.hack//Quarantine: Part 4

The Good
I am a huge anime fan, and this game hits the spot. The graphics, story, and dialogue all seem ripped right from the pages of a manga. Some of the themes are taken from near-future science-fiction concepts, of which I am a fan as well; The impact of technology, the nature of artificial intelligence, and other plot points are combined to make a truly unique console experience.

The Bad
The game is designed to play like a massively-multiplayer game. This is a good thing if you like those kinds of games, though I do not as a rule. It takes a fair amount of dungeon crawling, on the orders of days worth per disk, but the story and the excellent cut scenes were just barely enough to hold my interest through all four installments.

The Bottom Line
It's a single-player RPG dressed up as a massively-multiplayer type game. You play the role of a young role player who starts out trying to save his friend from a game-induced coma, and ends up saving the world from a technological implosion. A pretty good deal, if you don't mind plowing through all four parts from start to finish.