Shack Daikatana Reviews

here's my quickie review of Daikatana Demo:

Overall I liked it.
The atmosphere was AMAZING, ambient lighting and color was some of the best I have ever played in. I was submerged in the game, I will say that. Yes there were some problems, i.e. the flying bugs bugged the shit out of me, but hey, dont they in real life? The crocodile scared the fucking shit out of me, i flew back in my chair, it was fun :)
I havent gotten very far in the demo cuz of real life (damn real life always getting in the way) but so far I like it, and I am definitley gonna buy it.


-TomServo-

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kage mishima? wtf? kage from virtua fighter and heiachi mishima from tekken in one box...wonder where romero is getting his ideas from.

uh... gold? and glaze3d delayed... whadda shame, should come in a bundle...

Hey guys! I just re-installed Half-Life and guess what? There really are excellent scripting scenes, cool sound effects, and models that move their mouths! All that and a compelling storyline! I'm so relieved. I thought I had this bad dream about frogs and mosquitos...

Valve, I love you. I'm setting aside my $50 for your next release.

Thanks!

-Lex

Review? Let' see, after YEARS of waiting you've got the balls to hit me with dragonflies and frogs for the first 15 mins of the game? Way to make an impression. Then there's the fact that I'M COLOR BLIND and could tell that there was a serious lack of colors. Pros? I like the speed. And best of all - get this,

it does great on my ancient P2-2333 w/ voodoo2

In this time and age of high requirements I can plow through this game like I was on a supercomputer. Overall, it would have made a nice Q2 mod.

That's it, I'm forceably removing the Daikatana Demo and re-installing Half-Life. I refuse to continue looking at the iconless disaster that I had to wait for over 3 years to delete.

LOOK AWAY FROM THE LIGHT! SAVE YOURSELVES!

Thanks!

-Lex

...beacuase I know there's still one jackass out here that doesn't realize it.
QUAKE III ARENA has gone gold

http://www.shugashack.com/threads/2953/

You're welcome.

-Rev.

well is it a turd or a good time?

Oh man, this little blurb over at planetdaikatana was so stupid, I didn't know whether to laugh or cry out of pity for these poor soulless bastards...

Checked out the 45 new screens at Daikatana.com?

NO?!?!?! Get your ass over their PRONTO, or I will make you my bitch and you will suck it down!

Wow, both "Romero Catch Phrases" in one sentence!! Amazing! Jesus Christ...

Has Daikantana gone gold yet?

Bah, Neal Stephenson's name shouldn't even be in the same paragraph as Daikatana. Romero is just boot-scrape compared to Stephenson's visions.

"Froginator"? "Roboskeet"? "Robocrox"? Uh....

/me opens up Daikatana strat guide and clears up questions about "giant mosquitoes" and other creatures

Episode One
Kyoto Japan, 2455 C.E.

Romero's Design Comments
The reason I decided to have Episode One take place in the far-future Japan was the simple fact that the game's premise revolved around a Japanese sword (this defined the location) and starting off in the far future gives the player lots of cool, interesting weapons and enemies to encounter before making the first transition to the distant past. I wanted the time jump between Episode One and Episode Two to be the biggest jump in the game and then have the players work their way forward to the desired time period ti finally set history straight by destroying Kage Mishima.

Setting
Dirty and industrial, this incarnation of 2455 Japan is no longer the beautiful place it was before Kage Mishima gained control of the Daikatana.

Most of the creatures Hireo faces here are robotic. Mishima's mechanized army fills the Mishima Industries fortress and suround the swamp. Hiro must blast them into scrap metal as he battles his way into the most guarded areas of Mishima's fortress to regain the Daikatana.

Creatures
Froginator:
The RoboCo Lethallick Froginator II defends Mishima's fortress with its venomous tongue and, from a distance, it's lethal spit attack. These little jumpers are fast, leaping onto your skull to start licking the moment they spot you. If they track you down, bust them open with your Disruptor Glove.

Roboskeet:
The RoboCo SlaughterSkeet III was designed to be Mishima Industries' primary air defense system. These huge cyber-mosquitoes can sting you to death. Once it sights you, the RoboSkeet will bear down on your location, hover overhead, and then sting repeatedly.

To avoid being trapped by a nasty RoboSkeet, keep you eyes on it as you run backward firing a distance weapon such as the Ion Blaster. If a RoboSkeet traps you against the rocks, pull out your Disruptor Glove and give it a beating.

Robocrox:
Mishima's robotic swamp crocidile lurks in the dank marshes awaiting its victims. It packs a deadly robotic bite and will chase its prey through the Marsh if awakened.

Each bite does damage, so destroy the massive meat-eating machine from the bank of a sludge pool with a ranged weapon before jumping in. In the Marsh, your only option is the Ion Blaster, from a distance; just don't discharge it in liquid.

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Anyone have questions regarding the other episodes or more questions regarding episode one?

-Kel

half-life wasn't too great of a game, really. it relied too heavily on scripted sequences instead of actual gameplay. the advanced AI was really nice though. the level design was only average (opposing force had great level design though). when it comes down to it, HL was nothing more than a shoot-em-up with scientists/npcs and scripting. nothing overly intuitive, nothing genre-bending.

Daikatana Demo - Initial Thoughts

Installation and Stability:
After downloading the 100+MB file (I have a cable modem of course, so this isn't a big deal - my condolences to those stuck on dial-up), simply clicking on the .exe file, answering a few questions, and other standard installation steps, the Daikatana demo was officially installed. It went seamlessly with no errors or other annoyances.
Before talking about other aspects of the game, suffice it to say that it was stable on my system. I didn't experience any errors, major graphics problems, or other show-stopping glitches.


Graphic Art and Eye Candy:
The main shell of the game is in 640x480 by default, and is ugly and grainy. I upped the resolution to a more reasonable 800x600 which was less ugly and more... dank. The color scheme is dark and ominous, and creates a mood of ... well, darkness. The text within the shell is jagged, but not unreadable. I tried to install the GL drivers from the "Install OpenGL Drivers" icon in the new Daikatana folder, but it had problems installing them through the web. The glsetup.com site refused to let me download them either, so I played the game with my current drivers (on a Matrox G400 16 MB card, Windows 98 SE).
The game itself is also very dark and moody. The quality of the text in the intro screen was very grainy but game textures are sharp and fairly well done. Overall, the look of the game world is reminiscent of Quake 2 or Half-Life. The sharp angles and polygonal landscape found in those games was normal years ago, but today its laughable. For an example of real eye candy, check out Unreal Tournament or Quake 3 Arena. Daikatana offers nothing new in this area.


Configuration and Gameplay:
The configuration options in the game's shell are straightforward enough. They aren't anything revolutionary or brilliant, and really offer nothing new. I set the graphics options to 80x600 and full textures etc. No options for EAX or A3D were apparent in the sound setup. Control configuration was straightforward, and I was impressed by the game's warnings when I tried to use keys already configured for other functions. That's a very nice feature.
The short text intro to the game itself is fairly weak and serves as a very simple introduction to the demo. You start in a marsh with some glowing things and a few flying robot-things, and luckily an Ion blaster (for some reason having an Ion blaster in a game by Ion Storm seems egotistical to me) is lying nearby. It is very convenient having weapons, ammunition, and health packs lying around in the marsh where the demo starts. God forbid our hero would have to think his way through some initial challenges like good ol' Half-Life...

Once armed, our hero can begin killing things. There is a flying robot thing up in the sky that shows off some colored lights, and makes a nice explosion when blasted a few times. The quality of the explosion itself is average, and the flying debri is more comical than anything. However, its not robots you have to worry about... there are Evil Mosquitoes and Evil Frogs that will make your life hell. Once the mosquitoes get in your face, you might start wondering why Daikatana was set in Winnipeg (that's a Canadian joke - those of you who've never heard about Winnipeg's mosquitoes, just take my word for it that they are big... REALLY BIG). The frogs are even more annoying, so don't worry about finese - just start blasting anything that moves.

I can't really say much more about gameplay, because I had trouble finding any to comment on. I didn't enjoy the demo much. I actually couldn't continue playing it because I got bored. The final product might be more interesting, but I wouldn't bet on it.


Final Comments:
The big question becomes "would I buy this game?". The answer is no, I definately won't be buying it, the demo was boring to me, the eye candy relatively non-existant, and the promised story of the full game is only moderately interesting. The UT demo hooked me within seconds (and it has very little story), Half-Life was Godlike, and Quake 3 Arena has the most beautiful eye candy I've every seen in a first-person shooter. All three have something exceptional to offer, but I don't feel that Daikatana does. It may be an epic adventure (or at the very least, an incredibly LONG one), but that doesn't matter unless it is an enjoyable epic adventure.
Is it trendy to dislike Daikatana? Yes. Did that bias my opinion? No. There are positive aspects to this game, however they don't really draw me in. I won't say its horrible, because I don't think it is, but I will definitely say that I didn't enjoy it, won't finish the demo, and will reclaim the 200+MB on my harddrive that the demo and installed game take up almost immediately. Sorry Ion Storm, I tried to like it.

- alien

Daikatana is cool, you can't judge it from a small demo.
You can't compere it to UT, or Q3 because simply those 2 games have no story line at all, they are shoot `em up games.
Daikatana has a deep story line from what I have seen.
I like the multiplayer as well, the sounds kick ass, in my opinion Daikatana is a kick ass game. You don't like it? simply point out why, don't bash someone elses work like that, it only makes you look like a piece of shit.

Xoly