" Okay, so it's a Mario64 clone, on the PC...I liked it, almost as much as I like the original cartoons. A solid thumbs-up!!!"

---from the review

-----------------

Sidebar :

-----------------

No "Sidebar" Comments For This Review. Yet...

-----------------

Feel free to contribute. As always, review submissions are accepted!

------------------

Daikatana

Click screenshot (above) to order this game (if still available)

A Techtite Review

Can anyone remember the first time they heard of Daikatana? Rumors date as far back as 1997, though allegedly, it was four years in the making. This was to be the game to outshine all games, and, if released in 1997 (or perhaps, 1996), it might have done just that. Unfortunately, it hit store shelves only recently...and, therefore, often appears to be four years old.

The story of the game involves Hiro, whose ancestor designed a powerful magic sword; the Daikatana! A villain du jour has stolen this sword, and used its powers to travel back in time. This enemy isn't too terribly bright, however, and hasn't changed pivotal moments in actual history, as much as gone to a few areas that may look cool as a game map: Norway, Alkatraz, Ancient Greece, and a futuristic Japan. There are 24 levels in all, which means you'll be playing for quite a while...presuming, of course, that you keep playing for that long.

Why wouldn't a gamer keep playing? Because the first "episode" --practically one-fourth of the entire game-- is truly horrid. You go down a small cliff, and are suddenly attacked by killer robot frogs (Yes, I'm serious). Adding insult to injury, your first weapon is a laser that bounces off any surface, which means the majority of your own shots end up hitting you instead (yes, I'm still serious). If Kermit the Frog's evil descendants don't kill Hiro, he might just kill himself, over and over again. What a sad way to start a game!

As Ion Storm claims, yes, it gets better (sort of). There are different enemies, and weapons, in each of the four "moments in time" you travel to. This means all the killer frogs and that ricochet weapon from the first quarter of the game are never seen again (thank heaven). Grecian weapons include a metal discus, which is not unlike an ancient variation of the discs-of-Tron. There's also a trident with fish scales that seem to be alive, and a snake staff with a pair of serpents that constantly hiss...cool! Throughout the rest of the game is the Daikatana itself, which gains power when in use. If used enough times, it can soon defeat even the biggest foes with one swing. So, yes, it gets better (sort of).

Personally, I didn't like a mere four "episodes" in a game with a time travel premise. After all, given the game's four years of development, a mere four time periods seems terribly few. If you jumped back and forth to 12 or more moments in time, that could've been pretty cool! Instead, a whole quarter of the game is wasted, to help a King defeat an evil wizard; a dragging subplot that should've been put aside for Heretic 3. Episode 1 is the most dragging, with such exciting level names as "Sewers" and "The Marsh." Who wants to pay $40 to explore a sewer and a swamp? What a sad waste of a good time travel plotline.

True, the graphics (thanks to the Quake 2 game engine) look good enough, though the textures and maps seem cloned from other games. Greece, for example, resembles a first person Tomb Raider. Norway, with its wizards and castles, is a poor man's Heretic 2. Episode 1 seems inspired by Quake 2 itself, including several (yawn) bulky, mechanical robots. Most of the final episode is played in Alkatraz, which is not half as inspired as it may sound. Apparently, some map designer saw the cult hit action movie The Rock on cable TV, and thought this would be a cool way to end the game. Nope.

To top it all off, the game can't even get a simple feature like saving games right. You must hunt down "save game crystals," and for that matter, can only carry three at once. Sure, I've tolerated games with "console-itis" in the past (ie, no save game feature to speak of), though this is even worse; the programmers obviously knew how to save a game at any time, yet wanted to torture you into "searching" for a way to do it. The end result is the worst game concept since the "You explore, you DIE" adrenaline meter in Nightmare Creatures.

Then there's the two "friends" you meet, that tag along until the very end of the story. The idea was apparently to have these two characters help you, though they're more often in need of help themselves. When they aren't killing you by mistake, they're getting in your way, and you often kill them by mistake...ending the game in the process. You have to play nurse maid to these cyber-pals, waiting for them to catch up (presuming their shoddy AI allows them to catch up at all), before you can exit any level. Complaints about this pair lead right on up to the lackluster finale "plot twist," which is best left unsaid. So, allow me to just move on...

You have to love the irony here; a game about time travel, which seems like a game from three years ago. However, this isn't an intent to flame games of the past. From Sundog's ship that needs repair, to Crusader's action-sensitive, smash-and-crash environment, there are any number of classic game concepts that should be resurrected, revised, or "cloned" in some way. However, Daikatana has none of these; it's mostly a salute to old game flaws, which have often, gratefully, been long forgotten.

---Techtite