There's a new .hack game coming out, aren't you excited? I can hear you sighing and shaking your head as I write this. Now I know, just as well as the next person that .hack is getting a little old, what with 4 PS games, 3 novels (and a novel series), 2 anime, 3 OVAs, 2 manga, an online roleplaying game and a collectible card game, but I'm confident that .hack//G.U. will be different from .hack//SIGN, .hack//INFECTION, .hack//MUTATION, .hack//OUTBREAK, .hack//QUARANTINE, .hack//Liminality, .hack//Legend of the Twilight, .hack//DUSK, .hack//AI buster, .hack//AI buster 2, .hack//Another Birth, .hack//GIFT, .hack//ZERO, .hack//ENEMY, .hack//fragment and .hack//XXXX.

I'll start with a little introduction for those of you who are reclusive, blind, deaf hermits who live under rocks in a remote area of the moon and have managed to avoid encountering any of the .hack franchise. The basic plot is that due to a worldwide computer virus epidemic, there is only one OS that anyone uses, Altima OS. Altima has created the largest MMORPG in history, creatively called 'The World.' The game is hugely popular, with over 4 million users signing up at its launch. Each of the .Hack titles focuses on a series of bizarre events known as the Twilight Incident, in which players actually sustained RL (real life) damage when their characters were hurt. Multiple users are put into comas while playing the game. Most of the .hack storylines focus on a group of anomalous AI including Aura, Morganna and Aura's daughter Zefie as well as the system errors and bizarre occurrences in "The World".

In the original 4 title game series, you play Kite and Black Rose, two typical snot-nosed school kids as they investigate the net. Kite accidentally dies when a data error causes a high level monster to spawn in a low level area. Aura appears, revives him and when he wakes up he is wearing a bracelet that allows him to 'Data Drain' enemies (basically hacking the program to reset the level of the enemy.) Kite and Black Rose run around trying to find Aura, figure out what has happened to the unconscious players and defeat what I call 'glitch monsters' or monsters that have infinite HP and can only be defeated with the data drain. That is also what most of the other .hack titles involve, little kids trying to save 'the world.' Urg, Retch! Uh, that is... I mean, yay!

The game .hack//G.U. is much darker, and from what I've read, it sounds awesome. Basically it's 2017, 7 years have passed since the end of the original .hack games. ALTIMIT OS has been replaced by ALTIMIT MINE OS and The World is now The World R:2 (WHOO, now those are some Big Changes.) After a group of players set off a Cataclysm (oops) the game lost most of its data and was shut down, until R:2 came along. Because the original "The World" accounts couldn't be recovered the RPG lost many of its origional players, and a new population took over. Ok, in order to understand R:2 here's a reference: Take WoW (which was recently recorded as having 6.6 million paying subscribers) and double it, make all the servers PVP without the aid of alliance and horde groupings, and you've got The World R:2.

It is a bit post apocalyptic, think Mad Max. Instead of players helping each other explore the endless litany of dungeons, the players are busy killing each other and competing to survive. PK (player killers) abound and it's damn hard for an honest gamer to survive. The worst of all is Tri-Edge, a notorious PK who will unhesitatingly and wordlessly destroy any player that crosses his path. However, one day one of his victims falls into a RL coma just after getting PKed, and Tri-Edge draws the attention of Haseo, a famous PKK (Player killer killer.) Unfortunately, not even Haseo can't defeat Tri-Edge and his level 133 character is data drained to level 1 and stripped of all equipment. You heard me right, the bad guy, who looks like an evil twin of Kite, is the one who wields the all powerful Data Drain. Bit of a turn around from the original. So what does it mean to The World that Kite, Shugo and Tri-Edge all have the same character design and all three are chosen to wield the data draining bracelet?

What G.U. stands for is never officially and definitively declared, but supposedly there are 12 or more refrences to things that could be G.U. within the game. True to .hack form //G.U. will not be a single game, but is a trilogy that will be completed over the course of 2007. Also true to form there will be an accompanying anime. According to Newtype

"...the entire experience is more online RPG-like with more action-focused battles, a more robust skills set, and group attacks that get your entire party involved... just pop into a town area or designated battle area out in the field and you'll find scads of PKs for Haseo to hunt down... not to mention an almost startling graphical upgrade."

The first volume is being released this October from Namco Bandai Games for the PS2. If you are too lazy to play the game you can still get to know the characters by watching .hack//Roots an anime currently airing in Japan that covers Haseo's exploits prior to being downgraded.

Game and anime trailers for .hack//G.U. and .hack//Roots can be found at Cyber Connect 2's official web site or through the .hack hub site

Labels: Anime, Games, hacking, MagicMysticGrl, Manga, MMORPG, PlayStation, PS2, trailer, Upgrade, World-of-Warcraft