The first game in a four-part series is.hack//INFECTION. It’s a single-player adventure/role-playing game that “simulates” an MMORPG (EverQuest, Ultima Online) with you as the character Kite. You can obtain other characters’ member addresses and attempt to call them in-game to check if they are available to accompany you on a quest. It contains a LOT of side missions, a LOT of weapons and armor, a trading system for equipment, among other characters, and the option to move between other servers, just like traditional MMORPG games. You can communicate with other “players” via message boards and e-mail. After completing the game, you can continue to play and level up your character and transfer your personality to the second game.Mutation/hack (May 2003). The plot: Your friend persuades you to try “The WORLD,” the most successful online role-playing game in computer history.
During your first adventure in the game with your friend (who is showing you the ropes), you come across a strange girl being chased by a strange monster, a peculiar incident causes your friend to go into a coma after the attack of an unknown / hacked monster. You end up with this book, which upgrades your character with an unusual gauntlet that allows you to hack into the game. Your adventure begins with determining what caused your friend to fall into a coma. This entails going on adventures in search of sightings of the weird girl and hacking into sealed levels. There appear to be corrupted levels and something going on that the CC Corporation (owner of “The World”) attempts to conceal. Ban Dai’s dot hack project, which began with the Anime DVD series (.hack//Sign), includes.hack//INFECTION. The game series picks up after the “Key of Twilight” events, focusing on the “Book of Twilight.” Each game consists of a DVD episode of the.hack//Liminality anime series, which depicts real-world events occurring around the same period as the game.
