.hack Part 2: MUTATION

.hack Part 2: MUTATION Description

The second instalment in Bandai's MMORPG-within-an-RPG series is already with us, a mere three months after the release of the original .hack: Infection. For those of you not familiar with the games, .hack casts players as protagonist Kite, himself the player of a fictional online RPG called The World. Mutation basically continues the story - that will eventually result in four chapters - picking up where the first game left off and introducing a couple of new gameplay features, characters, items, and other treats along the way. Fans will be pleased to learn that Mutation also answers a good many questions that they will have been left with following the conclusion of Infection. To quickly recap, Part 1 saw Kite's friend Orca falling into a coma following certain traumatic events within The World, leaving Kite with the decision to do some investigating and try and find out exactly what's going on with the potentially-lethal virtual world. Entering The World himself, he soon meets fellow player BlackRose, defeats a boss called Skeith, but is ultimately defeated himself by new boss character Cubia. Part 2 begins with Kite and BlackRose logging back into The World and resuming their search to find out more about both Cubia and Skeith, as well as continuing to investigate why players of the game are being affected in real life. They soon discover fragments of an old game, Epitaph of the Twilight, which appears to be corrupting the system on which The World is running. Cue further investigating, more boss confrontations, and a cliffhanger conclusion that will leave you pining for Chapter 3. If you've played the first .hack game, you can transfer your save data and subsequently retain all your original character levels, weapons and items. In fact, to be honest, you don't want to be doing anything but this, as .hack is most definitely intended to be played as a series, and Mutation's lack of tutorial or teaching mode means it's somewhat more difficult to get into than its predecessor. If the concept of .hack: Mutation appeals to you, your best bet would be to go back and start with the original first, as an extremely novel and quite compelling adventure is to be uncovered, which improves in many ways with this latest instalment.