product.
Product Reviews
Overall rating
4/ 5
Gameplay
4/ 5
Graphics
4/ 5
Sound
4/ 5
Femo
So you like RPG's...
PostedJune 13, 2008
The first time I played .Hack//Infection was in December 2004 and I was highly impressed. Huddled in a basement with a blanket and a PS2 slim, it was a great way to make the cold winter days pass by quickly. The storyline was mesmerizing, you start off playing as Kite who is playing an MMORPG, so the character you see moving around on the screen is actually your Kite's online sprite. (Confused? Just think of it like this, you are controlling a person who is playing Warcraft and the result is that your actions appear through his character on the computer screen.) You're playing with your friend Orca who falls into a deep coma in real life as a result of an event that happened in the game. Your purpose is to figure out how and why it happened and what caused it. The first thing you'll notice is that the scenery and the game play mimics that of an online rpg where players interact as though they would if they were real people ("Hi, what's your name? :)" is an example) almost exactly except for the fact that you're not online. There are "safe/city" zones in which you can interact with other players, buy/sell items, and group/regroup your team. Then there are "danger/dungeon" zones where you do the battling. Most of the story revolves around your actions within these danger zones, which brings me to the battling system: What is an RPG without battling? Anybody familiar with RPG's like EverQuest or newer Final Fantasy games like Crisis Core will be comfortable with this battling system right off the bat. RPG veterans generally have a difficult time adjusting to the real-time battle system because they are accustomed to the old turn-based system. Because of this, it plays much faster yet slightly more difficult as well. For example, when you are fighting a boss fight, the screen doesn't automatically group your members on one side of the screen and have the enemy on the other like in Final Fantasy VI-IX for example. You must run around the room/map until you have recuperated yourself and are able to attack again. You can also dodge attacks this way; a highly beneficial characteristic of this battle style. Although the battling may get repetitive, each major battle is crucial to the storyline. The graphics are standard early generation PS2 graphics. The cut scenes (which are few) are not accompanied by special effects and enhanced CGI like the Final Fantasy series. The graphics are very consistent throughout the game, maintaining that same feel and look between playing the game and watching the cut scenes. The music in RPG's have always been impressive scores that could have accompanied any great Hollywood film, but .Hack's score is relatively mediocre. Some songs stand out as gems that you'll have the fortune of hearing on several occasions but other are not as memorable or engaging. The voice overs are well done and the voice actors well picked. Each character has his or her own distinct manner of talking and tone of voice, mimicking yet again the diversity of players within a real MMORPG. Last but not least: replay value. This game has little replay value. For players like myself who enjoy doing side quests and acquiring rare items and leveling up, it's a great experience and well worth replaying because you can go back and customize your players differently with the different items you find. For those who do not, this game sadly holds little purpose in being replayed. Overall, .Hack//Infection is a great RPG experience. For any RPG fan, this is worth looking into. .Hack//Infection has my recommendation for fans who want to get a feel for MMORPG's or for those who want a more relaxed pace game as opposed to MMORPG's. It is definitely at least worth playing at least once.
