ic-games Review - .Hack: Outbreak - Reviews, Previews and Interviews for PC, Xbox 360, PS2, PS3 and Wii

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.Hack: Outbreak

Information
Reviewer: Andy Carmichael
Developer: Ban Dai
Publisher: Atari
Reviewed: Playstation 2
Genre: Action RPG
UK Release: 17th Sep 2004
Article Date: 31st Oct 2004
Difficulty: Hard
Retail Price: £39.99
Price Comparison:
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Score Breakdown

Experience:
Game Play:
Graphics:
Sound:
Overall Score: 67%

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Pros

Advances story for fans in a familiar way

Cons

It’s all or nothing with the four games

Screenshots

6 of 15

In the twinkling of a gaming eye the Dot Hack series has racked up more instalments than some RPG worlds manage in a lifetime. This third outing starts to make the franchise look like the console equivalent of the Stephen King ‘Green Mile’ novella experiment – a regular drip feed of chapters comprising one grand tale.

The first question with this however, is why full price? If you get sucked into Bandai’s world then you’re looking at a not inconsiderable expense to complete the four part story, at least the Final Fantasy’s have had the decency to be stand alone and contrive different scenarios (ok, this can be played standalone but who the hell would know what was going on?) On the other hand how many of us regularly shell out for a sports title with little more than the year ending changed? We just have to face it, us gamers are ripe for this kind of marketing. The least I can do is to tell anyone unfamiliar with the series to not buy this game – well not yet, at least, you really do need to play Infection and Mutation first, and unless you really dig this stuff then the action figures and TV show are probably off the Christmas pressie list (although you do get a free dvd with this one.)

For everyone else it’s pretty much a case of so far, so familiar. The story moves on but not to the effect of massive enhancement to The World. Everything feels to have been given a slight tweak. Continuing in the role of Kite still you’re still looking to get to the bottom of the mysterious virus and resurrect Orca from his coma, and doing so still involves amassing information and clues whilst battling through locations, either known or randomly generated, in the same old manner. You can port your saved game data across from Part 2, which will be needed to battle against the higher level enemies, but the commonly experienced 24 hours (or so) to completion lifespan doesn’t alter. There’s one new location to explore, some slightly tweaked AI but still not overly impressive, an addition to the use of grunties, and a few new faces to encounter. It really is that simple really – either you’re buying these things or you’re not.

For anyone not knowing what I’m on about this game is basically a simulation of an online mass multiplayer experience, featuring a ‘desktop’, ‘servers’, ‘mail’ and ‘forums’. Of course none of these things exist, but act as the plot advancers when a deadly outbreak renders players of the game unconscious. Receiving messages and making contact with other ‘players’ leads to locations and friendships to solve the puzzle. In good old fashioned RPG style this solution ultimately ends on the point of a sword either solo or as a group effort, and so for me misses a trick with this quite unusual approach (although I do remember a Spectrum game some 20 years ago coming up with something similar for the ‘real’ world.)

I have to say I’m not really a fan of the visuals in the series. The locations are hugely variant but still retain something quite garish about all of them and lack an artist’s familiarity with a palette. The characters don’t impress me having played a lot of RPGs, and certainly don’t live up to the billing of being part of such a large franchise, there’s something just a little outdated about the styling, they’re just a bit blocky and the faces would be more at home as the occasional on screen interludes in a flying game or similar. The sound is quite repetitive as well, I know an RPG that opts for the non-cutesy factor will always tend to have some continuous synth effort but this one just gets on my nerves – hugely personal I know but that’s why this is a review. I don’t really rate the voiceovers either – there must be a school for jobbing actors claiming Queen’s English on their c.v and wondering why they never get parts on T.V.

Overall I don’t think I can say anything in this review to convince either a fan to give up the series or a non-believer to take up the habit. If you want to know how it all pans out then please carry on, if not then you may find much more rewarding (and certainly cost effective) offerings. It’s a slightly missed opportunity for me, a good concept allowed to become a familiar rehash of existing gameplay

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