Hack: G.U., Vol. 2 - Rebirth

Loading a save from the previous disc is the first thing this game asks you to do, and that request tells you almost everything about how CyberConnect2 built the G.U. trilogy. Levels, gear, guild members, the Chim Spheres you pried out of the field dungeons — all of it carries forward. Three retail releases stapled into one continuous save file was an odd commercial idea even in 2007, but it does something few RPGs manage: the sense that the character you are steering has a history you personally put there.

Haseo starts this volume with more than twin blades. The broadswords and dual guns that open up change the combat's rhythm considerably, since each weapon class has its own reach, recovery time and Skill Trigger set, and swapping mid-fight is how you handle rooms that mix armoured enemies with fast ones. It is still not a deep action system. Combos are short, blocking is stiff, and the camera in tight dungeon corridors remains the enemy it was in the first volume. What the added weapons do is stop the fighting from feeling like one button held down for forty hours.

Outside the field, the game keeps up its impersonation of an online world. You read forum threads and news posts on Haseo's desktop, answer mail, take quests off boards, watch a fictional playerbase gossip about events you were part of. The Crimson VS card game sits in there too, a full side diversion with collectible cards and its own opponents, and it exists mainly because a real MMO would have something like it. That kind of texture is where the series earns its reputation.

The story tightens here. AIDA infections, Ovan's disappearances, the Avatar battles that turn boss encounters into strange one-on-one duels in an abstract space — the plot stops circling and starts committing, and the Doppelganger that stalks Haseo across areas gives the middle act a genuine antagonist rather than a mystery. Pacing is still generous with cutscenes and light on surprises for anyone who played the original .hack quartet.

As a standalone purchase it makes no sense, which is exactly what the trilogy structure intended. Taken as the second act of a single long game, it is the volume where the parts click together and the grinding starts to feel like it belongs to somebody. Play the first one, or do not play this at all.