Customer Reviews

Oni

5 star:		(22)
4 star:		(16)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

This game is one of the best i have played in a long time. The grafx are dated, yes and the levels tend to look the same but the game plays like a dream. Being chased by three guys over catwalks, sliding to dodge heat-seeking rockets, and watching ase the rockets you dodged hit your attackers never gets old. I love friendly fire! The storyline is cool, i care about the charachters and the final decision of chapter 13 is one of the coolest things in a video game to date. ...

I have just installed and started playing Oni and love it! If you are a fan of fighting games like Tekken or Virtua Fighter and a fan of games like Tomb Raider, then this blend is a match for you. While the graphics are somewhat average for a game of this type, the animations make up for it. All of the moves you can perform are handled in a lifelike smooth fashion which really adds to the playability.

The story is nothing super, but fun and worth going through. Mind you I have not gotten far into it yet.

I have encountered no bugs yet other than a little clipping here and there. The install seems to want you to install an OpenGL driver, however, I did not and it still plays fine on my system. As a side note I am playing on a Inspirion 5000e laptop with Windows 2000.

I'm not a huge computer game expert. I was there at the beginning of the FPS boom, with Wolf 3D and Doom, but my interest trailed off in these sort of action games pretty quickly simply because there was no real conceptual innovation. Technically, these games were improving by leaps and bounds, but this amounted to nothing more than being able to shoot more realistic bullet holes into the prettier looking walls as you walk into a room and blow up anything that moves. Admittedly, there have been some recent innovations like the Counterstrike add-on and Thief II, which place more of an emphasis on stealth and teamwork, but conceptually it's pretty much all the same.

On the face of it, the only distinction between Oni and the shelfloads of other FPS shooters out there is that Oni is third-person, the view following directly behind your character a la Tomb Raider. But the actual fighting engine is incredibly original and fun to play with. The hand-to-hand combat is truly something you have to experience first-hand. It's both relatively simple (you won't be spending a lot of time learning esoteric button combinations) yet extremely flexible, allowing you to do an extensive variety of moves.

Each time I encounter an enemy, a completely new fight transpires depending on the surrounding environment. It's not like I'll shoot each blue colored drone from behind with the same gun. Sometimes it's fun to draw him out with a scatter gun and then pound him with some sort of punch-kick combo. Sometimes it's fun to try to sneak up behind him and snap his spine like a toothpick. I've had fights where I've snuck behind a guard while on a ramp, disarm him and then throw him over my shoulder. Two other guards noticed and started running my way. I grabbed one, swung around him by his neck, kicking the other one, which knocked them both to the ground temporarily. Meanwhile, the first guard has since gotten up and is chasing his gun which has been rolling down the ramp. It seemed like it was scripted out of some B action movie. It truly is a fun experience because it is so easy to do so much.

The fighting is so brilliant that it overshadows some of the games admitted flaws. I can only cross my fingers and pray for a sequel in which they are all remedied. First of all, the criticism that advancing through levels in Oni is nothing more than switch hunting (find green switch to open green door, then find blue switch to open blue door, etc.) is a fair one. I really wish there were some more complex puzzles or mazes. Others point out that Oni doesn't have any multiplayer and that the environments were a bit simplisitic. This is also true, but I think that these were more technological limitations. It's common knowledge that multiplayer was dropped because there was latency problems. And while a grittier Neo-Tokyo would have been fun to have played in, for most computers it would have come at the expense of such smooth fighting.

I disagree about the controls being difficult. I think that the mouse/keyboard set-up that you have to use is the optimal set-up. I know many people are stubborn about how they like to play, but a joystick for Oni would seem particularly awkward. I can't imagine how PS2 players could enjoy this game.

A final note of caution is that those of you with older video cards could have a lot of technical problems. I originally had an ATI Rage Pro. The game made me install new drivers that caused continual crashes. Moreover, this older card didn't support transparent walls, so whenever I got stuck in the corner, I was fighting blind. All I could see was the wall behind me, obstructing my view. I have since upgraded to an ATI Radeon. The action is much smoother, the walls behind me are transparent, and I have had no problems with crashes.

Overall, a wonderfully entertaining game that yet has potential to be even greater.

This game is very strange. I've never seen such strong elements in an overall pretty lousy game. With the "strong elements" I mean the fights. These fights cause a huge adrenaline-rush. There are a lot of moves and it looks and plays very good. But there are a lot of bad things about this game...

For example, the overall gameplay is very bad. 18 levels long you'll have to pull a switch, go through an opened door, whack some baddies and pull a switch again and go through a door again and... you get my point.

This game has also got one of the worst save-options ever known to mankind. The game saves automatically at certain points, but you'll have to complete the level because if you restart the game the save-points are gone! This is only done because if you could save yourself you'll finish it in about 8 hours. But there's something even worse... after completing 10 levels I took a break and when I came back I accidentally pressed "new game". No problem, I thought, just load my old game again, but... The $^$#&#&^# game ERASED MY SAVES!!! The whole city trembled of the scream that left my mouth (hmmm... maybe only the neighbourhood ;)

The graphics are not bad, but very boring. The levels are completely non-interactive.

It's a shame that Bungie put such a beautiful fightingsystem in such a lousy game. So... don't buy this game! (....)

This is a great game no matter what. The graphics are great and the moves and levels are some of the best i have ever seen. The keys ARE a problem but can be altered. In the program file there is a text document titled "Key Config" so there you go. Enjoy a fun thrilling ride in this great Action/Adventure game.

Well, the graphics are decent, and the gameplay is great. Since when I play a game the thing I notice the most is the gameplay, I really enjoy this game, lot's of moves, combos and stuff which are fairly easy to pull of. The gun's are cool, although you will probably find fighting hand to hand much more fun. My problem, as most have said, is the press switch, open door routine. I don't have much of a problem with the save scheme, since I find that I enjoy a game the most when I run through, risking it all and not saving before every door I'm going through.

I don't know what people talk about when they say it is hard to use the the weapons. I find it pretty simple. Move the mouse over the bad guy, press the left mouse buton, and.... that's it.

Well, those were my two cents.

I have played this game alot and i must say that it has something you very rarely see anymore, originality. I have never played a game like it, and while its not perfectly done, its done well enough that i once played for over 4 hours without looking at the clock. The game is dificult, but that is also part of what i enjoy, its hard enough that you almost never beat a level your first time through, but not so hard that i ever was discouraged (also, there is a way to turn the dificulty up and down, it makes a noticeable difference!) The fighting in the game is increadible, your able to preform Tekken like attacks and combos to multiple enemies while at the same time takeing them down with any of the bizzare (but very cool) weapons that you find. I agree that the saveing system is a little annoying sometimes, but i feel it doesnt impinge on the game enough to make me dislike it. If you like anime, action games, high end martial arts, and great graphics, this game is for you.

I've only played the first 3 levels of ONI. The game's gameplay, sound and music are very good, the only thing where they could have a done a better job with little effort was the graphics...... The Character animation in ONI is not so great.... in cutscenes, the characters are just standing still with no face expressions or moving parts like the mouth or the eyelashes...... maybe I'm being picky.... but these little things make watching cutscenes a lot more fun........ still, the game is fun and worth playing....

This game is detailed in the fighting department, even though it is a fighter/shooter hybrid! The number of offensive/defensive moves that you can do with a keyboard in incredible.

But there is the catch: the keyboard! I can't find a way to use my Wingman game pad controller.

You move forward/backward and strafe left/right (and perform jump/punch/kick) with your keyboard; you turn/change your line of sight/aim with the mouse. And there is no auto-aiming... It is a good thing that your guns comes with a aiming sight (laser-like) to let you know where you are aiming but... Frankly, I was more expecting an all-on-a-game pad control scheme, especially if this game is also done on Playstation.

You can't even change what keys on the keyboards you may use. Everything is frozen!! ... Well that's not entirely true. You may change the settings by editing a file called "key_config.txt". But I am all confused as to why they (the designer) never installed a control configuration option screen!

The saving-scheme is "sub-episode" based. Your game is saved once you have reached a certain point in the game. You can't save anywhere and there are no save-points. And the saves are pretty far apart! <grumble> I still ache from repeating a segment of the game over, and over, and over, and over...

Aside from this the game is (still!) very good (thus the 4 stars out of 5). The fighting is extremely hectic, but rewarding once you master the control scheme. Rejoice on taking down plenty of enemies

The graphics are very good, without being overly detailed. This lack of detail is good for a few reasons: a) this is a anime-environment game (anime is a term used for Japanese animation style); b) with so much action, any more details would slow down the game on any computer! The faces on the characters are static when they talk, but I personally don't put much emphasis on that for this type of game. The music is great (I even got the ONI soundtrack). And the voice-overs are... well... overacted. But hey! This is anime! It's supposed to be like that!

This is a very satisfying game that does it with plenty of action and style. But the two keywords of warning should be: hard control scheme, bad save feature. As always, I recommend you download the demo from the designer's website (...) to try out the controls. If you can handle it, go for it and buy the game.

NOTE: Although I use the term "anime" quite often, all designers of this game are American-based. This is not a game ported from Japan. It is (heavily) inspired by anime.

I have many gripes with this game: the poor save-game system, the bland level design, the constant switch hunting, etc. I have found that it is, however, and in all fairness, a very addictive game. Much of the addictiveness comes from the crisp and innovative fighting system. Some of it comes from the intruiging cut scenes, a few of the games surprise plot points, and an overall ease of play.

Clearly the designers of Oni had some very good ideas. It's strange to see a game that got so much right and, yet, got so very much wrong. There are certainly elements of this title that I would like to see implemented in future games, and I would definitely keep an open mind if I heard that Oni 2 were in development.

As it stands, however, its a game that balances on the thin edge of innovation and frustration. As it stands, I can't recommend the game at full price, but I have no doubt that it will be the jewel of the remainder bin.