Customer Reviews

.hack, Part 3: Outbreak

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

From a story viewpoint, this is the most interesting of the .hack games so far. Kite's efforts to find a way to help his friend Orca and other players who now lay comatose find him cooperating with a surprising array of characters. Several new companions appear, including Balmung, who originally stood in Kite's way. In addition, Kite manages to unite Helba and Lios in an effort to fight the encroaching virus wave that is attacking not only the game, but the world beyond it. And in the background, frightened CC Corp executives are preparing to pull the plug on the games servers - even though this will end all efforts to cure the injured.

If the story and character definition have improves, though, the game play has stayed the same. This isn't all bad, since the .hack series is marked by an easily playable game interface for what is actually a complicated RPG dungeon based battle style. But after two games, the third gets a bit repetitious. The dungeons aren't quite the fun they were, and long time players will find themselves rushing through the levels once they have figured out the needed battle strategies.

Which introduces the real flaw in spreading the game over four volumes, something I'll call 'over-levelling' for lack of a better term. All of the games allow the player to continue once the core game is complete. During the down time between games one is encouraged to play to complete side quests and improve stats. Which I did after completing .hack//MUTATION.

Unfortunately, the side effect is that all my main characters were already at high levels when I started Outbreak. The result is that I spent a whole game with Kite getting exactly one experience point per kill. In other words, he advanced exactly one level during the entire game. That is tedious, and reduces character development to a continuous quest for items that will permanently improve stats. Also, high stats mean you tend to blast through most conflicts without much need for finesse.

Despite this, .hack//OUTBREAK is one of this years better games. The marketing scheme where the story is allowed to progress ovewr several media makes the .hack universe a rich experience, and the games are marked by a high level of professional quality. If you are a fan of dungeon based RPGs you will want this. The accompanying Liminality DVD, by the way, is the best so far in the series.

First of all, the two idiots who rated it one and zero screwed up this game's rating, but whatever. It's a great game, better than Mutation, and even better than Infection, in my opinion. Although it is identical to the first two games in many aspects, this is both a good and rarely bad thing. The story and characters are better than in this edition, the spells get pretty badass, and the weapons look awesome. For those of you who have played the first two, you finally get Balmung in this game, which makes it tough to decide between him and BlackRose. But anyway, great game with better characters and character development. Very recommended.

While .hack// is quite a phenomenon, a review of the enjoyment of this game has nothing to do with the anime series (although fans of the series can find little easter eggs in the game series).

The strengths of .hack//outbreak are the same as the first two in the series (.hack//infection and mutation): it has a great plot line, interesting new skill system, easy to use interface, and you can continue on your character into the next of the series. This is as expected, there were no changes to the game design. Despite this, I found this game to have lost some of its excitement (relevant to the series, it still found this game more exciting than other comparable games, like FFX or X-2).

In my opinion, they introduced a weakness to the series by making this a 4 installment series rather than a 3. I've started the 4th game and am very excited, but due to the total series game play hours and the layout of the plot, it would have been better as a 3 game series (with no plot changes, just the quantity of material per release changed). Go capitalism.

Like the previous game, if I were to say this game had any other weakness, it would be that it is quite a bit shorter than many comparable games. With completion of the story line (in this installment), the extras, and just having a little fun, I completed the game in about 30 hours.

Overall, the .hack//outbreak is a must have if you wish to play the series. I don't think that the series would have been as much fun if I did not play all of the installments. Having finished the first three game, .hack//mutation is my favorite of the series so far, but quarantine may very well take that throne once I finish it.

This is so far the best of the four part saga. Now I won't soile it by telling to much but if you ever saw how the first boss in Dot Hack//Sign. The one chasing Aura. That is a key in this game. I really think hat people will love this game. You really do need to be at least level 53 to start. Five stars

This game was basically riding on high expectations for me since I loved the other two, but It just never took off in my opinion. I lost my favorite character that I could play with mistral and replace her basically with balmung who was my favorite character I couldn't play with lol.

Pros
1. Balmung joins the party enough said.
2. All the parties join together finally under one cause. The characters stay about the same in depth other then mistral leaving and learning why blackrose plays the game.

Cons
1. Theres really no twists or turns in the game basically. The story just feels rush this time around, and I also thought I get to play with Mia and Elk more since there on the cover, but that a false as well.
2. The boss fights were really boring, and they had no suspense or excitement to them. In last two games the boss fights were fun because they were unexpected or you had personal vendetta to defeat the bosses.

Overall its around 25 hours and the price makes it worth it to buy the game. The only problem with the series after this game is that the next game cost around 50 dollars and it was made like 10 years ago haha. It might be awhile til I review the next game, but it will be worth the suspense after a long drought without by .hack.

I was a traitor to the series in the way that my first experience with .hack was with the G.U. series. I loved all three of those games and beat them through and through on several occasions. So I decided how can I be a fan without playing the first four in the series? Well, it finally came down to it and I purchased all four at once and marathoned them. So, how does this one compare to the others? They stick to what they did so well in the past and made this game with few improvements. Each game in series got better and better and this one in playback definitely improves over the first two. I enjoyed how to the story was beginning to unfold and everything is really starting to fall apart. Your hero is on a journey to save "The World" from the infection currently spreading and putting people into a coma-like state and being trapped in the game. Main characters took on more dialogue in this game than the previous two and I enjoyed the cut-scenes more in this game. The combat is unchanged, if you hated the combat or camera before you're still going to dislike it. I'm a big fan of an action RPG and this fit the bill for me by giving a story not seen before and letting me control the fighting. I have not beaten the fourth in this series yet as my game backlog is doing just that, backing up. But I will say that after beating this one I had a strong desire to immediately pop in the last disc and finish the fight, so to speak. If you're a .hack fan and you don't own this you are doing yourself a disservice. If you are are not a fan and you're just looking for an action RPG to try then I recommend starting from the beginning and not with this game as it is really a direct continuation of the story from the first two. I have not watched the DVD that came with it yet, but that is mostly because I have no desire to scratch it. Hopefully it will release in another format so I don't have to risk scratching it. Do I love this series more than the G.U. series? I'd have to say no. I really liked the combat improvements and the transformations in the G.U. series. While the original four are still really good games to me the G.U. series story had me gripped. I hope this will help you make some decisions about your own game backlog.

I don't like dealing with people online in games but this game is soo fun to me I love most anything jrpg as long as it has a cute factor and some kind of multiple choice options.It's also kinda nostalgia because I played the first one when it came out and now i'm 21 and I always feel like i'm back in the moment.

I think it was a really good game just slightly short. It's a great part to an excellent series. The graphics were spectacular, with very interesting musical accompaniment. I love the series and think this part was a good continuation of the story line.

I really like this game, I find it extremelly fun. However some people might think otherwise, now that the fighting style is more strategic than actual fighting. Overall though the story line is very captivating, and I believe that one can easily get hooked into this game.

If the story and character definition have improves, though, the game play has stayed the same. This isn't all bad, since the .hack series is marked by an easily playable game interface for what is actually a complicated RPG dungeon based battle style. But after two games, the third gets a bit repetitious. The dungeons aren't quite the fun they were, and long time players will find themselves rushing through the levels once they have figured out the needed battle strategies.