Difficulty:

Hard

Time Spent:

20 to 40 Hours

The Bottom Line:

"Surprisingly good"

.Hack is an RPG series made by companies Bandai, and CyberConnect2.

The unique characteristic of this game is that it takes place inside an online game. That online game is called "The World", and it seems to be extremely popular. The bad news is, it seems that data anomalies known as "Data Bugs" are beginning to wreak havoc inside the system, causing innocent players to fall into comas in the real world.

That's where YOU come in. You play as Kite, a kid who is playing The World for the first time. Within the first hour of the game, your school-friend Orca takes you to a beginner field to teach you the basics of the game. After that, things start to go sour. A mysterious monster appears out of nowhere, and attacks you and Orca. Apparently, Orca can't damage him, and soon, the monster uses an illegal skill called "Data Drain" on Orca. As a result, your friend is knocked out cold and is put into a coma in real life. Just when the monster is about to finish you off however, an unknown force drives it away, and teleports you out of the field.

And so, the rest of the game is spent with you trying to uncover the truth behind the anomalies that are causing chaos in The World, while making new friends along the way.

Also, Kite eventually gains the skill Data Drain, the same power that put your friend into a coma, from an enigmatic being named Aura. Ironically, Data Drain is the only skill that is able to destroy the Data Bugs lurking within the game.

Combat is fairly straightforward: you can use regular attacks, as well as magic skills and special attacks against enemy monsters. You can also generate random fields by rearranging various keywords. The game itself can be difficult at times, especially later on, but with patience, you can get past it.

Since Infection is only volume 1 of the series, you'll need to buy volumes 2, 3, and 4 in order to find out how the story ends.