.Hack//Infection (2002)

Developer: CyberConnect2
Publisher: Bandai
Platforms: PlayStation 2
Genres: Role-playing (RPG), Hack and slash/Beat 'em up
Rating: 3.8 of 5, 25 player ratings

The 3D catalog: game boxes on wooden shelves, with the cat sitting at the counter next to its greeting.

The catalog in 3D

The same catalog has a room you can walk around in. The cat behind the counter is the AI Catbot, and they pick real games from it when you tell them what you feel like playing. Nothing is for sale, here or in there. Go in from here and this game is already out on the counter, with more like it waiting on the shelf next to it.

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How it feels

Like logging into a lonely online world where something is deeply wrong beneath the surface, progress feels deliberate and quietly unsettling.

atmosphericmethodicalimmersivemysteriousslow-pacedlayeredsolitarymelancholic

About

.Hack//Infection is the first of a series of four games, titled .hack//Infection, .hack//Mutation, .hack//Outbreak, and .hack//Quarantine, features a "game within a game"; a fictional massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) called The World which does not require the player to connect to the Internet. Players may transfer their characters and data between games in the series. Each game comes with an extra DVD containing an episode of .hack//Liminality, the accompanying original video animation series which details fictional events that occur concurrently with the games. The games are part of a multimedia franchise called Project .hack which explores the mysterious origins of The World. Set after the events of the anime series .hack//Sign, the games focus on a player named Kite and his quest to discover why some users have become comatose as a result of playing The World. The search evolves into a deeper investigation of The World and its effects on the stability of the Internet.

What players say

A singular RPG that simulates logging into a fictional MMO, prized for its atmosphere, soundtrack and intriguing story of a comatose friend. Divisive in feel: immersive and unique to some, repetitive and tedious to others, with a short cliffhanger ending.

Screenshots

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This page is from Underplayed Gems, a catalog of older and overlooked games. Not quite it? You can browse by platform and genre, or take this one into the 3D catalog and ask the Catbot for something closer.