This week I thought I’d review one of my old favorites for Plenty for Twenty, .hack//INFECTION. Not the new .hack//GU, the game that predates all of them. The first installment in the .hack// (dot hack for those playing at home), .hack//INFECTION starts off the video game franchise.

Set after the events of the .hack//SIGN anime series, .hack//INFECTION starts off with a player taking the role of Kite. He meets with his friend Orca, whose real name is Yasuhiko, in an MMORPG called The World. Orca is rather famous in The World, known for being a strong and skilled player and helping starting players get on their feet. However, what starts out as a tutorial on the games mechanics takes a turn for the worse. I won’t go into the story any further, that’s why they made the game in the first place, right?

This is your typical RPG with a catch, you bounce in and out of the game. That is, this a game inside the game. This is because you have to do things like read forum posts, check your email, and catch up on the news. The emails you recieve, forum posts, and even The World itself are all self-contained within the .hack// disk, so essentially it’s like getting two games in one.

You play as the player of The World. So you end up logging into the MMO as well as doing the mundane tasks mentioned before, which become less and less ordinary and start bordering on research worthy of the X-Files.

Instead of villages, you have ‘Root Towns’, which are the towns one each server where you start off when you log in. You can interact with any of the characters in these towns as well as trade with them for upgraded items. Store clerks act as they do in any game, buying and selling items as well as saving game progress and storing items that you may not want to carry.

After reaching the second server you may raise a Grunty, which kind of resembles a pig/cow hybrid. These are useful for riding as well as trading with’somehow they manage to keep items on them though they’re naked. Don’t look at me, I just review the games. At any rate, everything you need from a town can be found in these root towns.

From the root town you can travel to different fields using the Chaos Gates, large portals found in each town. These fields are determined by putting together three keywords. The keywords determine the dungeon type, element of the field (fire, earth, wood, etc.), level, and the like. You will receive a few combinations of keywords via the forums, email, and NPCs throughout the game as well as being able to find ‘hidden’ fields by catching the keyword combinations from the .hack// animes, mangas, and special .hack//LUMINALITY DVDs that come with each of the four games in the series.

Combat is a bit different from most RPGs. The battle system for .hack// is free-run, that means it isn’t turn based. Players and enemy alike may dish out damage as often as they can in what seems like an all-out brawl at times. Much like Final Fantasy XII, encounters are triggered by distance in this game rather than time or amount of steps taken, as is the case with most RPGs. So, if you get too close to a free-roaming monster, or golden orb (housing a monster) it’s go time.

You also have full control over each character in your group, pretty standard stuff there. What isn’t standard, for most games, is that you can control them as a group as well if you so choose. There are a set number of group commands (offense, defense, healing, do nothing) that are at your disposal during combat and ordinary exploration.

When you get to a field, there will always be a dungeon. This is where you get some serious experience. While you do encounter battles in the field, dungeons are do-or-die time, literally. While in the dungeons you cannot exit a room unless you have defeated all the enemies in this room. This is both good and bad, good as you cannot gain weapons that are out of your league as easily and you will learn what your characters can handle in terms of combat, bad because sometimes you just get overwhelmed by your enemies. Experience is not divided among the party as per most RPGs. Instead, each character gains experience based on their own level, which makes it easier to build your lower level characters up.

At a certain point in the game your character will develop a new ability, Data Drain. This will grab virus cores from monsters. I don’t think that’s giving too much away as the name of the game is INFECTION. These virus cores are vital to Gate Hacking, or unlocking fields that are locked by game admins.

The more you play the closer you get to solving the mysteries behind The World, but you’ll have to keep going into the other three games in the series to fully figure things out. Not to worry though, there’s no need to start over with each game, you can import your Kite from the last game into the next with an option called Data Flag. This will allow you to bring all that hard work, money, and all your gear with you to the next game. So no more level one newbie, just import and you’re ready for war.

This game is almost four years old, so the graphics may see a little dated compared to those of the newer Final Fantasy games or the like. They are not bad by any stretch of the imagination, though. On top of that, dungeon crawling can become somewhat repetitive. However, there are treasures at the end of each dungeon that usually make it well worth the time.

Cut scenes aren’t overly long and drawn-out, but still manage to get the point across. Most of your vital information is given through forums and email, which is saved should you need to review. This is handy in case you had to stop halfway through a big part of the story.

The camera is fully user-controlled in this game, which is nice. That being said, it’s also used, in large part, to steer your character. This is common practice now, but can still make certain areas frustrating.

For the most part, this game is a lot of fun. The voice acting is pretty well done, the animation and visual stylings are nice, and the story is pretty compelling. This came can also be found on Amazon, as well as EBGames and Gamestop for under $20.

Rating:
Visuals: 3/5
Audio: 4/5
Gameplay: 4/5
Story: 5/5
Controls: 3/5

Overall: 3.8/5

If you liked that, try...

1. Plenty For Twenty: Lego Star Wars II
2. Plenty for Twenty #1
3. Plenty for Twenty: God of War
4. Plenty for Twenty: Final Fantasy X-2
5. Plenty for Twenty: Devil May Cry 3

1 Comment »

1. 
   Ranmoth
   January 11, 2007 at 11:36 pm

   I have this game, and I’d have to agree with basically everything you said. If nothing else, get it for the story. Just don’t forget to pick up .hack//MUTATION, .hack//OUTBREAK, .hack//QUARANTINE, .hack//G.U., .hack//SIGN, the .hack//LIMINALITY DVDs(handily included with the games), .hack//LEGEND OF THE TWILIGHT(in manga and anime forms, for your reading/viewing pleasure), .hack// AI Buster(novels, yay! both 1 & 2), .hack// Another Birth(more books, #s. 1 - 4), and even the .hack//ENEMY trading card game! This, kids, is what is known as a “franchise”.

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