.hack // G.U. Vol. 1: Rebirth

THE BAD:
The areas are repeated alot like the old .hack games but this wasnt enough to sway me from the sheer entertainment this game has given me.

SUMMARY:
The game that pretended to be a massive multiplayer online role playing game has returned. In the last 4 .hack games the game revolved around Kite.(well I named him Inuyasha cause of his red clothes) The games had a sort of simple combat system that was fun at first but for me got old by the 2nd game. Though the story was the strong point and that was enough to play all 4.

Anywho 7 years after the .hack gmaes(or 3 years after the //Light of the Twilight series) "The World R:2" emerges and this is where .hack//G.U. comes to play. You are Haseo, "The Terror of Death" the PKK(Player Killer-Killer). The reason Haseo is a PKK is becuase his first log-in to the world ended with him being PK'ed. After that he spent 8 months developing his skills and leveling up to 133. During those 8 months his very close friend Shino got PK'ed by a very familiar face named Tri-Edge. She then after being PK'ed, as a result is now in a coma. The 8 months later he finds Tri-Edge again to get revenge for what he did to Shino. He ends up not only losing but getting data drained and starting back at level 1.

Now is when the game officially starts. You need to level Haseo back up to the Terror of Death and it aint gonaa be easy, but it sure as hell gonna be fun! The combat system this time around is much better than before. The battles were very simple in the old gmaes, now they have become more complex and give you much more of a sense of power. In the old .hack games, you relied on your weapons to give you skills and you would lose any skill one weapon had when you switched to another one. This time around you keep your skills no matter what weapon you have(unless you switched to diffrent kind of weapon, then you get whatever skills you have for it)you keep your skills.

When you commence an actual battle this field will surround you and your enemies. The amount of space you have to fight is preety big so no worries there. Although there still is no dodge button, 0 can now block and Haseo moves preety quick on his feet as it is. The X button allows you to actually attack your enemies. Depending on what weapon you have will determine how many times you attack, and type of combo it is. There are two diffrent types of combos with your weapons: rapid attack, and hold and release. Rapid attack will towards the end of the combo, allow you to continously tap X for numerous attacks, hold and release will at the point of tapping X repeatedly will instead give you a bar where you hold down X, wait for the bar to fill and then release. Of course you dont really have to wit for it to fill if your in a hurry, but it will do less damage.

Now its time for arts, these are speacial abilities that you can use, kinda like Kite's Tiger Claws and Saber Dance. You learn them by filling up the weapon gauge by continuosly using the arts. This time around you can just press R1 to bring up the menu for arts and use it with Square, Triangle, 0 or X. When you hit the opponenet enough times, its possible to do a Rengeki. What Rengeki is, is when the enemy is vulnerable enough to double the attack power of an arts attack. Whenever this happens make sure to tap R1 and use one of your arts!

Finally its time for Awakening! TO the right of the screen is your Morale gauge. Using Rengeki and helping out allies with increase this gauge. When its full it will ask you to press Square. Now what this does is grant you party great power for a limited time. There are two diffrent kinds, Beast and Demon. Perosnally I like Beast better, it makes the whole party Uber-Strong, while Demon has you unleashing a barrage of magic on the enemy while tapping X like a madman.

In the game it acts much more like an MMORPG, now you can be in a guild and take quests. Not only that but the game has an arena to fight against other players. You can also PK other players when your in an area. The only thing is, they are always gonna be someone trying to pk someone else. The game still has the world choosing buisness, but you need to earn words this time by going through dungeons. After completing dungeons the game even gives a ranking to see how good you did.

The last of the games feature of interest are the Avatar battles. I wont elaborate to spoil anything but I will say Skeith. Iam sure some of you know who Iam talking about.

This game was amazing, to do everyting in the game it took me 45 hours. Sure since its vol 1 it ends in a cliffhanger, but that just makes you want to play vol 2 even more! The battles system was mad fun and the story delivers in full force with an intersting cast of chracters and a suspensful story. This is Zero and X and I say that .hack lives again!