.hack//INFECTION | Full Game Walkthrough | No Commentary
106Today we archive yet another very nostalgic game for me. The title is very difficult to write, so I am just going to call it Hack Infection or Dot Hack Infection. This was a very ambitious RPG project from Japanese developers that started back in 2002. The idea was to make a multimedia project that combined both video, games and even books to tell a giant and epic story.
Four games would be made that would all combine in one gigantic story arc and each game came with a bonus DVD disc that had an anime movie on there as well to give more background story.
As a kid I thought this sounded awesome on paper and actually enjoyed the first game quite a bit, but I never finished it back in the day and thus I never got to experience the full quadrilogy. Now by archiving the games, I hope to rectify that.
Hack Infection actually has a very original premise in that you are playing a MMORPG even though the game itself is a singleplayer experience. You start the game on your log in screen and then get loaded into the game world. In the hub towns there are other characters that resemble players roaming around as they buy and trade items with each other. This game came out before World of Warcraft, so it was very awesome for someone like me to imagine playing a game like that. There had already been online RPGs before World of Warcraft, but those had a very niche audience back then. Nowadays there are other game franchises like Sword Art Online that also do this where the game pretends you are playing an MMORPG, but Hack was my first experience in this.
Now since this was an early PlayStation 2 game, don't expect a very convincing portrayal of playing with others online as the characters simply just roam around, but I can still appreciate the effort.
The story revolves around players who, after playing the MMORPG "The World", have fallen into a coma in real life. Now it is up to you and a party of other characters you meet along the way to put a stop to this.
You will head to different zones and will need to clear out dungeons in order to find loot and beat the dungeon boss.
In between playing the game you also need to maintain your relationships with your friends by answering e-mails and checking message boards for hints on where to go next.
The game itself is very charming and pretty easy to pick up and play. It can become a bit repetitive with the action and probably the weakest part of the game is the interface for using items and skills. You will have to pause the action each time you want to use or cast something and it makes certain battles, especially boss battles, more of a menu simulator than antyhing else.
I also do think the game is a bit too short. There is quite a bit of level grinding required, but when one were to follow just the main quest it is not very long. And then to have people buy three more games for 60 dollars back in the day probably felt a bit off. Nevertheless I enjoyed my first adventure with Hack after so many years and it felt very nostalgic for me to log into The World again. See you all in the next part!
#dothack #gaming #jrpg #anime #mmorpg #ps2 #playstation2 #retrogaming