User:Jovanmilic97/.hack//Infectionn

.hack//Infection (.hack//感染拡大Vol.1) is an action video game developed by CyberConnect2 and published by Namco Bandai. It is the first part in a series based on the .hack universe.

Gameplay
The games themselves feature a linear storyline that concludes in each installment with the player receiving a Data Flag. Once the Data Flag has been received, the file may be converted to the next game, allowing a player to start each additional chapter with any items and level ups they may have had on their original file. However, players may still start the game without having played any of the previous installments in the series.

At startup, players find themselves facing a mock desktop, complete with icons reading "The World", "Mailer", "News", "Accessory", "Audio", and "Data" arranged vertically on the lefthand side. The last menu item, "Data" allows the player to save their game data, while "Accessory" and "Audio" allow players to customize their desktop – changing the wallpaper, what background music is playing, or watch cinematics from the game. While these choices are all limited early on in the game, performing various tasks will allow players to unlock more of these special features. "News" opens up a browser, displaying various news information going on in the outside world that the game is set in. "Mailer" takes players to their e-mail inbox, where various characters they encounter through the course of the game will write to them – sometimes with simply humorous greetings and other times with tips and hints that steer the story towards its next plot point. It is the first icon, located at the top of the desktop, that sends the player off and running into the game.

From there, players may choose to Login to the world, check the Message Board for more hints and clues on where to go next, or Quit and return to their desktop. Log In sends the player directly into The World – placing them at the Chaos Gate in the server they last used. From this town, players may shop for items, store unneeded items, save their game data, raise grunties (only on certain servers), talk and trade with other NPCs (non-player characters) or simply use the Chaos Gate to generate an almost infinite number of fields.

Fields have varying difficulties and are of some elemental type (Fire, Water, Earth, Wood, Thunder, and Darkness) that all skills players can employ stem from. While each character has their own normal means of attacking, they can also use a wide variety of skills. However, the only skills a character knows are those possessed by their equipment. Weapons, hats, armor, gloves and boots not only provide bonuses to an assortment of attribute scores (such as attack, accuracy, or evasion) but also bestow the players with skills that consume a set amount of the characters' SP. SP, unlike HP, slowly recovers over time – the speed of which varies from class to class.

The outlaw player Kite has an additional set of abilities under the heading "Data Drain". Some monsters may have an infinite number of hit points, or may simply get back up after being felled. To overcome these beasts, Kite may have to employ the strange power of the Twilight Bracelet to Data Drain the monsters into significantly weaker versions of their data-corrupted selves. This ability can be used on any normal monster as well, turning them into a ridiculously weakened version for an easy victory. Doing so causes Kite and his party to earn considerably less XP (experience points) and doing so frequently causes a much worse effect... the more Kite uses Data Drain, the more his body becomes infected. As the Infection spreads, Kite suffers from negative status conditions, stat penalties, XP loss, or even an automatic game over. On the flip side, the less Kite uses this ability, the more the Infection recedes – forcing players to use a measure of restraint when it comes to the powers of the Twilight Bracelet.

The combat system has been criticised for having awkward camera controls. Views do not shift automatically during battle so in order to find a comfortable view the player will have to manually move the camera angle themselves. It's also been criticised for requiring the player to open up a menu to cast a spell, which breaks the real-time action of the battle. Also, Experience Points are not divided equally among party members, which can lead to 'grinding' issues. The experience point criticism is, however, inaccurate as experience in the games is not divided at all. Each party member receives a full amount of experience for each kill based on their current level and the level of the slain opponent, with the result being that under-leveled party members will quickly catch up to those higher than them.

Story
Set after the events in the anime .hack//Sign, the story begins as players take on the role of Kite, who joins his real life friend, Yasuhiko, in the popular MMORPG The World. Yasuhiko is better known as Orca, a player of legendary status in The World, and rightly earned. From the message boards within the game, Kite learns that Orca has helped many beginner players set out, just as he does Kite. However, what starts off as a simple crash course in the game's mechanics turns horribly wrong.

Kite and Orca encounter two strange creatures: Aura, who appears as the floating ghost of a young girl, and the monsterous humanoid figure known as Skeith, who is chasing after Aura. Orca soon gives chase after the pair but ends up over his head as he battles Skeith. The battle ends with Skeith using a strange ability on the legendary player. When Skeith turns his attention to Kite, the legendary hacker Helba intervenes, and things begin happening very quickly and the game's server crashes.

Kite soon discovers that Yasuhiko, Orca's real life persona, lies comatose. To make matters worse, Yasuhiko is not the only player of The World in this condition. As a result of his encounter with Aura, Kite discovers that he now the wields the Twilight Bracelet and is host to many strange abilities including Gate Hacking (which allows Kite to enter previously restricted fields within the game) and Data Drain (an attack that alters the corrupted data in certain enemies, usually resulting in them becoming significantly weaker). However, Data Drain is the very attack that Skeith used to put Yasuhiko into a coma. Though Kite intends to use these abilities to find the cause of the comas and save the victims, he finds himself the enemy of CC Corp. (the game's administrators), as well as other players, for engaging in what are illegal activities.

He quickly teams up with BlackRose, a young girl whose brother, Kazu, has suffered the same fate as Yasuhiko. The two set off on a quest to get to the bottom of what is really happening (which the game's administrators may or may not be hiding) and find themselves not only opposed by Balmung (Orca's in-game partner), but also mired in a recreation of the epic poem known as the Epitaph of Twilight.

Reception
IGN praised the character design and called it addicting and gave it an 8.5. Gamespot gave it a 7/10.