Highly Underated, I found this to be a great game adding a lot to the original.
User Rating: 8.8 | .hack//G.U. vol. 1//Rebirth PS2
I found this to be a great game adding a lot to the original. While many of the reviews have said that this game does not add nearly enough to the gameplay because the battle systems are the same. Well the battle systems have drastically changed from being a wide open area to a more encloused space where you don't worry about running into more enimies and focus on the enimies in the area. Although the battle system may seem to get tedious at times that is when you can take it to the battle arena that adds a nice twist to the game from fighting monsters to fighting fellow players ( that don't really exist). Remember that this may seem like a MMORPG but it isn't, but it does display it in the best way it could. Of course you are going to running into the same characters time to time, but you gotta think it is not as though the makers can make millions upon millions of characters, although it would be cool, but you have to think realistically. Some say that the story behind Dot Hack is lackiing but I find it intriging, although very complicated, which is probably why it has three parts to it. I like how they are able to integrate side plots in with the main plot, instead of it just being their like other game side plots. My only criticism towards the plot would be the way they ended this chapter of it. It seemed a little rushed and that I was missing something, although that may have been what the creators wanted it seemed to end to fast with few questions answered. However, this is only the first part and ending with a cliffhanger proves it which I didn't mind, I actually thought it was good but just ended too fast.
Talking about the speed, I found the game to be far too short, not exactly shorter than the first series but not as long as they were saying it was supposed to be. Now on to the graphics, I personally thought the graphics were different in a good way. Cell shadding may have been big for a while but this brings it back and does a great job with it on the detailed characters and backgrounds and movies within the game. Not to sound like a sissy but the art and the graphics are beutiful and just plain good to look at and drool over. From the visual to the sound, the sound was good given most of the sounds we probably have not heard (besides in the original Dot Hack games), but the swords clanging and grass crunching sound great. The voices are also very good, probably not the best you will hear but they do seem to have pulled some great voice actors for the roles with the main voice actor, charcater (Haseo), having previously done some animes including Naruto. And finally the music seems to fit every scene to a tee where it is a fun and carefree scene to a serious scene the music matches it almost perfectly, with some characters even having their own theme song of sorts.
So basically this is a great game all around and is well worth the $40 it is being sold for. So I deffinately would reccomend this game for any RPG gamer out there. 
