 | Review #4 |
| Review #4 |
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Company: BUNGiE and Godgames (Gathering of Developers) |
This game is a sort of Anime version of the TV Series Dark Angel. In keeping with the trend for female lead characters this 3rd person kung-fu/shooter features Konoko, a wide-eyed, cyber-enhanced, martial arts master with a more than passing acquaintance with a variety of weapons. As you advance through the levels you pick up new karate moves until by the end of the game you should be able to hold your own in Volume MCMLXIX of the Ultimate Fighting Tournament. The game features anime-style cartoonish graphics that work well and overall I enjoyed the game. The martial arts moves are well-animated featuring numerous kicks, punches, sweeps and combos that will have you leaving your weapon holstered just because its more fun to take out the baddies hand-to-hand. Read on.
The Game
The game puts you in the lead role as Konoko. Orphaned at age 3 and raised by scientists and other personal of the TCTF (Technology Crimes Task Force) of the WCG (World Coalition Government). The year is 2032 and the setting is a Blade-Runnerish Future where its hard to tell the bad guys from the Government. You start out after a group know as the Syndicate but later on in the game you begin to realize that it's not just the Syndicate that are the bad guys and from there on out pretty well anything that isn't wearing a lab-coat can be considered hostile, both Syndicate and TCTF alike.
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| Click any thumbnail for a 800 X 600 image | ||
Graphics and Gameplay
The thing that really impressed me about this game was the number and variety of fighting moves. The controls take a little getting used to, a combination of keyboard and mouse, but once you do, the number of moves you can master is really exceptional. The animation and graphics, especially the hand-to-hand combat graphics are awesome. Starting with a series of punch and kick combos you slowly work up your repertoire into a lethal series of flying, spinning, neck and back-breaking moves that would do justice to a Jackie Chan flick. I found that except where it was necessary to take out an enemy from a distance because I was being shot at, I would just leave the weapons holstered and mix it up Bruce Lee style. The game saves automatically at episodic points in the game so if you die it's usually no biggie to get back to where you were when you underestimated your enemies' stopping power. The weapons are fairly standard shooter faire, pistols, rifles, laser blasters etc. but if you have been reading this review so far you will have realized that this is not what ONI is all about. It's also available for the Playstation for those of you whose PC's just can't handle the framerates. I was running it on a P3 with a TNT2 32 meg card and could pretty well run it with no noticeable frame skipping at 32 bit color and any resolution I chose.
The Demo
The demo will give you a good taste of the game, but WARNING, once you have tried it you are probably gonna want to run out and buy it so get your credit card ready.
Final Words
Fun game, good graphics, great fighting, what more can I say.
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