A brilliant mix between high fire-power, hand-to-hand combat, a little bit of strategy and brilliant anime/ cartoon style graphics makes 'ONI' worth the wait. Long in the development Bungie delivers prime time fun.
As soon as you pop the cd in your cd-rom drive you are taken for a ride ... After a simple installation (full install aprox. 620 MB hd space) and a quick detect of your 3D drivers you get a brilliant anime intro that looks like it came right off the cartoon channel. It puts you into the right mood of the game and gives a quick run-down of what its about..
In the year 2032, Big Brother is alive and well. The World Coalition Government has annexed 80% of all nations and tracks your every move. While those in the cities maintain an acceptable level of comfort by ultimatly sacrificing their freedom, the poorest masses exist at the fringes of a toxic wasteland and at the mercy of the Syndicate - a nefarious web of criminals run by Boss Muro.
You are Konoko - a young girl unaware of your past and your destiny. In the midst of the corruption that surrounds you on all sides you must unravel the mystery of your own identity while fighting to save humanity from extinction.
Konoko is a member of an elite anti terrorist police force by the name of TCTF (Tech Crimes Task Force). The game begins with a nice tutorial that quickly makes you familiar with the controls and key functions. Shinatana is your personal assistant giving you updates and advice during the course of your missions.
Unfortunatly once you get into the game you cannot change your key configuration since it lacks the menu option to do so .. This can be solved by going into your install directory and manually editing the key_config.txt
Once you mastered the controls in the tutorial you get thrown into the midst of action .. well .. kind of .. Mission 1 is quite simple and makes you more familiar with the moves and dynamics of the game. The displays on the bottom left and right of the screen look confusing .. and they are. There is too much information crammed into a small amount of space, and keeping an eye on it all while you are in a close-combat fight with a few bad guys does not work to your advantage.
To put it simply, the left side is your weapons/ammo display and on the right is your health status. Sound simple enough? Each side has extra functions, such as a compass and floor indicator (left side) and your hypo stock (right side), which is used to boost your health. Still sound too simple? The left side also indicates your ballistic ammo clips and energy cells (2 different kinds of ammo for 2 different types of weapons although you can only carry one specific gun at a time), and the right side also has your shield status bar, invisibility, items display and overpower health.
Are you bleary-eyed yet?
ONI - Conclusion & System Requirements
Some people might find it a pity that you cannot continuously save your game. Each mission is divided in a few sub-levels, and only upon reaching these sub-levels is the game's auto-save feature activated. Since the AI reacts differently to your choices, the game is more challenging.
Konoko has an inventory (F1) at her disposal with all sorts of information about your current objective, a diary, general items and weapon information. Everything gets logged in your inventory as you go deeper into the game and the weapons become more powerful. You have the short range Campbell Equalizer, Black Adder SMG and the long range Plasma Rifle, Scram Cannon and plenty of others along the way. As fun as the bullets may be, the heart of the game lies in some old-fashioned, knuckle-busting fist fights.
Konoko can perform a deadly assortment of punches and kicks, like the Triple-Hit Haymaker, BackBreaker, Spinning Sidekick, Running Throw, SledgeHammer Heel. Your impressive combat skills might make you overconfident, but rest assured that your mission will not be a walk in the park. Your opponents have also been around the block, and they've picked up a few tricks along the way. I found the Bomb Trooper to be a nasty surprise since he is quite easy to kill but three seconds later, he self-detonates. How dare he! At the end of each level, you have the usual bosses to defeat, such as The Brain, Muro's sidekick Barabas and so on ...
To sum it all up, 'ONI' has stunning graphics with state-of-the-art models and artwork. Konoko moves, jumps, kicks, performs triple backflips and punches out enemies fluidly and without glitches. The maps are massive and cleverly designed, and there are lots of enemies with varying characteristics. The backgrounds are breathtaking, as are the in- and outdoor environments. As if that weren't enough, you will surely drool over the superb in-game anime movies that you will encounter between missions.
The game was tested on :
PIII 700
Geforce II & Geforce DDR/DVI
512 Mb Ram
Logitech Mouse
Guillemot Maxi Sound Fortisimmo