ōdi∙um

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Description

Story

Mutants have been found in the bombed out Polish city codenamed "Gorky 17" near Lubin, and a trio of soldiers (Sullivan, Owicz and Trantigne, each of different nationalities) enters the city to find out what happened and look for any member of the first squad previously sent there. You control the team and direct them through a world of surprises and mysteries that wait to be resolved.

Gameplay

The game is composed mainly of two playing modes. The (tentatively named) "Adventure mode" is displayed in a top-down view, with the team walking around the city in real time, interacting with objects, picking up weapons and ammunition from item chests, and using key items (such as keycards) to advance to new areas. At fixed locations, the team will be ambushed by mutants, and the gameplay switches to the (again, tentatively named) "Battle mode", featuring a battle field in isometric perspective divided into square grids. Each side takes turn moving, attacking, defending and using items; the battle ends when all mutants die, or one of the main characters dies. The battle field would sometimes have items like exploding barrels, or item chests similar to those in "Adventure mode".

Character Advancement

Each time a soldier hits and wounds a mutant, they gain experience; once the character has gained enough experience, they level up and gain stat points which can be used to improve attributes such as hit points, accuracy, etc. Also, each time the character successfully uses a weapon, their experience with that particular weapon will improve, and at the highest level (level 10), the weapon will deal its intended maximum damage (displayed as "max damage" in the weapon info).

Items and Weapons

The soldiers can equip themselves with melee weapons (crowbar, axe), conventional small arms (pistol, shotgun, assault rifle), special weapons (tranquilizer dart gun, stun gun), heavy or sci-fi weapons. All weapons have limited range and most firearms can only shoot in certain directions (for example, pistols can shoot up, down, left, or right, while assault rifles can also shoot diagonally); some fire in bursts or have splash damage, meaning they can hit multiple enemies. Mutants also have varying degrees of protection (armor) against certain types of weapons and some have immunities to weapon special effects (such as stun), which are automatically added to personal notes as the player finds about such information.

In both "Adventure mode" and "Battle mode", characters can transfer and equip weapons and body armor if available, or heal themselves or each other. The characters are 3D models while the environment is a pre-rendered 2D background, similar to games like Resident Evil 2. At certain points in the game, the characters may be joined by surviving soldiers or citizens, and will occasionally encounter boss-like monsters.

Screenshots

Promo Images

Trailer

Alternate Titles

• "Горький-17. Запретная зона" -- Russian spelling (alternative)
• "Odium" -- Common title
• "Gorky 18" -- Alternate translation of Russian localization with plot changes
• "Gorky-17 Мужская Работа" -- Russian spelling
• "Gorky 17: Das dunkle Vermächtnis" -- German title
• "Gorky 17" -- European title

Part of the Following Groups

• Covermount: Level (Romania)
• Gorky series
• Middleware: SDL
• Setting: Country - Poland
• Setting: Future now Past

User Reviews

It's good!	Windows	xroox (3957)
Odium means "hatred" in Latin and that's a good word for describing the job done on the Mac port.	Macintosh	Tashtego (156)
A nice tactical game, not quite as chess-puzzle like as Incubation, not as open-ended as the best in the genre.	Windows	weregamer (169)

Critic Reviews

Score	Windows	Oct, 1999	85 out of 100	85
Power Unlimited	Windows	Dec, 1999	8.1 out of 10	81
Hacker	Windows	Jan, 2000	81 out of 100	81
Electric Games	Windows	2000		80
GameSpot (Belgium/Netherlands)	Windows	Dec 13, 1999	80 out of 100	80
Electric Playground	Windows	May 03, 2004	7.5 out of 10	75
Gry OnLine	Windows	Dec 22, 2000	7 out of 10	70
IGN	Windows	Dec 07, 1999	7 out of 10	70
Adrenaline Vault, The (AVault)	Windows	Jan 01, 2000		70
JeuxVideoPC.com	Windows	Oct 09, 2006	13 out of 20	65

Forums

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Trivia

References

In the first part of the game you find a Singing Mutant who keeps singing a song, "Pleasure little Treasure", which is the name of a Depeche Mode song from their "Never Let me Down Again" single.

Russian versions

Two localized versions of ōdi∙um have been released in Russia; both feature plot changes: Gorky 17 is mostly faithful to the original, with main characters identities changed to Russians instead of NATO soldiers, while Gorky 18 features major changes to character personalities, dialogs and plot - in fact, the whole script has been created from scratch. General gameflow is unchanged though.

Sound files

Go to the DAT\COMMON directory that's wherever you installed the game. Grab the "Sound.dat" and "Voice.dat" files, and load them in Winamp. You'll be able to listen to all the sounds and dialogue, but they're all squished together and out of order, so you may spoil bits of the story by doing this.

Information also contributed by chirinea and Irx

Related Web Sites

• ōdi∙um (official website)