.hack //G.U. Vol. 2: Reminisce
Try to pronounce the title phonetically. I double dog dare you.
Tags: .hack //G.U. Vol. 2: Reminisce Categories: PS2 Reviews, Reviews
Posted by Michael Hanning on May 24th, 2007
| Title | Players | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| .hack //G.U. Vol. 2: Reminisce (title page) | 1 | ||
| Developer | Publisher | Genre | Online |
| Role-Playing | No | ||
As part of an overall universe, .hack//G.U. Vol 2: Reminisce (henceforth referred to as Reminisce, because that takes entirely too long to write) is more or less a direct continuation of the first game in this second series of games set in the .hack universe. The same problems and benefits have returned for Reminisce with a few new quirks – enough to call it a new game, not enough to call it an entirely new experience.
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To begin with, the main reason to buy this is continuing the story of the first game. Volume one ended with more mysteries than answers, and this game opens with every player on the server seemingly trapped inside the game. The mystery is what drives the game forward, and to be honest it’s sort of refreshing. You were never really in doubt that Sephiroth was the bad guy or that all those time travel disasters were the fault of Lavos, so a game where you’re really not sure what’s going to happen next is actually sort of novel. For those who didn’t play the first you have a brief chance to get caught up, but the odds of you playing this without playing the first game are slim anyway. If you really want to know what’s going on just give the first a shot.
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One of the places I found Reminisce lacking was in its combat, unfortunately. It’s monotnous and consists of little more than mashing an attack button, though a few new abilities manage to spice things up. There’s also a new feature in the form of the card game Crimson Versus – you don’t actually play, but after setting up a deck the game plays out matches at the rate of one per minute as long as you keep the game running. It’s a fun diversion, but once you find the right four-card combo and you set it to running there isn’t much else to do but check on what cards you’ve won and modify your deck accordingly. You don’t even get at this for the opening section of the game either – due to events in the story, you can’t log out of The World which means no e-mail, forums, news or card games. Removing a solid chunk of the game’s functionality? Weak.
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There are a few other new benefits to logging into The World this time as well. For the curious there’s a complete episode of the series .hack//Roots, the prequel to the current game series. There’s a chance that if you’re playing the games you’ve already seen it but it’s still a nice touch, even though offering a single episode brings to mind the archetypal crack dealer offering a little taste, insisting the first one is free.
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There are still some major problems with the .hack franchise, but Reminisce does a solid job of building off of the good while attempting some innovations of its own. I’d still like to choose my own class or create my own The World character, but the pervading sense of mystery and interesting style still set it apart from the competition. For a faux-MMORPG with anime overtones it’s simply impossible to get better than .hack//G.U.
| What Works | Score |
|---|---|
|
+ Visual style and gameworld are still cool. + The fake MMORPG is never going to stop being a cool idea to me. + Mystery in an RPG is actually refreshing. + Crimson Versus is a fun distraction. |
7.0 |
| What Doesn't | |
|
- Combat is impossible to escape, sort of tedious. - This probably really doesn't need to be spread across three games instead of one. |
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| Under the Shrink-wrap | |
| It's so firmly steeped in the style and mythology of the series that fans already know if they'll like it or not. New players ought to start with the original, or at least volume one of the current series. | |
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Tags: .hack //G.U. Vol. 2: Reminisce
Posted by Michael Hanning on May 24th, 2007 and is filed under PS2 Reviews, Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can post a comment, or trackback from your own site.
