Douglas's game of the week: .hack//OUTBREAK

I've heard alot of people say stuff like "3rd game in a series always gets screwed." Not true in some cases, because Super Mario Brothers 3 and Sonic 3 were pretty good, but in the case of Phantasy Star, it applies. And it applies in the .hack series.

Just so you know, I'm not a hater of .hack like Cirvante is, and I was actually planning to review them all at the same time because they can be easily be put together into just 1 game with 1 or 2 CDs instead of 4 $45 games. The DVDs are nice though. (I saw OUTBREAK for 65 @&$+!!!!ing dollars at Wal-mart. I found it for 45 at Target while the really great MUTATION was selling for 20.)

One of the reasons I'm less than enamored about the dot hack games is because it features some of the worst camera control ever. Period-the camera control in Tomb Raider the Angel of Darkness was never this annoying.

The graphics still are kind of bland. Sure, Kite, BlackRose, and Balmug look cool, but the backgrounds are very repetetive. I'm not decreasing the score of OUTBREAK for the graphics, because it's supposed to be an MMORPG-And some are actually like that. The Environments are slightly improved because the story says that the environments are beginning to decay. They captured it perfectly in some places.

The music of the game is okay, but it's not the kind that sticks in your head and gets kind of repetetive. The voicework is perfectly executed though.

Now the best thing about the dot hack series and probably the only reason I'm still playing the games is the storyline. The storyline certainly is the high point of the game, like in Fire Emblem. The storyline begins with Orca still in a Coma and Kite trying to find out why. And the updates to The World seem to be pretty unstable and fewer players are roaming the world. I really appreciate the mood here, it certainly didn't disappoint me.

I think I've actually been a bit mean to this game-The Camera control is something we could CERAINLY do without, same with having to pay full prices for games that are about a quarter the length of a regular game. I feell Bandai made the story this good and divided it into four parts so they could get the money. I decided to give it a fairer score, because I had intended to give the game a 2.50/10, but I feel it deserves better than that (And Carter would probably sic Orca on me if I gave it a 2.5). The Storyline really is at an all time high, but Bandai could have gotten away with making a semi-awesome series if not for that (endless list of profanity) camera control! 6.50/10

Pros:
-Great storyline
-Kite
-Excellent voicework

Cons:
-Camera control
-somewhat repetitive backgrounds
-Somewhat boring music
-And did I mention the Camera Control?

Eeeek! Douglas has an avatar now!!

Lemme guess...Rictor?

Meh-Played INFECTION, never got into it.

I feell Bandai made the story this good and divided it into four parts so they could get the money.

And not to mention a card game, a new anime and probably more stuff.

^There's another anime besides .hack//SIGN and a card game? Shows what I know...But .hack//SIGN still is a good show.

The next anime IS Bandai milking more money from the series. The people behind the games and SIGN have nothing to do with it. Mostly.