I have to say that while I am a huge FPS fan at heart, I also enjoy a change of pace by diving into a good RPG from time to time. For anyone who is a big RPG fan, there are obviously tons of them to choose from, and you can play anything from a fantasy setting warrior or wizard up to a futuristic, gun-toting madman these days. Well, what if there was an RPG game about people playing RPG games online? For anyone who thinks this may sound a tad silly, you obviously haven’t heard of the .hack series yet.

For anyone who may not know what .hack is, let me begin this review by explaining the whole concept and story to the game. .hack revolves around an MMORPG called “The World”, which is the big craze in Japan. A new player named Kite (the person you control) has just logged into The World since his buddy Orca has talked about how great it is. Soon, Orca falls into a coma and word begins to spread that there is a virus running loose that not only is corrupting game servers, but also causing players to fall into a coma while playing. The story builds up over the first two installments to increase the mystery of who is behind the virus, and the corporation that created the World just seems to keep growing stronger. In Outbreak, the corruption has spread even worse, and it’s up to you to move Kite closer to solving the mystery of who is behind the issues in The World, and ultimately team up with his friends to stop it from happening.

Just like the first two installments, Outbreak really does a good job in simulating an online RPG environment even though you are offline the entire time. You will randomly meet up with other players in the server towns and sometimes when you warp to the dungeons, and you can access message boards and e-mail in the game as well from friends, enemies, and other players overall that will many times lead you to clues or secret items that can be obtained.

Outbreak doesn’t really add anything new to the overall gameplay or style of the game, so players will continue to move through different servers and warping to dungeon levels to fight monsters, collect treasure, and keep trying to get answers to the viral outbreak. In the same fashion as the first two, dungeons can be accessed through “keywords” that can either be obtained through message boards, e-mails, or even a combination of your own creation (if you want to just do some dungeon hacking on a side note from the story), which keeps it fun if you feel that you need to level up on your own a little more or if you just want to hop in and get a little slashing action in.

Kite still has access to his Data Drain and Gate Hacking abilities in Outbreak. Data Drain is a power that allows him to rewrite monster data that causes even the most powerful creature to be reduced to things as simple as a hopping radish. Data Drain also can allow him to obtain Viral Cores (used for his other ability, Gate Hacking, which allows him to access off – limits servers), rare items, and even allow him to defeat “immortal” monsters that have been infected. The downside to this unfortunately is that if Kite uses his Data Drain too much, the infection can wind up getting out of control and cause the entire game to malfunction and shut down. There is a meter to show you how bad it’s getting, and by defeating monsters on your own you will bring it down if it happens to go up too much.

One thing I did notice about .hack 3 is the fact that the AI seems to operate a little more independently than it did in the first two games. In Infection and Mutation, party members acted on their own during combat, but doing simple things like healing tended to cause you to pause the action so you could tell one of them to heal or heal them yourself, but in Outbreak I noticed that they would perform some of these actions on their own. In addition, monsters seemed to be a little smarter this time around also, since they seemed to be a little stupid in the first two and would just wander towards your party flailing away. I got hit from behind quite a few times in Outbreak, which was not expected at first since it never really seemed to happen in the first two titles. The game overall is a lot more challenging than the first two.

Another addition that has been made is with the side game of “Gruntys”. Gruntys are pig / hamster looking creatures that you could feed and grow, and you could call them in during battle to help out if needed. In Outbreak, Gruntys can now be called in to act in place of Fairy Orbs, which are used to find items and areas in dungeons that could contain monsters, items, etc. 

Graphically, The World has made changes as well since above ground areas and many dungeons look more infected and corrupted. For example, the first town you begin in has a greenish building color to it, but it’s pockmarked by holes where 0’s and 1’s are showing through like the programming is breaking down. The sky also shows tears of data or cloudy, viral looking areas showing through as well … and there doesn’t seem to be as many players running around to interact with, talk to, or trade items with in this one. There weren’t really any enhancements done overall though, so everything still looks as it did in the first two titles.

Overall, .hack 3 continues a really fun game, and people like me who were fans of the first two will no doubt appreciate being able to continue our adventures in The World and get more information about the corporation and the hackers being blamed for the viral outbreak. If you haven’t played the first two, then you may not find part 3 to be as enjoyable. They did add in background story for you if you decide to pick this one up and play it without the others first, but many of the character interactions and info that’s given may not make a lot of sense. If you have a desire to play an MMORPG, but don’t have the means to do it, the .hack series is definitely worth the money and does a great job simulating an online world … in an offline only environment.   

Gameplay: 8.0
While the overall gameplay element remains the same as the first two without too many additions, it was good to begin with. The added AI intelligence helps out a lot though, and made it a little more enjoyable … and more challenging at the same time. The e-mail and message boards are still there as well, and help add to the online feel of the game while dropping clues to help you move from dungeon to dungeon and get more info about the outbreak.

Graphics: 7.3
Graphically, if you’ve played the first two titles, you’ll know what to expect from the third one. They did a good job in setting up the overall atmosphere to make it more corrupted and dark. You can still switch Kite from third to first person mode as well, and animations of characters and monsters still stayed the same.

Sound: 7.7
I thought the music and voiceovers were good in the first two, and they remain pretty much unchanged for this one as well. There are a couple of new tracks added in, but overall feels the same as its predecessors.

Difficulty: Medium
Outbreak is definitely more challenging overall, but you can still access your own server combinations to allow you to gain experience, find items, and level up as you see fit which helps out in taking on some of those tougher battles.

Concept: 8.0
I still think that the overall concept of the game is great, and while there isn’t a whole lot that changed from the first two games in terms of overall gameplay, they do a great job in simulating an online environment off line with conversations, trading, e-mail, and message boards for communication.

Overall: 7.8

The .hack series is a heck of a lot of fun, and Outbreak does a great job in continuing the story. The added AI changes make it more challenging, but also allow you to focus more on battles vs. party health all the time, which is a plus. While the whole idea of an RPG that revolves around people playing an RPG may sound a little strange, Bandai has done a good job in making a series that captures a lot of the fun of an online MMORPG in an offline environment. If you’re looking for a good RPG series to fill your time for a while, .hack is one that I would recommend.