The 3rd and final installment in the .hack//G.U. series. A great ending.
For starters, the story is amazing, it is very original and unique, and it can get you addicted to the game. In my opinion, the G.U. series had the best story I've ever seen in a video game. Now I know you're thinking that this game sucks thanks to GS awarding it such a low score, but in reality it doesn't. Look at all the other reviews from people who have played this game, the average user score is 9.1, don't listen to GS on this one.
Graphic-wise its decent for the PS2, its not spectacular like a Final Fantasy game but it's good, the environments, though, look amazing. The music goes very well with the game, I never grew tired of hearing it, which is a good thing. The battle system is simple and easy to get used to, the monsters aren't really much of a challenge if they're the level that you're recommended to fight, however, you can challenge yourself with higher level monsters. Going into dungeons can get repetitive but how else would you level? Lol.
Aside from that, there are also many other things you can do besides stick to the story. You can do quests; you're the leader of a guild so you can try and improve it; there's a message board on the main menu where you can actually post a bit, and depending on what you post, it can improve your rep or lower it; you can send an e-card to your friends and you get an actual reply back, then you can reply back to them, and so on, its actually really fun, especially when you send one that should be going to a "certain person" but instead you send it to "someone else", the replies can be funny xD; also you can unlock different things, like movies and music; and more stuff that i cant remember at the moment.
Overall, I feel that GameSpot really underrated this game AND series. It's very underappreciated for how great of a story it has. Since it's probably going for cheap now, I would recommend buying vol.1 Rebirth and trying it out first and if you like it, then by all means, buy the other 2. At least you wont have to wait and suffer for the next game in the series to come out like some of us had to =P.