.hack//G.U., until now, was a total mystery. Heck, even .hack in itself was, outside of the vaguely annoying anime series that ran its course on the Cartoon Network. So, naturally, I entered this game with low expectations. They were summarily exceeded.

Cue Haseo, the main playable character. Haseo, the Terror of Death. Haseo, the Player Killer Killer. Haseo, the complete and utter tool that you want to put on your virtual block list about two hours into the game, yet come to appreciate due to his lack of any sort of tact or longish periods of emotional pondering. For the sake of framing the game's plot, I will spoil the first hour or so, so if that sort of thing bothers you--feel free to skip over the next paragraph.

As Haseo represents the sort of 14 year old who first logs onto World of Warcraft and doesn't know a thing, what's the first thing he does? He joins up with two stronger characters who teach him the ropes. They soon player kill (PK) him. This sort of thing usually spoils a man on something, and indeed it did--he took eight months of endless grinding with low-level boars while listening to Paul Stanley's Live To Win. This resulted in a power-mad Haseo who went around with a chainsaw sword, cutting off PKer's heads. A mysterious character named Tri-Edge meets him, beats him easily, and sends Haseo back to level one. Now imagine the sort of angst, confusion, and misdirected anger that a 14-15 year old would experience in seeing 8 months of work going down the drain. That...is Haseo. Even though he eventually chills out a bit, the game stil gives you the option (via dialogue trees) to keep on that path. A nice touch, if I do say so myself.

Combat in .hack//G.U. is simplistic, but oh so efficient. For those who have played the Tales of franchise, it should be fairly familiar--you run around a blocked off area (in this case, blocked via a computer-generated energy wall) and free-form beat the holy bejeezus out of your enemies. Of course, the concept of "press X to win" reigns supreme...for the most part. Running up to and away from enemies jamming buttons to attack is only one part--you can also hit a trigger to pull up a menu and pause action, leaving you available to activate a special move. If an enemy has a blue aura about them, said special moves do increased damage and give a nice bonus at the end of a round.

Plot-wise, you shouldn't expect much. There are a few twists that I don't care to reveal in a review, but that's about it--this first chapter is all about setup. Through dialogue, animations, and out-of-game communique, storyline and character development work pretty nicely.

Of course, the one really notable part of .hack//G.U. is the multiple ways it has to push plot forward. Emails are sent back and forth between characters, with dialogue trees aplenty. Newscasts are available throughout the game, giving you some sort of insight into the real world surrounding the game that you're playing. There are even forums dedicated to the MMO that .hack simulates that hold hints and special downloads. The most obvious bonus is within the fan-art community, which has threads clearly marked with where to find imagery. The rest of the forums are eerily accurate with the fact you have to burrow through hundreds of posts to find one useful one.

What .hack//G.U. throws at you is a brisk (well, compared to most jRPGs), well planned, somewhat clever but ultimately a bit generic romp through a MMORPG that resides in a unsettling futuristic world that you only view through electronic windows. Whether a really neat experiment in gameplay or a damning story about humankind's increasing reliance on fiber optics... Well, it's hard to tell. But it's an interesting trip while it lasts, and leaves the player wanting the next part. What more can you ask for?