A mediocre RPG that can nonetheless be enjoyed.
STORY:
Hack's story possesses a unique twist, which is actually its own campaign setting. In Hack, you play a single player story in which you're supposed to be playing an on-line game, which is the game you actually play in single player. It sounds really stupid, and perhaps it is, it's like being a dog who tries to play "Dog Sims 5.1", but strangely enough, it works. Your character is called Kite, and his class, the Twin Blades, is pre-determined by the game (I think he's the ranger of the party, in D&D terms). Kite is being invited to "The World" (the name of the online game) by his friend, who is called Orca in the "The World". After a brief "tutorial", Kite is forced to make his path in this game, and find out what is wrong with it. The story gives very few answers, since it has three sequels.
There are a lot of NPCs to join you in your quest, and while you're introduced to their basic personalities and quirks to mark their individuality, they lack true emphasis. This is a bit understandable however, since all these characters are supposed to be real people who go there just to "play a game".
GRAPHICS:
Probably the game's weakest link, the graphics scream out pre-pre-last gen. A PSX has pulled off better stuff out of its hat. All said and done though, they're not half-bad. They do the job, just don't expect anything spectacular. Backgrounds are the usual culprits, with characters possessing far better treatment. Many monsters could use more finesse though.
MUSIC:
Hmm, so-so. I heard quite a few interesting dungeon clips, but others were indifferent, and one or two were irritating. A nice touch however, was the fact that the music's tone changes from soft to savage, based on whether the characters are fighting or not.
Sound effects are mediocre as well. Spells have nice sounds, but the swords and spears sound way off, and are mostly disappointing. Character voices sound cheesy and fake, with the notable exception of the grunties, who are absolutely delightful and funny to hear (MON AMI ... MON-AMIIIIII!!!)
GAMEPLAY:
Hack is basically split in three parts.
First part, your desktop, which is used to save, read your e-mails, and visit the message board. Note that you don't have to be online for this; these are "fake" features to serve the game's story only.
Second part is the city-server, in which you get to buy, trade and store items (and later raise grunties).
Third (and basic) part of the game, dungeon exploration. Each server possesses a ludicrous amount of fields / dungeons to explore and it's highly unlikely that you'll manage to go to all of them, unless you have no life, and plenty of free time (and years of health).
All battles are executed in real-time, although at any moment you can use an in-game pause menu to choose skills, spells, items, or give instructions to your characters, which is a very useful feature in case you don't trust the CPU's A.I. You can tell them what items and skills to use, what tactics to follow, etc. Aside from the fact that the sprite collision could use some work, and that equipping your NPCs with the right equipment can be a real pain, everything works.
OVERALL:
Hack is not a great game, but it doesn't suck either. Fans of the anime will probably love it despite its flaws, but the hoard of unlockable content and the game's twisted uniqueness in it's campaign setting may manage to win non fans over. Give it a go if you want to play any decent Japanese RPG for your PS2.