.hack Attack

THE MASSIVELY MULTIPLAYER GAME YOU PLAY ALONE Read carefully: .hack is coming, and it will confuse you. But it�s worth figuring out. Essentially, it�s a single-player PS2 game that mimics a multiplayer online game. Play it on two levels — the game and the game-within-the-game. If that�s not enough, check out the TV show, anime […]

THE MASSIVELY MULTIPLAYER GAME YOU PLAY ALONE

Read carefully: .hack is coming, and it will confuse you. But it�s worth figuring out. Essentially, it�s a single-player PS2 game that mimics a multiplayer online game. Play it on two levels — the game and the game-within-the-game. If that�s not enough, check out the TV show, anime series, and merchandise tie-ins coming to the US from Bandai, the Japanese entertainment juggernaut. All told, .hack is more than the sum of its spin-offs. It�s a high-concept, high-context multimedia phenomenon. Operating manual below.

  1. You start .hack (�dot-hack�) in Browser Mode — where you read email from �friends� and learn about The World, the game-within-the-game. Log on to The World, and .hack becomes a brilliant simulation of a massively multiplayer online role-playing game. While playing the MMORPG, you�ll meet up with virtual buds who help you slaughter trolls. The World is run by CC, an evil tech firm. (In reality, .hack was developed for PlayStation 2 by CyberConnect2, or CC. Get it?)

  2. Suddenly, a friend who�s attacked in The World lapses into a coma in the offline realm of .hack. Strange things begin to happen to other players, too — is CC to blame? One talented young hacker retaliates — within The World and outside of it. That kid is you. Still with us?

  3. In addition to being a new PS2 game, .hack is already a popular animated TV show in Japan, with a tie-in comic book, a straight-to-video anime series, and an avalanche of merchandise. All of which are set to invade the US soon after the game arrives this fall. A postmodern attack on the mastertext? Or just a massively multipronged attack on your wallet?

  4. Bandai is staggering *.hack�*s release in four parts, at four- to six-month intervals. Each is packaged with an anime DVD that includes hints and passwords to help you master the game. And, yes, Bandai says that it might someday take .hack online in a real MMORPG.

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