Gamespot is wrong! It may use the same engine, and essentially be 'more of the same', but is that a bad thing?
In Volume 2, Haseo and his allies suddenly find themselves unable to log out from the game. Moreover, their consciousnesses are trapped inside the game's world. As every player currently logged into "The World" discovers this, a widespread panic breaks out, and not even the system admins know what to do, as the outside world cannot be contacted. This is one of many weird incidents that happen over the course of the story, and at the root of it all, is AIDA. Haseo must once again use his powers as an Epitaph user, to combat AIDA as it becomes increasingly more active and intelligent.
The story is once again what one would expect from something out of the .hack universe. The characters show a lot of emotion in their actions, and it's great to see how our protagonist, Haseo, has "Grown Up" since the beginning of the first game. Starting out as a bratty loner who doesn't seem to care about anyone, he somehow still manages to be some kind of people magnet, and slowly becomes what people would call "A valuable friend". With other characters such as the peace-loving Atoli, the mysterious Ovan, the manipulative Sakaki, the eccentric Piros the 3rd, and the tomboyish Alkaid, you won't be bored. The number of recruitable characters for your party has increased from 6 to 11, but all of them are familiar faces. In fact, there are only few additions to the game's whole cast, which is a good thing, because there is already such an extensive number of them, each with their own distinct personalities.
The gameplay remains relatively unchanged. The game pretends to be an online game. You start out from a 'desktop', where you can do things like read (fictional) email, news and forums, play Crimson VS (a minigame card game that's really easy to get into as it "plays itself"), and of course, log into the world. After logging into the world, you arrive in one of three "root towns", where you can interact with and trade with other "players", do some shopping, and form a party before heading to an area. Once in an area, which is either a field or a dungeon, you'll be fighting monsters as you try to complete the area's mission, which is usually to reach a treasure or to defeat a boss monster.
With everything you do, you control the main character, Haseo, who is of the Adept Rogue class. The Adept Rogue is able to equip different types of weapons and switch between them at will, making way for different fighting style. In the last game, we were introduced to the Dual Swords, low-power weapons that hit fast and multiple times, which work well against mid-size and flying enemies, and the Broad Sword, a huge sword that hits for heavy damage, but is quite slow, works well against large size and shelled enemies. Volume 2 introduces the Scythe, which has a 360 degree range that pushes small enemies back. The Dual Swords and Broad Swords have also been updated a bit. The Dual Swords now hit more often during a combo, and the Broad Sword can now be charged up 3 levels instead of 1. Battles are generally a bit more fast-paced than in Volume 1.
The Avatar Battles are also slightly faster now, and appear a lot more often than in the first volume. The Avatar is a mighty being that is commanded by an Epitaph User. Avatar Battles are a special type of boss battle that pits you agains AIDA or another Avatar. You fly around, evading the enemy's attacks by dashing. You use a shot attack to attack from long range and to stun them, and as they are stunned, you can move in and use the scythe to inflict heavy damage. Volume 2 gives Haseo's Avatar, Skeith, the ability to deflect any projectile by slashing, and a ranged attack at the end of a scythe combo. The new enemy AIDA and Avatars are generally faster than in the previous games, and they use attacks that are harder to avoid. They are my favorite part of the gameplay, and all the bosses can be re-fought at any time.
The graphics and music are pretty much the same as in the previous volume. The environments are quite beautiful and decently detailed, with things like a giant cannon being visible from field type areas, and the general atmosphere of the areas you visit is great. The choice of lighting is always perfect. There are also a new type of field and a new type of dungeon to visit, making the game less repetitive than the previous one. The sound that accompanies it all only adds to the amazing atmosphere of the game. However, although the voice acting is still quite good, it kind of feels like they've gotten a bit sloppy since the last game. The character models are great, and during close-up scenes, the faces show an amazing amount of emotion.
I've always been a fan of the .hack series for amazing storylines with amazingly deep characters, and Haseo is most likely the deepest of them all. It looks very nice for a PS2 game, and the music has amazing atmosphere. The gameplay is also fun, and not too repetitive to most people. All in all, a solid game that any action RPG fan should try.