Phantasy Star Universe [X360]

Poor waif Ethan Waber won't be going online in Phantasy Star Universe anytime soon. Waber, a cocky, spiky-haired, board-riding lad -- not unlike a certain Bartholomew J. Simpson, it should be noted -- stars in the offline, single-player portion of Sega's futuristic action role-playing game Phantasy Star Universe.

As explained in Universe's deadly serious theme song, "This is a battle for freedom. It is a battle against the dark." An alien attack throws the 17-year-old Waber's life into disarray, forcing the young boy to reevaluate his stance on both helping people, and joining the Guardians, the organization dedicated to the universe's protection.

With the Gurhal system under siege from mysterious alien invaders known as The Seed, Waber takes light sword and laser pistol in hand, and sets off to slaughter wave after wave of strange enemies that teleport in from the ether, and huge boss monsters that must either be cut up piecemeal or else in extended brawls.

The single-player adventure is meant, more or less, to be a training ground for the main event: the game's online play. In the story mode, players are introduced to Universe's basic features: the hacking and also the slashing, inventory management, and party formation. This is not to say the solo mode is a throwaway bit of fluff, because it certainly isn't. Sega estimates there's about 40 hours' worth of story here, and it stretches out from a central hub filled with shops and other venues to three different planets.

Waber begins his career as a would-be universe savior attempting to free his sister from a collapsed transportation tube. Here, players are told how to perform basic attacks (jam on the Xbox 360 controller's X button), make more powerful strikes with the Y button, and use a secondary weapon in the hero's left hand by pressing the right bumper button and X. In this way, Waber can wield two weapons at once, and use either one independently of another. It's a nice feature, and allows the hero to rifle off a series of range-based attacks and then get in close to use melee attacks without having to enter a menu screen in order to switch weapons.