Three Week Review
In my first review, I gave the single-player story mode an 8.8. Even though it has been ripped by countless gaming websites. I am going to stick by that original score. I think the single-player mode is an engaging, sometimes humours game. Although I haven't played it in almost three weeks, that's not due to it not being fun. That's just because I wanted to give an extensive review on the online side of things. Lets talk about the online side of this game.
It's missing something. That's the conclusion that I've come to. This game is simply missing something and I've been spending the last few days trying to figure out what it is. Then I figured otu what it is. It's several things actually. Firstly, it seems to be missing a great deal of content. I have defended Sega for as long as I possibly can. The fact is, there just isn't much content in the game. It's on the dvd but Sega has chosen not to give it to us yet. Stuff like A-rank and S-rank weapons. Stuff like the third planet that's available in the off=line modes. Even with all of that though, there's still something missing. It's missing personality.
A couple of hours ago, I downloaded and played Phantasy Star Online: Blue Burst. It just took a few minutes to remember what I loved so much about that game. It's got flavor like a dorito. I love the graphics in PSO and I think PSU might actually be a step down in a lot of things in that department. I'm not saying that PSU is an ugly game.... it just lacks something, in my opinion. There really aren't any great settings that you can adjust in PSU for the PC. Which is pretty disappointing. The most glaring of which is no anti-aliasing.
Phantasy Star Universe isn't a bad game. It's just not a very complete one. Sega is banking on the fans sticking around past the first month. Unfortuantly, there are so many great games out on the market now. Neverwinter Nights, Gears of War and Final Fantsy XII have all been released since PSU came out on the 24th. That's keeping people from switching to one of those games. Honestly? Not a whole lot.