Phantasy Star Online Ver. 2

"A good Online Multiplayer, for peoplr that want to pay"

PSO, or Phantasy Star Online was one of the first online multiplayer games for a console. The first game was a huge sucsess and was one of the top game for the Dreamcast. Back in the late fall of 2001, PSO version 2 came out. There were several extras, but at a cost. You had to pay $15.00 US money to play online for 3 months. There is also long, pointless upgrades to prevent hackers to enter PSO, that usually take up to usually a day to complete, and it doesn't do any good. The final line, the question is: to pay or not to pay, that is the question?

Gameplay 9/10: The same as PSO, you now get a max level of 200 and new wepons PSO players couldn't use. Nothing mutch is new,level wise, except a nes difficulty level acchieved when you are at lv. 80

Graphics 9/10: The same as PSO. Nothing has changed. You can change your costume now thouge, if you pay.

Sound 5/10: Nothing realy interesting. PSO ver.2 is the same as PSO. The sound gets annoying fast, and your character doesn't make a sound.

Buy, Or Rent? You cannot rent this game because of the code and the Dreamcast Requirements. You haveto buy, but try PSO first because you will have to pay US 39.99 for game and US 15.00 for three months online play.

Final: Only buy this game if you have played PSO and liked it. Don't buy it if you havent though.

The biggest dissapointmenbt is sega hasn't done anything about the hackers on Version 2. You pretty much have to enter a password protected game to ensure you don't get NOL'd or PK'ed. The new options are listed below.

Level max instead of 100 is 200
Lobby Soccer
New wepons and MAGS
Dressing room allowes you to change color and hair if you have 100,000 messeta
Can use old players from Ver 1
Battle mode
New difficulty level
can play with PSO users only instead of PSO ver 1 players

The bad is listed below

You have to pay US 15.00 to play for 3 months
SEGA has banned all the good items
SEGA hasn't done anything about GS user.
No new levels to explore

PSO was one of the first online multiplayers and contiues to be one of the best. The biggest problem is the game is useless unless you sell the Dreamcast with the game. The code is annoying and continues to be. SEGA is also a pain to deal with with the banned items.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 03/03/02, Updated 06/26/03