Omikron: The Nomad Soul

The Good
Nomad Soul is the first creation of the extravagant French designer David Cage and his development team Quantic Dream. It is a hybrid game that is hard to categorize - an ambitious project that attempts to build up complex gameplay rooted in traditional adventure.

At its heart, Nomad Soul is indeed a pure adventure game: running around while completing tasks and solving puzzles occupies by far the largest portion of the game. Other elements, such as shooting and fighting sequences, appear as segments that have very little to do with the core gameplay, breaking the game's pace abruptly and providing a change from the rather slow gameplay. But Nomad Soul is much more than just a fancy 3D adventure with action mini-games. One of the game's main appeals is its open world and physical interactivity with it.

There are similarities to Shenmue, which was released shortly afterwards. Both games present graphically impressive, detailed, fully populated 3D cities with many realistic touches. In Nomad Soul, for example, you can eat in order to increase your energy level, buy books in stores and then read them, get a drink, chat with unknown people sitting on benches, visit striptease shows, and even make love to your girlfriend. However, the differences between this title and its Japanese counterpart are numerous; plainly said, Nomad Soul is a better game. Its world is noticeably larger; its exploration possibilities much more varied thanks to physical interactivity (jumping, swimming, etc.); it doesn't dwell on menial tasks and instead keeps pushing the narrative forward; and instead of arcadish QTEs it offers real challenge both in puzzle-solving and in its action sequences.

As in most free-roaming games, the world is the star here.The city is divided into several districts and there are some plot-related restrictions on exploration; but once it opens up to you, it becomes a vast area you can run around and explore to your heart's content. It is stylishly gorgeous, detailed, and teeming with life. There are many buildings you can enter, and many items to buy or find. Tired of fulfilling an ancient prophecy or stuck at a tough puzzle with cryptic clues? Go to a bar and have a drink, look for fights, or spy on characters you can possess with your unique abilities. You can simply take a break from the main story almost whenever you want and see what the city has to offer.

The most famous gimmick of Nomad Soul is the ability to control multiple characters. There is no protagonist in the game except yourself - or, better to say, your soul. By extracting souls from other characters you can possess and control them. Some parts will force you to control a specific character, but for the most time you'll be free to choose which one of the available characters you want to control. The characters all have their own strengths and weaknesses, which is important, since you'll also be using them in fighting and shooting modes. Every character has their own background information including name, age, profession, and address. It is fun to control different people, from an ordinary female student to a legendary ancient warrior. The cool part is that in many cases you can visit their apartments and find unique items there.

Visually, Nomad Soul is astounding. Each zone in the city of Omikron has its own distinct personality, modeled after popular scenarios such as a dark cyberpunk-like district with sleazy bars, or an exotic Middle Eastern area with low yellowish houses and palm trees. The powerful engine smoothly renders busy streets, a large amount of pedestrians walking or sitting around, as well as intense traffic in the form of futuristic light vehicles ("sliders") and hovering motorcycles. Apartments are lavishly decorated and offer quite a bit to explore. The game's strong sense of style and unique personality create a captivating atmosphere.

The Bad
A far-reaching game like Nomad Soul is bound to put much at risk; it gambles and sometimes loses. One of its chief problems is lack of a smooth transition between the main adventure mode and shooting or fighting sequences. Once in a shooting mode, you can't do anything you used to do when in adventure mode, and vice versa; you also can't go back until you complete the sequence.

Unfortunately, those FPS parts are also pretty awful. Clunky, consolish controls are tolerable during exploration, but really get in your way here. These segments become even more difficult because of the stupid saving system (see below) that doesn't allow you to save your progress at any place but in the very beginning of the level. Health kits are used automatically, which can be a pain in the neck, especially if you have nearly all your energy, but the AI insists on using a large kit on you.

The versus fighting sections are less frustrating, but there are way too few of them, and they tend to be too easy, negating the game's nifty training system and the necessity to hunt for stronger characters. I would have been more interesting if your character could just attack people straight out of the adventure mode, instead of having almost every fight dictated by the plot. The soul-switching device is generally underused - it is, for the most part, a cosmetic feature that doesn't affect the course of the story and has only minimal impact on the gameplay. Near the end of the game you receive the most powerful characters anyway, and the last few chapters are pretty much on rails.

What remains, then, is the adventure portion. Alas, aside from a lot of filler material (running back and forth), it offers very little of what made classic graphic adventures great. There is no interactivity with verbs, no meaningful dialogues, and the few puzzles fall under the category of rearranging magical crystals and alike. Essentially, once the initial wonder ("oh my God! There must be millions of things to do in this huge city!") wears off, you'll start noticing that there's actually not that many meaningful, i.e. gameplay-affecting things you can do. You'll be mostly running around and advancing the completely linear plot.

On top of that, the game's saving system is ridiculous. Needing specific "points" to save your game is one of console gaming's several dubious legacies. It is particularly harmful in a free-roaming game like Nomad Soul, where danger might await you at any corner. I want to at least be able to save right before a tough shooting sequence - but I can't do that: I first have to go to the hero's apartment or wherever else, and then make my way back to the crime scene. I want to save each time before attempting to solve a puzzle, or simply before crossing the street, since any car can hit me and I might lose energy for little reason. Even more annoyingly, you have to spend special magic rings at a save point. If you are out of magic rings, you can't save your game at all! To be fair, managing those rings isn't a big deal and hunting for them can even be somewhat fun, but still: who on Earth came up with this idea?

The Bottom Line
But the sheer scope, ambition, and originality of this title makes it an important title to be acquainted with. However, its rather incoherent and uninvolving gameplay design kept the fun factor relatively low for me.

The Good
I loved the the surrealistic game world. When the game was released, it was one of the first with large level real estate for the player to explore. The levels were also designed to work like a real city with realistic layouts, entrances and exits. One can easily get lost just exploring the world. The game-play also allows the player to change his character as he wishes which adds another layer to explore. The background score, the music and the SFX all add to the surrealism as well as the cool fonts. The mixed style of game-play and engaging puzzles keeps the player's attention and the player on the edge of his seat.

The Bad
The art quality is what carries the game. Even though the game was one of the first to create a mixed style of game play, a First Person Shooter, hand to hand combat, adventure and mystery, etc., it fails to blend them properly. The game-play is fairly complex for a normal player. The game did not allow mouse input. This is a problem as players need to get adjusted to the camera angles. This can get nauseating.

The Bottom Line
A game that allows you to live a day in an alien universe. A bizarre murder, ancient alien history, magic and ancient runes and puzzles coupled with surrealistic music.

The Good
I liked Omikron a lot. It's a very involving adventure game, dressed up as a 3D RPG (with added fighting/shooting bits). It features a huge gameworld, amazing graphics, great music and some very nice innovations.

When I first started playing the game, I was quite amazed by its intricate, hi-res graphics, and its conjuring up of a futuristic city, with roads full of nicely shiny hover cars and hoverbikes and streets teeming with marching citizens. The buildings tower up into the fog and you can run into the lobbies of apartment buildings, into drugstores and bookshops, restaurants and supermarkets.

The camera action is impressive. I had never played a game before that had this level of slick camera movement. As you run around the streets and wander through buildings, the view is third-person, from behind your character. But when you enter a new location, the camera swings round to show another perspective. It is very well done, is not intrusive and further enhances Omikron's uniqueness. The appeal and "wow" factor does wear off after a while, and the camera movement even gets tiresome at times, but it's still beautiful and, even at late stages of the game, will still often impress you. It is very cinematic. You can also hold down a key to get a temporary first person view through the eyes of your character. This is very useful for looking around rooms a bit more closely. There are numerous cutscenes, ranging from small ones when you do some action or open up a new area, to long, plot-revealing ones. These cutscenes integrate perfectly into the gameplay (as they are in-engine) and voice-acting is generally good. Humour is a bit lacking, but the game's atmosphere more than makes up for this.

The game quickly reveals itself to be a fairly traditional adventure, as you collect items and solve puzzles. But it puts a lot more focus on exploration than on puzzle-solving and the puzzles tend to be well integrated into the gameworld. Later on, there are quite a lot of puzzles that are more logic-based than item-based and have you messing around with ancient symbols and following cryptic directions. Now, normally, I hate this kind of thing, but Omikron somehow manages to pull it off. These puzzles, when they appear, are rarely annoying, and usually quite engaging. There's even a sound-based puzzle, where you have to listen to blasts from a set of pipes, and then try and arrange things to repeat the sequence...Sounds awful, doesn't it? And normally, it probably would be, but Omikron remains so damn likeable that I actually found myself enjoying that puzzle. Oh - And I don't think there are any sliding-block puzzles! (phew)

The most unique point of Omikron is probably its 'body posession' feature. You start off playing one character (an Omikronian cop, called Kay'l), but as you are in fact, the 'nomal soul', you get to transfer your essence to other people, throughout the game. This is great. It can't be just anyone, but there are something like 40 different people throughout the game, who you can inhabit (more than enough). You soon get to recognise who those people are - They can be found lounging around in coffee bars (or the Omikronian equivalent of coffee bars), standing muscularly in gun shops or meditating in shrines. There is just something about these people, and when you take a closer look at them, the camera zooms in and pans over their bodies, while your character says something like ("Mmm, this body could be useful.") After a while spent with Kay'l, you will discover more about what is going on, and will learn how to change between bodies. Also, everytime you die, the first person to touch your dead body unwittingly becomes the new host. This is an interesting feature, and you can only become some characters if you die in certain places. There are also well-hidden characters, and some characters who reappear a couple of times in the game, if you didn't inhabit their bodies the first time around (a nice idea, as it seems as though they've been doing their own thing since you last saw 'em). Every character has a name, age, profession, list of interests (seems rather pointless, as you cruelly erase whoever they really 'were' when you 'become' them) and other vital statistics such as strength, fighting level, etc. You can train 'em up and beef up their stats. A lot of characters also arrive with one item on their person (e.g. a fighting guy you inhabit may have his illegal body-building potion with him, or a religious nut may have some kind of mysterious artefact with him. A thief may have an expensive gem with her). If you're really lucky, they'll have an apartment key with them! This is very exciting, as you get to go to their place and look at where they lived and what they owned. Each apartment is slightly different and will contain different objects, but unfortunately there are only two basic apartment designs in the game, which takes away from the fun and realism factor a bit. Some items can only be picked up in certain characters' apartments.

The game has three main elements - Adventuring, hand-to-hand fighting (Virtua Fighter style) and shooting (Quake style). I'll talk about the combative bits in the section below (sounds ominous, eh? ;)

The story is interesting, although it can be a bit icky and unbelievable at times, but the game is good enough for this to not really matter. There is a vast world out there, composed of the various different sections of the city, each of which is very different from the others. There is a wonderful section composed of high rocks, lush green hills, deep pools and ancient temples. There is the section where you start off, which is slightly Bladerunner-ish, but unique enough. There is another section full of sleazy strip clubs and porn shops (Hehe). Each section has had an incredible amount of effort put into its architecture and overall 'feel' and the effect is striking and amazing. Even the dress of the inhabitants of each section is different. You really feel as though you're running round an otherworldly city, and the graphics never fail to impress.

The music...Ahh, yes! Much talked about is David Bowie's involvement with this game. And he has been very involved with it. Rather than merely contributing a song or two and leaving it at that (like other artists and bands have done with games, in the past), he went all out, contributing no less than 8 original songs to the soundtrack (7 of which later reappeared on his album 'Hours'), playing a character in the game (called, um, 'Boz') and appearing 'virtually' with his band (also including Reeves Gabrels and a rather worryingly dressed Gail Ann Dorsey) in a series of 'underground, illegal' concerts throughout the game. It's always cool to find out about these concerts. You discover a flyer, which gives slightly cryptic directions to wherever the concert is happening, then it's up to you to find your way there. Then you are treated to a full performance of one song, with motion-captured antics from Mr. Bowie and co. (Did I mention Gail Ann Dorsey's costume was dodgy? David wears a polygonal codpiece and 'shakes it' quite often!) You can also buy, or find, special discs during the game, each of them containing a song. It's quite cool to go into someone's apartment, stick a disc in the player and then walk around the place with the stereo going. The other music in the game (composed by Xavier Despas) is also worthy of note. It is mostly great, with different tracks for each city section, all of them working well. It tends to be quite primal and industrial, and I liked it very much. The music that plays when the main menu appears is particularly good, and if you move your cursor up and down the menu options, it makes corresponding 'boom' type noises which you can do in time with the music and...OK, so maybe I'm getting a bit carried away here. But I liked the music.

The game is also long. It will probably keep you occupied for a couple of weeks. And there's plenty of variety. As well as the normal kind of puzzles and exploration, there are added incentives, like trying to find all the various inhabitable characters and try 'em all out, and also other things - hidden bonuses and secrets, different power-up type things to buy and try out, and some nice puzzley-type ideas, which make good and imaginative use of the environment.

The Bad
OK...The main criticism I have with this game is the shooting sections. They tend to be annoying, being rather difficult, over-long and just feeling...clunky. It's odd that, in a game with such an accomplished 3D engine, these sections would feel clunky, but they do. Not in a major, horrible way, but just a bit. They don't quite feel right. I didn't much enjoy these shooty bits, which were often joined with trying to find your way out of maze-type areas or solve simple, push-the-switches puzzles. Death came too often, and usually from somewhere you couldn't see until it was too late. Trying to target enemies could be annoying. There are various different guns you can buy, but there doesn't seem to be much difference between the most expensive gun (with its limited and expensive ammo) and the unlimited ammo gun you get near the start of the game. All in all, the shooting sections pissed me off, and I was glad when they were over. The final battle in the game was also quite a nightmare. I hated it, but eventually managed to do it, and breathed a sigh of relief. The shooting sections are not much fun, and it is only because most of the rest of the game is so good, that you can put up with them.

The beat-em-up sections are better, and are generally quite fun. There are lots of different fighting moves to be discovered, but I found I could win all battles by using just the basic moves. I couldn't really be bothered with working out how to do all the other moves, but all the same, they are there. Apparently, there are also several different fighting styles, depending on which character you are using.

Oh yes, the characters. The idea of changing to different characters is great, and it's very interesting trying them all out, but really, it doesn't make much difference to the game, whichever character you're playing. They all have different stats, but a bit of fighting training and a couple of power ups tends to bring them all to the same kind of level. It's more aesthetic than anything, as to which character you choose. You'll sometimes think "I'm bored of running around looking like this; I'll try someone else." That's pretty much all there is to it. Of course, there are times when you will need to disguise yourself as a certain person, in order to gain access to a certain area. Sometimes, you'll have a certain person you really like and will be forced to give them up. Once you lose a body, there's no going back to it. The former person is left as a translucent husk, hovering where you left it. I couldn't help feeling sorry for these poor schmucks whose physical lives I had ended, and wondering what (in a soul-type way) had happened to them, now. I think it would have been better if you just exited out of these people's bodies and they were left to get on with their lives again. Then, if you wanted, you could re-inhabit them sometime. But hey, that's just an idea.

I was initially confused about saving the game, especially as the manual contradicts itself. I was also worried that it might spoil my enjoyment of the game. It didn't. For the record, here's how it works:
You get 'magic rings' throughout the game (I know, they sound stupid). You can use these at certain save-points throughout the game. Each save uses up one magic ring. Don't worry, though - I never found this to be a problem. It's usually clear if a potentially dangerous section is coming up, or a whole new area, so you're unlikely to die without having saved in ages. I generally saved a couple of times in each several-hour gaming session, and I usually had about 10 rings spare at any point during the game. But still, what's the point? With specific save locations anyway, why include the ring system, too? Although I guess it did stop me from running to a save location every two seconds :)

The interface is a bit too fiddly, but works well enough. However, sometimes interaction in the world can be tetchy. For instance, you are standing in the lift, in an apartment complex - You try to use an apartment key on the lift controls, but it doesn't work. You know this is the right apartment, however. You move a bit to the left - It still doesn't work. You move a bit more - still nothing. Then on the fourth attempt (again, moving a bit), it works. This is particularly bad when you're trying to find an apartment and it could be any one of about three apartment blocks. You might be in the right one, but not realise it, because you were standing in slightly the wrong place and the game says "That doesn't work."

Your inventory can be fiddly, too. You can only carry 18 objects with you at a time (and there's a lot of stuff to pick up). Anything else you want to keep must be stored in an 'electronic locker' system, which can be accessed from many different buildings. Transferring stuff to and from your inventory is annoying, particularly when you're carrying loads of different notes and flyers and gems. It would be better if you could see the items as you scrolled down the list, but you have to use the separate 'examine' option. It's OK, really, just it could've been better.

The Bottom Line
Omikron is dazzlingly unique and stylish, a real vision brought to life onscreen. It is an ambitious and remarkable game that, despite some annoying sections (I'm really looking at the shooting sections here!), works well and manages to hang together under pressure. It is an amazing achievement, and I hope they make a sequel!

The Good
The Nomad Soul is, and I'm not going to hesitate saying it; the best all round game I've had the privilege to play; from the story-line to the beautiful design and complex gameplay, there is just no flaws in this game. Quantic Dream have spent a lot of time designing the virtual world that is 'Omikron' which spans over four vast cities. The plot is very in depth and I also really like the whole demon thing. It was done really well.

The moment Omikron loads a portal opens and we are introduced to police officer named Kayl through some sort of portal he tells you his world is in danger and you need to transfer your soul into his body in order to help him out; once you have possessed Kayl's body you will need to find out more about him and what was it he was so afraid of, you will need to go to considerable lengths accessing classified case files as to what happened to Kayl and his deceased partner Den, the story unfolds and you begin to learn that the Police force as well as the government itself is run by a secret society of Demons disguised in human form brainwashing to people of Omikron and offering their souls to Astaroth thus making him stronger to a point where he will have total control over Omikron you will be faced by these entities throughout the game and also the Omikron Police via FPS or Tekken style fighting, otherwise the rest of the game is pure adventure which a few puzzles chucked in for good measure.

In the game you can possess a number other bodies doing whats called a 'Soul Transfer' this is a cool feature but only can be used on select inhabitants, i used Kayl as far in the game as I could, but sadly it was inevitable that he dies.

There is also some very interesting shops/bars you can walk into in Omikron, like strip joints/sex shops etc also good if you have the nude patch running might i add. There is also some illegal concerts held at random bars in the cities of Omikron in which 'The Dreamers' preform a number of live shows featuring David Bowie on vocals I think that was a very original idea even though I'm not a big fan of David Bowie as such but I enjoyed it nonetheless.

Its just sheer brilliance in so many aspects, when you are hooked on this game reality seems to fade I was at my PC for days until i finished it, I was very sad when it ended. Part two better be released or I am going to be sending a lot of hate mail.

The Bad
Its very easy to get lost in Omikron this is not a bad thing however. It just shows that the game is that big. The controls take a bit of time to learn, but you will get the hang of it in not so long. The Nomad Soul also has certain 'savepoints' in which you must possess a number of Magic Rings in order to save your game, this makes things a little bit more challenging but only the slightest; rings can be found all over the place so they are quite abundant.

The Bottom Line
Plot, Gameplay, Graphics, and FREEDOM = Omikron. Quantic Dream have stated they will release a sequel (Omikron: KARMA previously known as EXODUS) but there is a lot of uncertainty right now as to where this is going there has not been much news about it to date. Whoever f**ks this up is going to get my upmost abhorrence. Just like Bioforge 2, and Privateer 3 and Full Throttle 2... why do they even bother if they are not going to give us the final product. Leaving us on the edge. That is just heresy in my belief.

I also played QD's latest release FAHRENHIET/INDIGO PROHECY that was good for what it is but it was too cinematic, please Quantic Dream if you do release 'Omikron: Karma' do not deprive it of gameplay like that.

The Good
Some years after noticing this game in a magazine, and finding it interesting, I found the demo and played it. The demo was very exciting and revealed what could be one of my favourite games.

When the game begins Kay'l, the first body you put your soul in, jump out of the screen and tells you (yes, you) that his world is in great peril and that the only one who can save it is you throw this videogame, putting your soul in his body (!?!?). Once you do this you enter Omikron, gets beaten up by a demon and being told by a robot cop to rehydrate yourself, you watch the city in it whole. Cars, people apartments, shops bars, and a lot of cool sci-fi details. I just stop playing the demo and start searching for the game.

I was hopping for a great sci-fi adventure, I read a bit about it and found quotes like "in Omikron you can't reload every time you do something wrong, you must answer for every action you make". That's the only thing you must tell to convince me to play a game. And the story was really cool, inter dimensional saving hero for a "big brother"-esque city invaded with demons, what more can you ask for?

The game also has the participation of David Bowie. I actually don't hear his music, but I know that if David Bowie participate in something, it will be, at least, "different".

Aside from the good expectation I putted in this game, I also found some interesting things while playing. Apart for an awesome original story, you found too, a world not fully realistic, but with a lot of things to do, like reading books, going to sex shops, watching TV, going to bars, shopping music CDs and hearing them, going to some Bowie concerts and even playing FPS and fighting sections of the game. The story goes getting more twisted and rare (not always to better) and you keep knowing more of some side stories. In addition, every new body has his/her own short story, a bit of rol playing (well...) and usually his/her own apartment.

The Bad
All this sounds very promising, isn't it? That's what I thought.

For starters, this game is completely linear, and there are no such thing like "different actions, different paths", you only have ways of spend your time, like said before, and a linear main story. Well, there is a choice, you can say NO to Kay'l at the beginning and don't play the game. Even more, when you lose your first body, you lose the 50% of the motivation of the game, as the rest of the bodies are just that, bodies. They have some RPG-like features and a short resume of their story, but you wont even know new NPCs with them, neither the game will change a bit depending on what body you are in. And the stats are just trivial, the only important one is how good they fight and their hit points. That means, that when you find a good body in those stats you better maintain it. In addition, you win a new apartment with each new body, which means, a new save point.

And the save system is too a bad point. You can, of course, save whenever you want, but you need save point and a ring to save, and are limited (well, you can buy all you want). So, you must look for an apartment every time you want to save, so you better reincarnate a lot to have them all, and, if you have no money, the only way to get it, apart for selling what you have, is by fighting, nothing more, and, at the end, it gets very repetitive.

As for the FPS and fighting zones, you can't expect too much from them, because a game can't be good in three genres at a time. In fact, only the fighting one is fun. The FPS is the worst of the three, awkward and totally scripted, the movements are slow and is very difficult to aim; they are totally worthless.You couldn't even walk sidewards. And I remember having problems with the different weapons, in fact, I couldn't change weapons, and played all the game with the base pistol, that didn't help making better the game. The fighting section was actually very fun, but sadly it was too short and repetitive.

The adventure by itself, was just average: talk with NPCs, take some object to the right character, solve some silly puzzle and if you get lost, read some walkthrough as there is no point on wasting your time with an average adventure game.

Probably, if you start playing it, you will only go on with it because of the bizarre story and ambience, what was my perdition. And that took me to the biggest disappointment of them all. SPOILER: After leaving the city and going through the final part of the game, which gets more and more uninteresting, you eventually face the big boss, which I think is Lucifer itself. And to kill this guy, the only weak spot of his body is his back!!, you must run around him as fast as you can and shoot at him. Yes, that means you are in FPS mode, which remember that was really annoying, and remember that aiming was a total pain in the ass. So you must go for his back, which is very, very difficult (remember that you can't walk sidewards), aim at it faster as he turns and shoot. And do it like 10 times. Meanwhile he shoots at you with an attack that kills you in 3-4 shots. After 20-30 tries my average was 1 hit per try, I couldn't finish the fucking game.

The Bottom Line
This game is technically very bad, it has poor gameplay, is an average adventure game and a bad genre crossing attempt, and the only good thing of it is it's story and ambience, which are very good indeed.

Despite all that and all I have said, I think this is a game for the history of videogames. This game is bad, but it is "different". You can easily see that the developers are people with good ideas and with a real interest in improving videogames, what is very praiseworthy nowadays. So this is a game for videogame lovers, those who can do the sacrifice to play it just to play something original in the videogame world. And I will play Omikron 2 for sure, and other games developed by those guys, because, at least, I know that their games will be something "different".

The Good
The story is what makes this game great. It's very involving and pretty original. Even though the main story line is linear, there is a lot of freedom. You can go about in the site, explore some of the small site plots. Apart from that there are a number of persons you can incarnate and which give their own little touch to the game.

Both graphics and sound support the story perfectly. David Bowie worked on the music scores, and it shows. At several points in the game there are some music interuption: when you enter a bar, there is a live performance by a band. This really adds to the overall atmosphere of the game, it really feels like a real living world.

To complete this the 3d worlds are very well modelled and they change radically when you move from one part of the city to another. You can really see that you start out in the poor part and move up to the richer parts. On top of that there is a lot of traffic and crowd moving, which again add to the reality of the world (you can turn the movement on the street of if your machine is not fast enough but I really advice against it, because it's a big part of the game)

The Bad
Some of the action sequences are annoying. They reminded me of the annoying action puzzles in some of the old Sierra adventures.

Sometimes the game is terribly slow, even on newer machines (I used a P3 750 with TNT2 Ultra). This is in part caused by the very detailled 3D world.

The Bottom Line
If you want an involving story in a very beautifull gameworld, this is a must have.