I've yet to play a game that does more with the nature of an MMO as a storytelling medium or a "setting" than Pagan does – this game is everything I wanted out of the .hack quadrilogy and more. It's genuinely quite scary as well! The low-resolution graphics and "distorted" nature of everything adds to the feeling of distinct unease that permeates the experience.

The writing, theme and main idea are all quite strong, but tends to veer between being a touch too heavy-handed or too obtuse and indistinct to navigate or make sense of. It's also a touch frustrating that you have to play through the entire game over again to get the other ending after beating it, especially considering the "secret" ending is a bit of a pain to figure out to begin with and even more of a pain to actually pull off and execute.

Still – I think about Pagan quite often. This specific genre of "MMO narrative" needs more love.