Fun, but repeats itself too much.
User Rating: 7.5 | .hack//G.U. vol. 1//Rebirth PS2
The .hack series, which is basically like playing a video of someone playing a video game, has always a had a rather enthralling, well told story to it. This is probably to make up for the fun, but horribly repetitive game play. The game takes place in "The World", the most populated online game out there. The protagonist, Haseo, is an infamous PKKer known as "The Terror of Death". He can probably best be summed up as a cynical bigot. Not to say he's a bad or unlikeable person, just rude. The reason for being so is to the loss of his friend Shino, who gets PKed buy the infamous "Tri-Edge", the antagonist of the game. If this were like any other player kill it wouldn't be such a big deal, however, after being PKed the person playing "Shino" falls into a coma. Reports of defeated players that fall comatose have also been reported all over the world. They are referred to as "The Lost Ones". Haseo vows revenge on Tri-Edge and follows his trail for 6 months, until he finally encounters him. After suffering a humiliating defeat, Haseo gets "Data Drained" by Tri-Edge and is reverted back to level 1. Even more determined than before Haseo sets out to find Tri-Edge again. The game play mechanics are simple enough: you form a party, select a stage and level up. All you have to do is find a party of monsters and engage them for a battle to start. You get a nice range of items though you can only carry 30 different kinds which can get aggravating. A lot of other knick-knacks are thrown in as well to make the game a bit more entertaining such as quests, a motorcycle, a forum, and many different adjustable setting for you fictional desktop, as well as an email inbox. Basically they want to make it feel like you are really online, and they don't do a bad job. Overall .hack//G.U. vol.1 makes for an excellent piece of story telling and fun, but rather dull game play. Though if its story you want, I suggest you go buy the movie. 
