.hack//G.U. VOL. 3: Redemption

The .hack franchise has had an enduring lifespan on the Playstation 2. Spanning two series, .hack is ushering off its second string of video games with a grand finale. Beginning in 2006, .hack//G.U. has quickly spawned sequels and with the coming of .hack//G.U. Vol. 3: Redemption, it’s time to take part in the last chapter. Question is, does the third installment of the .hack//G.U. series live up to the lofty expectations?

Redemption begins where .hack//G.U. Vol. 2: Reminisce left off – the virus is spreading in The World and it’s causing illnesses in the real-world. Centering on a villain’s attempt to take over the entire game world and threatening to spread the virus, Haseo, the protagonist, must bring down the villain and figure out the truth behind the virus. Haseo must also deal with Sakaki, a former villain, returning with a vengeance as he replaces Yata as the leader of GU. In addition, there’s a new tournament that will cause chaos within The World to determine who the best is.

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If players didn’t play .hack//G.U. Vol. 2: Reminisce, here’s a quick look on how that ended: Reminisce left off with Haseo failing to finish off the antagonist Ovan in the final battle. While the game itself does provide a summary of all the occurrences from Vol. 1 and Vol. 2, players that skipped out on the first two installments will be clueless on what actually is going on. While the game clocks in over the 30-hour mark, my overall opinion on the series is that they could have condensed the storyline into one role-playing game rather than three separate titles. With horrible story progression, .hack//G.U. Vol. 3: Redemption isn’t as good as its predecessors with its plot.

Now for the gameplay, Redemption sports the same real-time combat players have experienced in the previous titles. For those that haven’t experienced a .hack//G.U. game yet, it is a dungeon crawler through and through.  While the real-time fighting was invigorating within Rebirth (the first game of the series), in the third installment, it has worn its welcome out. Plagued by boring dungeon-crawling, the level-grinding is no longer fun when the battles feel drawn out and overextended. The only reason I pushed through to complete the game is to see the ending cinematic, but outside of that, Redemption is dull and monotonous.

There are a few changes that might entice player’s interest. Haseo receives a job extension that permits the use of dual guns as new weapon type. With dual guns in his arsenal, he gains the skill called “double trigger” which is an attack allows for double the damage. Haseo also has gained the ability to scan the area for items and dungeons. Outside of that, there are two new dungeon types for players to hack their way through, new party members to be introduced to, and an ability to hack an area to find new dungeons to explore. With all that considered the new additions aren’t enough to differentiate it from .hack//G.U. Vol. 2: Reminisce.

Before moving on from the gameplay portion of the game, I must add in that the avatar battles make a return to the game and the level of customization has decreased. The avatar battles are increasingly more difficult than the rest of the game, but didn’t have enough of an impact on the overall storyline. As for the customization, the equipment earned on side quests isn’t worthy enough to go searching for rare items to customize the group of characters. While I had fun in Vol. 2 with customization, Redemption has zilch in terms of quality customization.

Visually, the graphics hold up well for the series, but they are definitely not next-gen. The developers did an excellent job at presenting The World as a living and breathing MMO. What I had problem with is that the developer still decided to use a lot of the same character models for many of the characters. On top of that, there are a lot of problems with screen tearing and load times. Compared to the second volume, Redemption doesn’t have a big enough jump in graphics that I found throughout my entire campaign.

The voice acting is well done and didn’t grate on the ears like I expected it to. The music does encourage players to continue their journey no matter how awful tedious the gameplay becomes. There are a few new tracks, or better called themes, added for levels but the developers ended up bringing a lot of the sound work from Reminisce over. Measuring up to the graphics, the audio was handled better.

Gameplay: 6.7
Finishing the game shortly above the 30 hour mark, the story is bland and unsatisfying. Due to the horrible pacing and thin story, my enjoyment of Redemption was nil. Though, I did drudgingly work my way through the game to see the end of the series and I am positive many more will do the same.

Graphics: 6.5
Mediocre at best for the Playstation 2, the graphics are never impressive. Even the CGI sequences failed to amaze.

Sound: 7.4
The voice-acting was done well enough to the point I never muted the game. That is accomplishment on its own right due to that many Japanese role-playing games have horrendous American voice-acting.

Difficulty: Easy / Medium
The game is easy to beat if players are accustomed to level-grinding. If level-grinding isn’t their thing then the game will be a chore to play through.

Concept: 8.5
I am still a big fan of the .hack franchise, but I am happy to see this series end. The excitement level waned off with the third installment.

Overall: 6.7
If you want all your questions answered on how .hack//G.U. ends, then pick up Redemption. I have no doubt that the fans of the series will pick up Redemption to see how it ends, but I am positive that they won’t have as much fun as they have had in the past. Disappointing and uneventful, .hack//G.U. Vol. 3: Redemption wasn’t the last chapter I had envisioned for the series.