.hack//infection part 1 is a good rpg with some likable characters that unfortunately suffers of repetition
As a fan of japanese animation since the first time I saw this game I was very curious about it, I read some reviews from gamespot and ign and the game seemed to have a good story and an interesting fighting system, so I made my mind and bought the game. after opening the game case I was happy to find an additional anime dvd (2 anime chapters of an alternative story from the .hack world), the quality of the anime on these chapters is pretty good, and is nice that you get this for free. well, anyaway lets talk about the game, the graphics of the game are very good and you get to see some excellent efects on some escenarios and because everything is a virtual world in this game (you're supposed to be a guy who is playing an online massive rpg), sometimes you see some stages infected with virus that look pretty good, something like matrix if you know what I mean (where you see letters and number falling down), unfortunately there are not a lot of different places to visit, the music is very good too, some of the best soundtracks in the rpg genre but the number of tracks is limited too.
the gameplay consists in real time battles and I am not sure why but the battle system gets old too quickly, and some times it is boring doing the same things over and over again, kill a bunch of guys then watch t his 2 minutes long display of the story, go there and kill another 100 guys and then watch another little part of the story, I know that rpgs are based on this kind of system its just that in this game is more evident than ever.
the game feels incomplete somehow and underdeveloped but atleast the story is good and you get the feeling of being in an online world even thought you are not really into one of them, thats because everytime you talk to a character in the game they say things like.... I am from Russia and I dont play very much since last week because Ive been busy studying for my exam next tuesday, so with this kind of dialogues make you really get the feeling that you are in a online world and its something the developers really succeded in.
so overall this is a so-so rpg but atleast you get a free dvd of top-quality anime and that makes the package feel somewhat complete. recommended if you like rpgs and if you dont like them this game wont make you change your mind about the genre.