John Romero's Daikatana

The Good
Daikatana offers something different for those burnt out on the likes of "me-also" FPS games. The sound effects, sidekick commentaries, frag comments are hilarious. Aside from the occasional frustration with frame rates, multiplayer execution is eloquent and incredible. The variety of weapons is unmatched by any FPS games I have played, and scares away amateur newcomers to multiplayer games.

With Daikatana, multiplayer skill tactics certainly have a learning curve that most people don't seem to have the patience for. The physics of gameplay, weapons characteristics, maps familiarity, etc., all are extremely important for multiplayer matches. In multiplayer, gameplay is not just about quick reflexes and aim. It takes skill, strategy, and thought.

This game spans four separate episodes in four different time periods, and includes more than 25 weapons, many quite unique, but frustrating to some. I hear most newcomers and some veteran FPS gamers complain that some of the weapons require minimal aim or are simply too powerful; they claim that these are no-skill weapons. I beg to differ as in reality, these weapons tend to kill their users more often, and can require plenty of skill to avoid getting fragged by them.

The Bad
This game is based on a modified Quake II engine. The graphics don't appear as sensational as they do in Unreal Tournament and Quake III. Lips don't move when the sidekicks talk, but all this is trivial to me.

For the record, I do not like the single player mode. The sidekicks are certainly entertaining, but the artificial intelligence that controls the sidekicks is a bit annoying to me. For instance, when Superfly follows, he sometimes will stop in a doorway, let the door close on him, and get crushed to death. Bear in mind that my style of gameplay might be skewed by the multiplayer experience in which quick, stealthy movement is essential. For someone accustomed to the likes of quick strafe jump movement, and frag-on-the-fly capabilities, being followed around by your sidekick friends in single player mode is like playing lazer tag with grandma and grandpa at your side to back you up. You are busy fighting your battles while g'pa and g'ma are flirting with one another.

Multiplayer team play, CTF, deathtag and coop modes are fun.

The Bottom Line
If you are someone lacking in the patience department or judge books by their covers, you will not like this game at first glance. People seem to expect Daikatana to look like Quake III or Unreal Tournament, and equate anything with a lower polygon count as subpar. In my honest opinion, the multiplayer Daikatana experience kicks some major posterior rumpus, and I prefer it to the games I mentioned above. The graphics are not bad.

In single player mode, gamers seem to be discouraged by the green swamp, green sky, green everything and killer pests that greet you when starting the game. Accept this as a challenge, and not an annoyance. The game story will unfold and you soon will be greeted by different challenges.

The multiplayer gaming aspect requires more than just aim and quick reflexes. You have to give yourself time to get familiar with the physics, maps, and learn shortcuts in addition to strategy associated with weapons use. Most gamers who say Daikatana sucks and that UT and Q3 are much better don't have the patience to realize this. The variety of episodes, weapons, and physics make Daikatana skill mastery a bit more complex than one might expect.

This game is not duck hunt, and does take some degree of patience and openmindedness to appreciate at first. If you can humble yourself and not be frustrated by killer frogs, mosquitoes, and killer veterans in multiplayer games, then you'll enter a new level of gaming that is pleasantly similar but remarkably different than other FPS games. The multiplayer fraggage is intense and the payoff for climbing the moderately steep learning curve for this game is extremely rewarding.

Prepare to be frustrated or entertained.

The Good
I like most other people who followed PC gaming at the time was waiting for Daikatana with bated breath. It was to be John Romero's crowning achievement; indeed the misfired media blitz that Eidos launched in which Romero indirectly proclaimed us to all be his 'bitches' smacked of rockstar-esque confidence and bravado. By its release, the media and consumers alike were chomping at the bit to find every single flaw they could find and try and tear Romero's baby (and ego) to pieces; and indeed, they found many flaws. But not all of it is justified, and with the benefit of hindsight perhaps it's time to sit down and take this piece for what it is.

There is a lot to like about Daikatana. The idea of having a squad of sidekicks to accompany you most of the way through the game was new and original among FPSes of the day, and for all the flak they get, I applaud Ion Storm's steadfast insistence on their inclusion. It's one of the many things that sets Daikatana apart from any FPS before and to a degree, since.

People have criticised this game in the past for its use of the Quake 2 engine, which even in the year 2000 was already showing seams, but I really have no complaints about it here. Ion Storm did not just use it stock; volumetric fog, alpha transparency, weather effects, enhanced particles, decals and animated skyboxes have all been integrated seamlessly and make the title much more visually interesting than its Quake 2 engine moniker would have you believe from the outset. Texture detail is low (lower than that of Unreal, which preceded it by two years), but the artwork itself is varied and well enough defined that I have no problem overlooking that.

Daikatana features plenty of variety; the weapons are hugely varied and plentiful, as well as enemies. The stark contrast between the different time periods is fantastic, and the two middle chapters are pulled off beautifully.

Ancient Greece feels fresh, colourful and enchanting. Chopping down spiders and arachnids with your sword is a fun experience the first time around, and some of the decoration is good enough that even in the current day of games, you can still stop and admire the creativity and detail that went into the place. Medieval Norway is a work of frostbitten beauty, and complemented by Will Loconto's soundtrack which sets the scene perfectly. The slow falling of snow, the rolling clouds, frozen rivers and quaint medieval huts all lend to an immersive, almost romantic mood. These are without doubt the best parts of the game, rivaling its competitor of the time, Unreal, for the most beautiful vistas ever experienced in an FPS game.

The weapons, even when you know they're filling bog-standard FPS roles, are all highly creative (albeit grievously unbalanced -- I'll get to that below) and it's obvious that Ion Storm have worked hard to differentiate Daikatana from the average space-marine-killing-aliens-with-a-shotgun mould. The discus of Daedalus in the Greek episode, the shotcycler in the Japan episode and Norway's ballista were all one-of-a-kind implementations of weaponry, and a joy to use.

And finally, it's subtle, but when you're getting around, Daikatana just feels good. From the weapon and view bobbing, footsteps and the sounds as Hiro is running and jumping all over the shop lends a sense of urgency and complement the game's fast pace nicely. The audio is superb; weapons sound meaty and the ambience is of a high standard. (on that note, those who've played Daikatana's far superior sister title Deus Ex, will notice that the two projects actually appear to have borrowed sound assets from each other fairly liberally.)

The Bad
Unfortunately, for all of its great ideas, and despite its insane development cycle, Daikatana still manages to come off as a severely undercooked product. Most obvious, is that the weapons are highly unbalanced. Upon retrieving the game's eponymous sword you'll actually find very little use for any of the other weapons. The developers appear to have tried to compensate for this by making most of the other weapons totally, ridiculously powerful; most of the time that meant for me, I actually had no idea what most of the weapons were like until I decided to pull them out for boss fights, and upon doing so the boss in question was vapourised almost instantaneously. Compounding the problem of the Daikatana itself, is that the sword, as it gains power through the game, starts taking on so many flashy pyrotechnic effects that you literally cannot see where the hell you are going while you are toting it.

The whole presence of your buddies in the game, if a noble concept, is annoying in practice; not just their AI, which has been sufficiently lambasted in numerous other reviews, but also just their general demeanour. Both Mikiko and Superfly come off as thoroughly unlikeable douchebags, and indeed my only motivation to keep them alive at all was the fact that you cannot complete a level without them alive and standing next to you at the exit.

The cutscene dialogue between all characters is hilariously bad and no one has any real backstory asides a totally perfunctory and contrived motivation for wanting to save take over the world. Indeed, the game's evil overlord Mishima seems to have absolutely no reason to enslave the earth except for 'because I can' and Hiro literally takes on the quest to stop him for no reason other than the fact that a random old guy came to his door and asked him to. I'm not expecting Academy Award-winning performances and storyline from an action game, but the cutscenes are generally quite long and I'm left wondering why they even bothered at all if they're not going to explain a bloody thing.

Your AI sidekicks frequently get stuck on corners, ladders, each other and basically anything that is not a straight, empty corridor. To add insult to injury, they've been given just enough character to express annoyance at your babysitting, but not enough brains to take care of themselves.

When Mikiko gets stuck in an infinite loop of her climbing animation at the bottom of a ladder, I have no choice but to displace her myself by shoving her out off of the ladder. "Stop pushing me around!", she says. There is nary a 'thankyou' or 'sorry' to be heard anywhere in the game when you actually try to stick up for your buddies. In fact, there is never any point in which any single character shows any sign of humility, vulnerability or indeed any kind of emotion at all other than tough-guy bravado -- further lending to your dislike of them when you have to leave them for a few minutes while you crawl up a vent to open a door, and the game ends halfway through because they stood stock still while a trio of mosquitoes and frogs nibble at their toes 'till they die. These are by no means isolated incidents and will be the first thing that drives you away from the game.

Another thing is the first and last chapters, which are not only too similar to each other, but also extremely drab and boring to play through, and full of elementary design mistakes. Hunting from level to level for hours on end looking for a keycard or cog to put into a machine is not fun. Walking down the hallway only to have the ground explode under you without warning and throw you into a pit of deadly spikes is not fun. In one of the Norway levels I spent something like three hours searching for a freaking key for a door and it was only after getting bored out of my mind and hitting things randomly with the sword that I found the ice on the surface of a fountain was breakable and the key was hidden in the water that I could continue. Why did the game provide absolutely no clue to this? Why couldn't one of the characters say "Hey Hiro, maybe you can break the ice there?" Why didn't they make the ice transparent or put a crack in it, indicating it could be shattered? These kinds of oversights are glaring, infuriating, and frequent.

The Bottom Line
Overall, this game is a moderately satisfying product, spearheaded by a passionate and visionary face of the gaming industry, that is dogged by a great many problems; to some, those problems will be too severe and too frequent to enjoy the effort that has gone into it. Those of us who are more patient may be able to extract some quality entertainment that is buried beneath its failings. For sure, this game did not live up to the hype surrounding it.

Ultimately I'm convinced that the biggest problem with this game was simply its timing. Released earlier, before 2000, in a world of lower standards, it may have fared better as people could more readily embrace its creative and original and gameplay mechanics. Released later, perhaps folks could glossed over its use of the aging Quake 2 tech that constitutes its base, and enjoyed a highly solid FPS with a unique aesthetic and personality.

As it stands, it's caught in somewhat of a no-man's land, nowhere close to where it needs to be either way, and suffers greatly for it -- ironic, given the game's running theme of time travel. Approach it with an open heart and an open mind, however, and you will find enough meat on this title to keep you satisfied.

The Good
I believe the strongest point of this game is the fact that it almost appears to be 4 different games in one box. There are four different time periods which feature different foes, weapons, maps and design. If you don't like one, play on, because the next one will be completely different. The levels feature many hidden areas reminicent of Doom and Quake 1. I believe the graphics to be good and framerates to be good as well (p2-450, 128 ram, w/Voodoo 3000). Background music is good to very good in areas. Medusa level music really added to the atmosphere. Also there is actually a story that goes along with the game as it progresses, which many FPS lack, that adds to the experience.

The Bad
Savegem crystal system requires you to have picked up a crystal to save the game. Crystals can be accumulated, but it will force numerous replays on some areas that you would prefer to be done with. Some bugs in the sidekick A.I., as has been mentioned, being killed in closed doors, if you tell them to "get" something that is out of reach, they will continue the attempt even after being recalled. Manually configuring voodoo card support.

The Bottom Line
This is a game that was originally created and was supposed to be released sometime shortly after Quake 2 was. Many problems forced numerous delays This game has received a lot of publicity and many had very high expectations of it. It took a very long time to produce and anyone interested can read a good story about it on gamespot. Many have developed a personal dislike for some of the people involved due to some of the publicity practices (slogans) released through the years, as well as other reasons. If you are expecting Unreal or Quake 3 graphics, then you don't understand what all this game has been through and need to understand the delays involved. Graphics are better than Quake 2. If you like FPS and don't have any pre-concieved notions about the game, and have some patience, you probably will like the game. A patch is soon to be released that will address many of the (constructive) complaints made about the game.

The Good
Daikatana’s lead designer John Romero is a programming veteran. It is commonly believed that veterans are experienced enough to avoid obvious mistakes. However, Daikatana is a model for bad design decisions and balancing. I’m positively baffled – I do not understand how so many plain errors could have occurred to such an renowned designer. As it is, Daikatana should be shown to young designers to teach them what to avoid. It should not be played.

The Bad
Weapons: Worst I’ve seen in any 3D shooter so far. Standard weapon can hurt yourself (and will in small corridors) – who came up with that idea? Most explosive weapons are too weak; also, loading takes too long. Result: The first volley will rarely kill an enemy, but the foe will likely kill you while you reload. Weapon switching takes too long – this is exceptionally annoying in the heat of a battle. See save gems.

Sidekicks: Useless. They will die an a matter of seconds in any major battle, forcing you to replay most of the level. See save gems.

Balancing: Whoever did this is a candidate for a good flocking. If I was delirious enough to design a game that has a very restricted save system, I’d make damn sure that the player never encounters an unfair situation, and that the game forgives minor mistakes. Daikatana was obviously designed by sadists. Why on earth do closing doors crush me? Why do forcefields kill me? Why do hidden turrets shoot me in the back? Who could possibly design jumping puzzles in full knowledge that the players would die a couple of times and have to replay the whole level each time? Why are there dozens of health packs when you don’t need them, but none in a succession of fierce battles? These are just a few examples of many flaws -- minor by themselves, but so frequent that one or the other pains you all the time. See save gems.

Save gems: A prime example of idiocy, and of an incredibly arrogant tutelage of the players. If I pay $40 for a game, I wish that expensive program to satisfy me, not annoy me. I’m a grown-up, thank you, I can decide for myself how often I’d like to save. I DO NOT want the game to force such a decision upon me. If it does, as Daikatana does, I will not buy a game of that company again. Wake up, Ion Storm! You’re not increasing the thrill if you don’t allow the player to save whenever he wants to, you’re just increasing the frustration when he dies. Just in case nobody told you: Frustration is not fun.

The Bottom Line
Daikatana is 3D shooter hell. A solid game at its core, it is made virtually unplayable by a score of turn-offs, flaws and unfair situations. Play if you enjoy humiliation.

The Good
This game's developer was involved in the creation of Wolfenstein 3D (a classic first person shooter). The bad news is that he seemed to forget how it became so popular. Daikatana is pretty dark and creepy like it's supposed be. There is a range of 25 weapons, 64 monsters, four different time periods, all of which are shared within 24 levels.

The Bad
When I said the game was dark, it really is dark, I have to keep squinting sometimes just in order to see what's in front of me (usually in a dark place). Another problem I have with this game is that it was a delayed release. The developer John Romero believed that the entire game could be finished in just seven months, intending to release it in 1997. The game was eventually released in 2000 and many people said that it was using the "old fashioned" 3D engine used for Quake 2.

The Bottom Line
Overall, this game is satisfactory and playable. John Romero's Daikatana is a pretty creepy and amusing first person shooter. While summing up this game, it has proven to be pretty original and creative.

The Good
One surprising thing about Daikatana is that it genuinely should have been really, really good. Just look at its premise: an immersive first-person action game centered around time travel where every chapter has a unique feel and playstyle to it. It's unique, visionary, unprecedented, and at the same time absolutely doable with technology available at the time.

And that overall concept is still the game's biggest strength. The varied locations, distinct aesthetics, and differently paced levels all add to Daikatana's feeling of freshness. It doesn't really matter how flimsy and clichéd its excuse of a story is with a general premise this good.

Another thing Daikatana gets mostly right that's really important for an action game is the combat. Thanks to the varied time periods and aesthetics, each chapter has a separate and distinct arsenal, not restrained by the somewhat basic futurism of Quake II or the realism of Half-Life. Not every weapon is all that useful or satisfying to use, but the variety is enough to allow for freedom when it comes to playstyle and adapting to the game's challenges. Another interesting addition is the titular daikatana, a melee weapon that gets stronger with every enemy you kill with it, as opposed to being bound to the XP system like the other weapons.

The Bad
With so many good things about Daikatana, why is it not a good game overall? One reason is the level design. While not more convoluted than that of Doom or Quake (let alone some maps in Unreal), it definitely feels far less intuitive and at some points simply annoying. On top of that, chapters 1 and 4 really like to put enemies with hitscan weapons or very fast projectiles in places where they will see you immediately as you enter a room, often not allowing any time to properly dodge. Combined with an abundance of segments where you actually have to take (mostly fall) damage to progress, Daikatana feels a bit like a throwback to the NES era of artificial difficulty. Except here it's used simply to spite the player and not to pad the game's length despite technical limitations.

But Daikatana's biggest sin lies somewhere else - the infamous AI ally system. During large portions of the game you'll have 1 or 2 NPCs following you, with them being by your side necessary to move on to the next part of a level. A combination of friendly fire, awkward hitboxes, and most of all absolutely abysmal pathfinding makes the allies a waking nightmare that will impede your progress on numerous occasions in the most frustrating ways possible.

Despite Daikatana's notoriously long development cycle, you can tell the quality assurance portion of it was rushed. The game is mostly a finished product and definitely playable, but it does have its fair share of minor hiccups and annoyances surrounding hitboxes and collisions.

The Bottom Line
In short, Daikatana is a both unique and highly frustrating experience that doesn't quite live down to its terrible reputation, but is even farther from living up to the promise of its premise. 4/10

The Good
The first episode weapon models, the enemy creature models and the architecture throughout the game are extremely well done. The textures and miscellanous art leave little to be desired, striking new ground in style and quality.

The duo that you tow along in the game, while annoying when in your line of fire, provide good comic relief, great assistance in a firefight and are generally nice to have around. Kudos for ION's attempt at moving the industry forward.

The Bad
For every episode after the first, the weapon models degrade. By the fourth episode, the weapons have reached an all-time low. Bad animation, foul modeling and even worse coding makes for an arsenal that serves only to smear you, rather than your opponents.

While your partners AI is grand, your opponents are a far cry. Harking the days of Doom, upon catching sight of you an enemy will yell, and attempt to advance on your position, usually getting hung up on the beautiful architecture and generally making a complete fool of itself. If they're not stuck somewhere they will bee-line. Some enemies will attempt to play with you, for example the griffon or the mosquitoes which zip around and actually present a challenge for a marksman, but in the end there is no AI, simply a repetitive and predictable Action/Reaction system; Quantity, but no Quality.

Sound effects and music are sub par but livable, while voice acting leaves me laughing. A japanese swordsman does not have an American accent. Shadow Warrior is more believable.

Of all the details, however, one sticks out; sorest thumb of all, the Daikatana itself. This sword is horrible. No fluidity in the swings, unpredictable hit-scan (meaning you don't know where you're going to be slashing) not to mention the fact that you have no way of controlling which of four slashes you perform.

The RPG element is in sour need of a redesign. An attempt at creating an RPGish system wherein you gain experience and thus 'levels' through the slaying of 'baddies'. It doesn't fly very well simply because if you do not select the correct stats you will find yourself a bloody pulp too many times, and with load times reminiscint of pre-patch SiN you do not want to be reloading.

The level design, while breathtaking in more than one area, is linear to say the least. And if not linear you will find yourself wandering aimlessly trying to figure out where to go next (though this is quite rare). There is no similarity between functions, for example a door that looks like another will not function the same.

The Bottom Line
Download the demo and you will find it enjoyable. Buy the game and you will be throwing your money away on an amateur product that should have stayed in development for another week to create new weapons.

Overall I would not recommend buying this game simply because it is not what it should be, after four years in development. I have seen many user created modifications for many different games that of much higher quality than this (eg: Counter-Strike, or Gunman)

The Good
Intersting storyline. The nod to Nintendo's founder. Weapons are varied in certain levels, the ad campaign ION Storm ran (even though it killed this game), Romero's hair .

The Bad
Graphics, repetitive level design, cliched and rather racist side-kick characters, the insects and frogs, the hype.

The Bottom Line
This game would have been just as bad, that is to say it's par for the shooter course, had it not taken nearly half a decade to produce. Romero may have tried to re-invent the shooter, but came up well short of his mark. It's still the same find key, open door, shoot anything that moves gameplay from other mindless shooters. But not as good as more recent titles.

The hype surrounding this game didn't help either. No game could live up to the "do all end-all of gaming" moniker this game had going for it. Romero should have stayed with id. At least no one hated their lackluster titles (Quake2).

The Good
1. Bang for your buck. For $30, we're looking at 16 GIGANTIC levels in four worlds with different styles for each group.

1. The Discus of Dadelous. It is the coolest weapon since the BFG.

3.Level design. The design is quite good. The way the levels are laid out is excellent.

1. Multiplayer. The multiplayer levels are some of the best I've ever seen. There unbelievably tight.

2. Sidekicks. I liked them.

This is an addendum to address something I found a personal attack that made me sick. <<The bovine, mothlike fanboys forcing themselves to love Daikatana are entertaining...in a sad, pathetic sort of way.>> First thing, I am not forcing myself to like Daikatana. I am never affected by hype. My personal opinions are created solely from the game. Secondly, if you find me entertaining, good for you! Just don't share it with everyone, or you come off like a jerk. And also, I have an opinion. Last time I checked, an opinion can't turn you into a moth or a cow. Now, I have a sense of humor, and believe me, this isn't humor.

The Bad
1. The Swamp. So bad it is scary. The epitome of bad level design. They probably hired a second grader for this level.

2.Ultimate Gas Hands-'Nuff Said

The Bottom Line
OK, so it's not the second coming, but it's not as bad as some make it out to be.

The Good
I'd like to say something to all those people who bash Daikatana because of their personal opinions on the delay of the game..."Get a friggin' life!!!"...I have to admit I was a Daikatana-basher for a short while, but now that I have really gotten into the game I must say that it is pretty fun...

First of all...the game is very diverse...its like you're buying four games instead of one...different eras, weapons, settings and enemies...keeps the game interesting by changing the setting and challenges players to switch strategies as new weapons become avaliable...

Some areas have extremely well crafted levels...thye just make you want to stop and admire the scenery...

The RPG part of the game adds a fresh and interesting perspective to the game...not only can your character level up, so can your sword...this is a refreshing break from the old formula of FPS shooters...

The Bad
The obvious blaring mistake is the AI of your teammates...your two buddies have the combined brainpower of precisely 3.8 braincells...they rush madly into in coming fire, as if they had no understanding of the word subtlety...granted, they extremely accurate, but that doesn't do any good if they just run right into enemies with guns blazing, and turn into swiss cheese with out their accuracy even coming into play...The worst part is that when they die, your game ends...this makes you end up leaving both your people behind while you have to take out everyone...which kinda defeats the purpose of having teammates in the first place...

the second bad part is the sheer amount of killer robots and bats that the game decides to throw at you...wave after wave after wave of frog robots come after you, and after the first few minutes, it kinda gets a little annoying.

The loading time also ruins the gameplay...With a P500, and a Voodoo 3, with 128 ram, I actually made a BLT before the game finished loading...with your teammates dying every so often, playing this game can take a while...sometimes I get so frustrated I want to throw my computer out the window...

While some levels look awesome, some look like some one decided to cut and paste some photographs and put the scene into the game...the scenery takes a lot away from the gameplay and after waiting a huge amount of time for the game to load the crappy scenery that you see make really want to throw your computer out the window...

Some of the weapons eat up ammo at ridiculous rates...the shotcycler basically shoots every round of ammunition you have in all of 3 seconds...super weapons are more of a pest than of help as they basically kill everything, and your teammates seem too stupid to realize that the demon that you have just summoned would like their heads for a snack...but other weapons like the nova beam weapon, the wood frag grenade, discus, and crossbow are good touches...

The Bottom Line
To guys who need to get a life: Give John Romero a break guys...don't criticize the game or him until you try it...if you do, I think you'll find that this game has some real good parts...

To John Romero: Good idea, but I guess it just didn't work as well on the Quake II engine especially the AI...If it had came out when it was supposed to then it would probably have been the best game ever though...

To everyone: if you are an FPS fan, then this game should be somewhere on your list...maybe not the top (thats for Team fortress II, and Tribes II), but it should be there, somewhere between middle and the top...don't listen the losers that decide to criticize John Romero just becuase of the delay (even if it was longer than my goldfish's lifespan...hehe ;-))...try the game and I think you will be pleasantly surprised...

The Good
Without a doubt in my mind, this is the biggest disappoinment in the history of PC Gaming. Three years in development. Developed by the creator of the first person shooter. Action/RPG gameplay. The Quake 2 engine. So what's wrong with it? Ion Storm developed it or way too long! If it made its original release date, Daikatana would have been an innovative, fun game. Reason one: Graphics were excellent. Reason two: First game to play with two buddies that help you through the game. Reason three: Find-the-key, kill everything gameplay was still passable as a good game. Reason four: RPG elements. Reason five: exciting multiplay deathmatch Three years later, classic games like Half-Life, Rainbow Six, Deus Ex, System Shock 2 and Unreal Tournament alll have these features and were revolutionary while Daikatana stays the same, but with buggy gameplay and stupid AI. Well a few parts are good about Daikatana, like some of the Greek levels are good.

The Bad
Well, the part that is the worst is the first level. You roam a swamp, searching the ground and air for evil flies and frogs, killing them using a sluggish bee-shooting gun! What? this is fun? In the more interesting levels, all the enemies do is like 'blow up' when you kill them. Multiplay is boring and lame, lag-filled fun, just as 'fun' as the maps. I cannot think of how I could recommend it when there are so many better games out there.

The Bottom Line
Load up mine sweeper, and play it on the hardest difficulty. Then, turn off your monitor and you will have the experience the numb gameplay of Daikatana. Fun isn't it? Then you'll reconsider why you bought/considered buying this garbage.

The Good
The gigantic levels are very well designed and there are lots of puzzles to solve in them. The weapons are very creative, and the game can be considered an First-Person RPG, because you can level up your stats, such as Speed, Acro, Power and Attack, and even your Daikatana. The story is so great that the game can be turned into a book (there is a rare comic book by TopCow, released with the game), or even a movie (if Uwe Boll don't direct it). You are a martial arts trainer called Hiro Miyamoto, and you receive a visit from an unknown guy called Toshiro Ebihara, that says you have a mission to save his daughter Mikiko and a mystic sword called Daikatana, forged by the ancestors of Hiro. I really should say it's at least epic and creative!

The Bad
Even if the Sidekicks help you to not being alone while playing the game, they are annoying because of their defective A.I. Seriously, the A.I. is so bad that the sidekicks can get stuck in lots of spots, specially in stairs, they just keep going up-down-up-down, that really pissed me off. There are some slight graphics slowdowns, they happen most frequently when you're exposed into a fog effect or light. Also, if you're playing the game in the Windows Xp or later (I play it on Seven) you have to patch the game to version 1.2, because the game keeps crashing very often.

The Bottom Line
Don't let the critics let you down. Even if there are problems with the game, it is an underrated gem of the PC. It is very fun to play it and soon you feel in the story. One more thing: play the Windows version, not the N64 one, which is bad, ugly and slow.