Daikatana

Rating:
Summary: PC Game? More like trash.
Review: 1. You call this even half way descent graphics?

2. Should have been "lost forever."

3. Who cares about shooting 2' long mosquitoes and psychotic frogs?

4. Stick with Unreal (the first one).

Romero needs to go stand in the corner for this one.

Rating:
Summary: Garbage, pure garbage
Review: This is what we waited for? This is what was going to revolutionize first person shooters? I don't think so. If this game came out a few years ago(like it was suposed to)it would have been an average to good game, but it didn't. In the year 2000 this game belongs in the bargin bin. If you want a first person shooter that actually revolutionized gaming the way John Romero wishes his game would have done, go purchase half-life. AVOID THIS GAME AT ALL COSTS! At best it makes a great coaster

Rating:
Summary: Where did all the money go?
Review: Where to begin? How about...not fun. Bad graphics+bad gameplay+bad sound+no replay value=bad game. The saddest part is that Eidos put so much money into this game that good studios (i.e. Looking Glass) ended up shutting down. Quake II is still more fun than this! They should have pulled the plug on Ion Storm a long time ago.

Rating:
Summary: What is Romero Thinking?
Review: I am going to make this short but true. First off this game is HARD or at least what I played. this game is no Shoot them all like Quake 2 or anything. I found this game Repugent. I don't even want to try it again. I don't care if you have 1000 weapons, if you can't beat the first stage with Ease, then forget about the rest. The Graphics in this game are Dated back to the DOOM age. This 5 year opus did not pan out like I wanted. I really thought John Romero actually had some skill but it seems not. The game might have good points but the save system (save only if you have a crystal?) is an abomination. This is a horrible idea which is seen way too much in Console System games, but never should have made it to the PC. I admit Ion Storm Made has made a killer game (Deus Ex) but this one is just a pile of turds. Bargin Bin Box. I also just want to close with this. We can now see the real genius behind Doom, and Doom 2, was John Carmack, not John Romero. Sorry about being rude and mean, but this game is really horrible, and I just want to be honest.

Rating:
Summary: What a disappointment
Review: This game is a major disappointment. As I played the game, I repeatedly thought "What were the designers thinking?"

I'm an avid first-person shooter (FPS) player. I have played every major FPS game out there. The first level of Daikatana, for example, is one of the least fun levels in an FPS I have ever played, ever. It's very challenging, but that is because many annoying frogs and mosquitoes attack you and all you have to defend yourself is a badly-designed gun that shoots bouncing green goo. This gets old very quickly. (The game designers compare this to the fast-paced action of Doom, but Doom is actually fun, and this is incredibly annoying.) The level itself has a boring design, and is split up into pieces, with a "Loading" screen and pause separating them a la Half-Life, except the load times are much longer and are accompanied by a headache-inducing sound effect. In addition, you must collect "Save Gems" in order to save your game. For a few minutes I thought "Save Gems" was simply a misspelling of "Save Games," thinking that no sane game designer these days would put such a ridiculous savegame system in a game. It makes you want to pull your hair out when you've just fought off tons of those frogs and mosquitoes for an hour but die before you find a Save Gem. Save Gems are a thinly-veiled attempt at making the game more difficult without actually designing it better.

Why put up with this junk when there are many better games out there to spend your money on?

I had high expectations for Daikatana. It was overhyped, and of course it couldn't live up to that hype, and that is understandable. But sadly, Daikatana fails miserably even trying to be average. If you're in the market for this sort of game, look almost anywhere else and you'll find a better game.

Rating:
Summary: some mistakes were made
Review: I'm not sure what people were expecting with this game. I don't think there is understanding that Doom was no great feat of design, it was just a lucky assemblage of basic ideas whose time had come, and it had the gameplay simplicity of Pac-Man. Loved Doom and I loved Pac-man, but in the current market of game design such magic recipes are scarce. I was not expecting a lot from this game, just a simple shooter. I loved it though. I haven't had that much fun in a game in a long time. Thief, System Shock, Deus Ex, Half-Life would be my top favorites of the FPS genra. I don't have time to go into detail, but:

1. Graphics are 32 bit and quite nice(question of taste). Animations are amazing considering they are NOT skeletal.

2. Level design is second to NONE. If you understand the ideas behind the levels and appreciate them you realize how well they are designed for their purpose. (I love the secrets)

3. The Sidekick AI I didn't have problems with. People tend to forget that the AI is doing a ton more than any other AI in a game to date and it's not perfect. I did not however get shot by the AI. The game Requiem, much criticized for its AI, for instance, had far superior AI to Half-Life but made more obvious errors because it was actually attempting more. Same thing with DK. The thing is this game was plagued with company problems. 3 years of normal game work was NOT put into this game.

4. MP is amazingly tight and fun(they are leaps above Q3 and UT maps for strategies), weapons are brilliantly fun. Those that think the 'godweapon' is the only choice, have not learned the other weapons.(I ranked 37 frags using just the DK and glove in a map filled with rocket launchers) I have always hated deathmatch as it was for me so boring until Daikatana. In summary I wish more people would get into the groove of this game. It is a great game(Not Perfect.) I'm very sad that I'll probably never see the parts that were cut, or a sequel.

Rating:
Summary: Have not played it...and dont want to play it!
Review: I've waited for this game ever since Time published an article about the former IDsoftware design man. But when my brother bought the CD and played it, I simply was disgusted when I saw the poor quality of the game. Effort was put into this game but I guess it was all for nothing, as the game can hardly be played for a longer duration than half an hour. You get sick of the frogs and flies coming at you. You actually have to use an ion gun or whatever that is to kill a darn frog! A baseball bat would have done a better job. If you have played Half Life and still have the sweet taste of that lovely game in your mouth, I suggest you keep that taste in your mouth by not playing this game!

Rating:
Summary: Buggy and Bad Game Play
Review: I bought this gaming expecting a Quake-like experience...but its been nothing but a crash happy game. I'm running a GeForce-powered 800mhz 128 RDRAM pc from Dell, and this thing freezes constantly. Even worse is the game play. Not EVERY weapon should kill every creature with one hit. It's just plain lame and lacks any sense of balance. Spend your money on Quake3 or Unreal Tournament, this this hunk of junk.

Rating:
Summary: Ugly. Just... ugly.
Review: John Romero is a nice guy. John Romero is a GAMER, loves games, has good ideas, and should not be crucified over this failure. He apparently is NOT a leader/producer and should stick to game design, and should let others manage production. But he deserves a second chance.

I say a second chance because this first effort, Daikatana, is a total failure.

The ideas are great: sidekicks, lots of weapons, a bad-ass melee weapon, a cheezy-but-fun plot. But the game itself... sucks. I installed it, played for 1 hour--repeatedly *trying* to like it--and then uninstalled it in disgust. Poor level design, dated graphics (though the weapon effects were cool), absolutely terrible monsters (yes, you fight FROGS and MOSQUITOS). Remember Doom? How you'd just get repeatedly swarmed by monsters? Remember how you fell into the pattern of 1) open door. 2) dash into room, then quickly backpeddle 3) shoot the monsters you "triggered" 4) repeat? Well, that same design philosophy continues in Daikatana. And it just doesn't work. After Half-Life, I just can't stand happening upon a bunch of ion-blaster ammo stashed IN A BUSH IN A SWAMP. Who would put ammo there? Ridiculous. Insulting. NOT FUN.

So, some might say, "Hey, you only played it for an hour. It gets much better later. Your review isn't fair!". To that I say "Feh." The *point* is that I could only stand to play it an hour. I honestly, truly, tried to like it. But I couldn't. From what I've read elsewhere, the game starts off with the worst level and supposedly does get marginally better. But I can't respect a game that purposefully puts its worst foot forward, that intentionally gives a bad first impression. And, despite trying to like the game, that bad impression only got worse.

The Amazon reviewer was kind but accurate: if you are a die-hard fan of old-fashioned gameplay, if you can get over the dated graphics and can appreciate the sidekicks and such, then you may enjoy the game. It *is* playable, and I could understand how someone might actually enjoy the game. But not me. And not anyone else who has played and enjoys the fun levels, weapons, graphics, and gameplay of Half-Life, Q3, UT, and other modern games.

Rating:
Summary: it's not a bad game
Review: it's not a bad game but i have expected more from the co creator of all these great games like wolfenstein 3d, the doom series, hexen, heretic and quake. someone on the review page said that it doesn't work with voodoo graphic cards.it works fine with my voodoo 3 3000 (agp). so it's not bad at all but i'd buy thief 2. this game rocks