.hack//Infection: Part 1

.hack//Infection is the first in a four part game series. It's a single player adventure / rpg that "simulates" an MMORPG (EverQuest, Ultima On-line) that has you playing the character Kite. You can get member addresses of other character and attempt to call them to in game to see if they are on-line to join you in a quest. Like standard MMORPG games, it has a LOT of side quests, lots of weapons and armor, a trading system for equipment among other character and the ability to move between different servers. You also have message boards and e-mail to communicate with other "players". Once you beat the game, you can still continue to play and level up your character and your character can transfer to the second game .hack//Mutation (May 2003).

Your friend talks you in to trying "The WORLD", the most successful on-line rpg in computer history. During your first adventure in the game with your friend (showing you the ropes) you come across a strange girl being chased by a weird monster, a strange incident causes your friend to go into a coma after the attack of unknown / hacked monster and you end up with this book that upgrades your character with an unusual gauntlet that allows you to hack in the game. Your quest starts out to find out what caused your friend to go in to a coma. This involves adventuring after sightings of the strange girl and hacking in to sealed levels. There also seems to be corrupted levels and something going on that the CC Corporation (owner of “The World) is trying to hide.

.hack//Infection is part of Ban Dai's dot hack project that first starts with the Anime DVD series (.hack//Sign). The game series takes place after the events of the "Key of Twilight" and focus's on the "Book of Twlight". Each game in the series has a DVD episode of the .hack//Liminality anime series that show the events going on in the real world around the same time as the game.