Is .hack any good?

[rocklobster]

.hack//sign is my all-time favorite anime, so I was wondering if the games are as good as the show.

[Tommy]

Yes.

[everdred12a]

I'm not going to vote because there's no 'Sometimes' option up there. The .hack games are good, to an extent. The first two games are probably going to be the ones you like best because the game won't have gotten totally monotonous by then. The gameplay is highly repetitive, involving a lot of 'Go to this dungeon and then go to the bottom floor to see a short cutscene'... then just lather, rinse, and repeat. The music gets old quickly. The same tracks play on every elemental field (i.e., a 'Fire' elemental field always plays the same song). While the characters do have a little originality to them, most of them are pretty annoying and you'll get very little use out of many of them, except when the games force you to use them. The ally AI can be frustrating at times, as well, because they don't always do what you tell them to do when you want them to. That and I don't think that they *ever* buy their own items. That's right. If you want Black Rose to revive your dead character, then I hope you gave her a revival potion. Also, the games have practically no replay value.

The story is great, though. The only problem with the game is the execution of everything. You'll probably totally hate the fourth game, Quarantine. That game... just seems like the producers forgot that there was supposed to be four games and threw something together at the last minute to hold up their end of the contract. Since you're a dedicated .hack fan, you should be able to make yourself play through all of the games. I was a huge .hack fan when I first started to play the games, and I had a hard time making myself play through them as well.

Remember, these are my opinions on the game. Not everyone will agree with me, as Tom Dincht proved in his earlier post. I'm not saying that they're not worth playing, even though it seems like it. I'm offering a different opinion to go on. I really did enjoy the first and third games in the series, but I found the second game to be lacking and the fourth game to be pretty sad in comparison to the others.

[Nate]

I voted no, because I simply did not care for the game. That may have something to do with my distaste for AI controlled characters, my dislike of the "Random Keyword" system, or the repetetive dungeons. At any rate, I played the first game for about four hours and never touched it again.

[GrubbTheFragger]

i liked the first one enough just cuz the whole mock mmorpg thing was pretty nifty and fun

[Lynx]

i think they're suppose to be coming out with new .hack games. the buzz is that they are better then the first. can anyone confirm this?

[GrubbTheFragger]

i think they're suppose to be coming out with new .hack games. the buzz is that they are better then the first. can anyone confirm this?

thats what i've heard also i forget whats they are gonna b called tho

[FadedOne]

what system are the .hack games on anyway?

[rocklobster]

Ps2

[Doe Johnson]

I heard that they were coming out with .hack//GU and .hack//fragment. GU was supposed to be story based while fragment was supposed to be like actually playing The World. I don't know if this is true though, just what I've heard.

[Tommy]

The above poster is correct but Fragment was released in japan some time ago and won`t be released here.

Repetitve isn`t always bad. If you`ve played the original Dark Cloud, you`ll know what I mean.

[everdred12a]

I didn't say repetitive was always bad. I play Harvest Moon games. I know about repetition. But .hack just drove the whole thing into the ground.

[Sephiroth]

are you sure fragment isn't getting released anywhere but japan? i cant remembere where now but when i first found out about fragment it was supposed to be getting a UK & US release as well.

yea and GU is a new story series that are supposed to be quite different from quarantine etc. they are gonna be 3 games but unlike pts 1-4 GU 1-3 are each supposed to be more stand-alone friendly.

[desperado]

G.U. should come out sometime this year and story centers around a New Version of the world after most of the world got destroyed in a company fire. That may explain the evil stitched together kite (tri-edge) and the hero being a phase.

[everdred12a]

That actually sounds pretty cool, getting to play as a phase and all. Hopefully they'll make you a cool phase though, because most of the phases from the old games looked pretty stupid (except Skeith. Skeith was too cool to get wasted as the first one.... *grumbles*).

[desperado]

I suggest downloading the trailers, watch both because each one has stuff the other doesnt have.
here is a good site for .//hack stuff of any flavor
http://www.dothackers.net/gu.php

The second trailer has more story elements and the first has more of the fight with the pkers

edit
forgot to mention they say this game will be longer then the entire first series combined.

[Savior_Sora]

I personally liked them. But then only reason I played it cuz I loved the story. I've beaten all 4 games so. I still play on my save tho, cuz you can still do a lot of extra things. Still yes it was repetitive, but it can also be very tough. So if ure lookin for a challenge...This one has its moments. But I would reccommend ppl play this. I think its very good.