Playstation 2 - Hack//Outbreak

Format
Playstation 2
Publisher
Bandai
Developer
Bandai
Country of origin
Japan
Genre
RPG

(dot)hack//Outbreak

By David Rasmussen
28th Apr 05

The (dot)hack Quadrilogy continues. This time out it’s Part 3, Outbreak, as the series passes the halfway point and a major turning point in the game itself.
And as we quickly draw close to the release of Star Wars Episode III : Revenge of the Sith in both theaters and video games I wanted to get to the final chapter of the Quadrilogy (Quarantine) by May so I can review it alongside SW Episode III’s game review.

You are Kite, and you are not having the best of days.
You were just brought into “The World” to enjoy some MMORPG fantasy swords and sorcery style with your pal Orca (who may or may not be related to that OTHER female Orca from (dot)hack//DUSK) when he is “data drained” by a weird red wand carrying creature.

You try to investigate, only to discover that those who should be helping you (mainly the corporation behind The World) are instead out to keep you from learning too much. So it is in this setting that the first battle against the avatars of the “Cursed Wave” takes place, and the war begins.
Along the way you make new friends and allies, begin to build your very own “Fellowship” of the Bracelet to fight the coming darkness (which is comin’ about once again to haunt The World and all those who walks within said “World”), and get the hang of playing (and fighting in) The World.

However, at the end of your first major battle, as you lay to waste your first major “Avatar” of the Cursed Wave, your victory is taken away from you as said enemy evolves in “deletion” to become the major nemesis Cubia who almost destroys you (if it wasn’t for the intervention of Helba).

You had started the chain of events, put all into motion, and now stare into the coming stormclouds of a major “War” to come. A war between those who will stand up against the Cursed Wave to save those already in life threatening comas because of said wave, and the darkness that shrouds the Cursed Wave, and Aura (who has been shattered into pieces with three fragments scattered throughout the World).

However that “War” may be hindered when you are finally confronted by one of those who represent the corporation who run “The World”, a system administrator named Lios. At first Lios (who ends up recruiting you after his attempts to eliminate you fail) sends you out on missions as they come in, but as you go on you can’t get anywhere with Lios, can’t work things out with him, can’t make him happy.
The battle with the 2nd Avatar of the Cursed Wave doesn’t work for Lios either (since it seems everytime you tangle with a Cursed Wave avatar the effects of the battle seems to send shockwaves throughout the whole World) which can‘t be good for this limited “alliance“. In short it looks like you’re brief employment in the side of big business will last about as long as an invitation to this coming year’s pharmacutical company’s major christmas parties to one Michael Moore.

Anyway it looked like you wouldn’t need “him” (Lios) as you uncovered new secrets, and opened new areas, and once again delve deeper into the chaos of the Cursed Wave (which carries on where the chaos of (dot)hack//SIGN left off some years ago.)

HOWEVER, after your battle against the 3rd Avatar of the Cursed Wave you return to the Root Town you were last in only to discover that town (and the rest of the Root Towns) have become infected by the rapidly growing corrupting virus associated with the Cursed Wave.

Every step forward it seems you take two steps back.
With the Cursed Wave down three Avatars, and more and more of The World falling victim to the corrupting virus that is ravaging it from the inside out, the war is only going to get more and more aggressive as this can only end in a fight to the finish.

(dot)hack//Outbreak
These are not the best of times for you. Not the best of times at all.
With a few allies AWOL, one now on maternity leave (you’ll never guess who), and the others seemingly offline you’ll have to face a few problems on your own… but that won’t last as you’ll soon be back with your friends again. Yeah, after a short bout of despair and doubt you’ll finally pull yourself back up again and go back to work full speed ahead.

You make two more allies, the mysterious Balmaug who you’ve been running into since Infection, and a newbie named Terajima Ryoko. As you continue your war against the Cursed Wave as you tackle two new Avatars of the Cursed Wave, one of whom is holding the second of three of Aura’s fragments, along the way tangling once again with Cubia as you return said fragment to Aura.
However, as you continue on the stakes grow higher and higher as, after defeating the 4th Avatar and cutting down half of the enemy numbers, you discover the Cursed Wave is beginning to move into the real world affecting it through it’s lifeline… computers and systems run by computers.
The situation is slowly worsening with each and every attempt to bring the enemy down.

But just as things began to degrade to possibly a point of no return it looks like a shimmer of hope has at last come to light, and a final plan to defeat the Cursed Wave is in the process of being born.
All you need is to make the final push into endgame, as the series rolls towards conclusion.
Too bad with your good news comes bad news, though this news finally brings Lios over permanently as an ally as opposed to a reluctant assocaite. Looks like CC Corps (the people behind “The World”) are taking heavy flak from this and they’re planning to silence “The World” permanently by physically smashing the servers, destroying any hope of saving those in comas.

But after you defeat the 5th Avatar you’ll get one more bit of good news before the ending credits roll on Outbreak… which I’ll bring up next time, stay tuned.
As for you? Now that endgame is coming, and you are about to fight your greatest and most desperate battles, the Episode ends in a cliffhanger that leads right to the end (Quarantine).

So much for things being simple considering you now have a laundry list of to-dos to get out of this game, let alone what you have to do to finish this next time! You have many major battles to fight, lots of protected areas to breach, and basically you’ll have lots to do before this game is done!

And the bounce you’ll need to be ready for the finale is going to be one heckuva bounce considering all the things you‘ll need to do to get out of this game! You need to reach a certain goal like before to be ready, and this time that goal is Level 75!
Add to that the required confrontations with Cursed Wave Avatars, as well as a new battle with Cubia? Things are only getting worse before the coming of the dawn in Quarantine.

You have all your “Fellowship” to get you through this one, like before (a few MIA at one point or another), and somehow you’ll make it through all this and finish Outbreak in order to head towards the grand finale of this drama unfolding.
Add to that more information that’ll come into your hands, and maybe a few more cameo appearance by old friends from (dot)hack//SIGN? Well, you have lots here that just screams ownership (added to the other three games forming one full and fulfilling storyline).
Things can only get worse before it becomes better… storywise at least.
Gamewise things are just solid and right on once again, which is nothing but goodness in my book.

Gameplay is once again the same as before (which is a good thing), and whatever new tricks this game has over Mutation isn’t much to talk about (but they do add some flavor to the game and make it just that much better). A solid gaming experience from Infection to Quarantine!
This time out you’ll need to end in Level 75 (as I said above), but did I get any bounce from the game as I wrapped up? Hmm… NO!! I ended way short! Level 66!! I know, I know, I have two whole areas to clear post finishing the game (one level awarded after the game ended and one I couldn’t tackle before… one level is a Level 70, don’t do it until you finished the game).
Timewise I ended the game at over 70 hours, and probably will end at Level 75 at 80 hours.
Yes, that means in the time it took to play 75% of this series you raked up enough hours to play a single very involved RPG, or two mildly long RPGs.
But once again the length isn’t that important. The game is still solid.

Once again the gameplay is the same solid experience that it was in Infection & Mutation, and it will continue to be that way as it rolls from Outbreak to Quarantine. There are a few new tricks here and there, and for the most part the game is still a solid experience no questions asked. No hitches or bumps in the road to speak of. The story is still good, as the action picks up the story becomes more and more intense.
With lots of action, humor and just plain good gameplay here you’re really get into the swing of battle as you continue your quest to bring the Cursed Wave crashing down to save Orca and everyone else whose been affected by it’s dark touch.
Only now you have finally assembled your full “Fellowship” and they’re ready to follow you like Aragorn into the final battles! And look on the bright side! You don’t have to face 10000 to 1 odds at anyplace like Helm’s Deep, Minas Tirith or Mordor!
One more time, because it’s worth saying. The game is good, so don’t ignore it OK? OK! Don’t think I could say that often enough in my opinion. Okay. Breakdown time.

(dot)hack//Breakdown the 3rd (Outbreak)
What’s Hot? - Yes, I know, I’m beginning to sound like a broken record but sometimes I think I can’t emphasis this enough. The gameplay of this series (overall) is solid, from start to end it’s all good.
Nothing’s changed, and heck that’s a good thing. Once again you have access to better gear and more allies (two new allies) so that can only be a good thing! The game (overall) continues to deliver a solid gaming experience, and with the new tricks you have in this game the game can only get better and better as you roll out of Outbreak and head towards Quarantine to start the beginning of the end of the Quadrilogy.

With quirky characters, an interesting story that flows perfectly, and a cliffhanger ending this game is doing oh so nicely if I do say so myself. With good gameplay, graphics and solid gaming overall? This is one major series well worth owning from beginning to end (in my opinion)! A must have!
And you even got another DVD of the Liminality series! Another plus!

Now, as previously mentioned a few times before, we still have the rumored online version to look forward to. Now that I think of it, and look at the game’s “homepage” (where you read your e-mails during gameplay) it says The World started in 2007... Means we have about another year and a half or so before The World opened it’s doors in it’s universe, maybe the real World will do likewise.

My only regret is the failure to secure any really interesting interviews related to the games.
Pity I can’t get an interview on the (dot)hack trilogy of games… yes, I did try, but everyone’s too busy right now so that’s OK. We do have an online World that needs birthing, so I guess it’s OK that I couldn’t secure an interview under those circumstances. At least I gave it my best shot so I feel good about that.
Anyway with the recent Matrix Online world coming online we should (hopefully) be only a short time away from people checking into “The World” for real. When? I don’t know… soon, I hope!

What’s Not? - I’ve said it twice and I’ll say it once again. I still do NOT like the needlessly hard work that comes with Grunty raising. Would it have been so hard to have added a Grunty Market for purchasing Grunty Food? Honestly! I can’t imagine a worse thing than Grunty Raising! That’s horrible!
Especially since I am often jinxed with the unfortunate luck of managing to create the SAME Grunty for a certain area OVER and OVER and OVER AGAIN! Sheesh! Why?!? Why can’t I get it right?!?

And, once again, I found the whole Goblin dueling thing (one on one) to not be my thing!
Both of these are just time wasters while you work on the main game, or just things to fill time as you play. Either way they’re not major playing elements so they’re not worth any major attention.

Yes, I am also still not so enamored about in terms of this game is it’s unusually low amount of time it takes to finish each game! As I wrapped this game I only managed to reach the 80 hour mark (guestimation on my part since I have nine levels to make up for my Level 75 goal), which is far different from other games which takes longer to finish… a good RPG would take as long as it took me to get 3/4ths of the way through this trilogy. At this rate I will probably top the 100 hour mark, which is the time two really good and deep RPGs would take to finish.

Anyway I guess it’s not like this (or the points above) are worth talking about, or having any major or serious complaints about, so why stress about it? They’re small time stuff so leave it that way.
Yeah. I know. I keep mentioning it… but it’s the only thing to mention in terms of flaws so there.
I still think nothing but the best of the games, so while I do bring up these flaws here they’re not downers on my recommendations about this game! It’s all good, and you should play it ASAP.

Moments to Remember? - Once again there’s a ton of memorable things in this game, like before.
You can’t go wrong with this game, so don’t even bother… ah… it’s good.
And, yes, once again there’s another bonus DVD with the third part of the (dot)hack//Liminality anime!
That’s gotta be good in my book! Be better if they compiled all the Liminality OAVs into one DVD for collectors, with maybe linear notes and other goodies, but that’s just me.

What to Ignore? - Maybe the Grunties? I really seem to be down on the things since I constantly complain about them each and every turn. I don’t mind Grunties but why do I have to care for them!
I only managed to make a really good Grunty ONCE, an Aqua Grunty… freaked me out the first time I made one, but it’s sooooo damn cute!! Guess that one time I didn’t mind Grunty raising so much.

So that means, once again, the only “ignore” I have to really talk about is the “difficulty” of this game in terms of having it all (all four “episodes“ to play). Until BANDAI puts together a (dot)hack Quadrliogy bundle to sell all four games in one package? You’ll have to do your homework and dig about for the games, but maybe that’ll happen once the Online version of The World becomes available (hopefully soon)!
Of course I don’t play online so I would love a offline expansion game… never happen, of course, but it’s nice to dream once in awhile.

Overall? - It’s the third of four parts, and the game is getting ready to wrap up in spectacular fashion with a review on the same month as the grand finale of the Star Wars trilogy! Can’t beat that!
With the storyline getting ready for the big finale I can’t think of a single bad thing to say.
And, yes, once again I bring up Morgan Webb of X-Play. Why? So maybe they’d mention me once in awhile. Or not. Either way I guess it‘s OK. I still disagree with her “assessment” of (dot)hack!

With all due respect to Miss Webb and her reviewing abilities, somehow going on and on about the “computer-speak” of (dot)hack, and ignoring everything else about the game that makes it solid and right on is abit of a shame… and sad too if you think about it. The game is far more than the few complaints she seems to have, and there are far more important things to complain about anyway… but I won’t mention them here. Do you know what the computer speak in (dot)hack is? Repeat after me… “flavor text”!
That computer talk stuff? It’s not important. The story, plot, and the gameplay, That is what’s important!
Of course that is also just the start of what is truly important about this game, but you don‘t want to listen to me ramble on for awhile so let‘s cut it short there. Anyway who needs to know computer slang or jargon when you just need to know what the heck is going on (I.e. in order to save your friend you‘ll need to kick some major butt and wipe out a seemingly invincible enemy that exists only in cyberspace but whose “reach“ extends far beyond “The World“ it was “born“ into), where you need to go to fix what’s going on, and so forth. That’s important. And I didn’t need to know technical computer lingo to grasp so easy a concept as that! So, remember Morgan, keep your eyes on the prize, and not on the details… you’ll miss the point if you do that.

Final word? With a few new tricks here and there, not to mention the game continuing to play solidly? Guess who doesn’t have much complaints about the game! It’s all good. Really. Wish it was longer but I guess that’s OK. As for the next game? We come to the grand finale. It’ll take awhile but I should have it up soon. Stay tuned!

-- David Rasmussen 28th Apr 05

Playstation 2 Hack//Outbreak Images