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
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
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.