Review By: Jared Black
Developer:	Bungie
Publisher:	Rockstar
# of Players:	1
Genre:	Action
ESRB:	Teen
Date Posted:	3-20-01

You’ll start each mission (there are 17 in all) with an objective to complete, and as you progress through each level that objective will change based on what happens within that level. You’ll kick a lot of butt, hit a switch, kick more butt, fiddle with a computer, etc. until you finish that mission. Each time you complete a portion of a mission, the game will auto-save your progress. While being able to save anywhere would obviously be preferred, it’s still a setup that works pretty well. What’s really nice is that your memory card remembers every single auto-save, so if the game auto-saves whenever you’ve just barely escaped a portion of the game you aren’t forced to try to eek by the next portion with very little health. You can simply go back to the prior auto-save and replay that part of the mission.

One nice thing is that there are a lot of elements of stealth mixed in with the large amount of action. Konoko’s steps cannot be heard whenever she creeps along, so you can often sneak up on enemies and get a good hit on them before they realize you’re there. The faster you run, the more likely that a guard nearby will hear you and come running after you. Each level helps to facilitate the use of stealth in gameplay, as there are a lot of objects to hide behind (such as crates) so the enemy doesn’t spot you. Basically, it’s a lot like a FPS in this respect, and it’s nice to see that style of gameplay play a prominent role in a beat-em-up.

There are a couple other little quirks to the gameplay that bear mentioning as well. First, a good quirk is that you can only carry one weapon at a time. This is very nice because it mimics real life, in that you’re probably not going to tote five or six huge guns around with you. Not only that, but other power-ups (hypos, force fields, etc.) are found infrequently, and thus you are forced to manage your ammo and hypos (restores health) throughout each mission. One bad quirk is that I managed to find a few bugs in the game. In one spot, while attempting to access a computer, Konoko decided to just run in place and got stuck against the computer. In the first boss fight, the boss says something…but it’s on-screen for about two seconds so it’s virtually impossible to read it.

As fun as Oni’s combat engine is, it’s also one of the most frustrating console games in recent memory due to it’s extremely complicated control scheme. Virtually every button on the Dual Shock 2 controller is used in some fashion. R1 is used to punch (or fire a weapon), R2 is used to kick, L1 is used to jump, L2 is used to crouch, the left analog stick is used for movement, the right analog stick is used for looking around and aiming your weapons, the "circle" button allows you to use an item, and finally the R3 button (pressing down on the analog stick) allows you to pick up an item left by the enemy or draw your weapon. What’s even more inane is the fact that, in order to dash, you actually have to double-tap the analog stick. Why not just let my running speed be totally dependent on how hard I push the stick? It makes no sense. No doubt this complicated control scheme is a result of Oni’s original PC roots, where there are many more buttons (on your keyboard) and a mouse available to utilize.

The controls themselves are complicated, but with a little practice most gamers will be able to adapt. What’s frustrating is that you’ll sometimes find yourself "pausing" for a second to think about which button to press, and this coupled with Konoko’s slow combat animation can lead to some very frustrating deaths. Whenever you’re surrounded by more than one enemy, you’ll often find yourself doing quick kicks and punches just to stay alive since advanced moves take a little longer to perform (and thus give them plenty of time to gang up on you). Your enemies won’t lighten up at all regardless of the situation, so AI designed to be challenging against one enemy becomes frustrating against multiple enemies. Later on you’ll learn new moves capable of taking out multiple enemies at once, but early on it’s very frustrating. Not only those, but the controls often are not as tight as they should be. A slight push on the right analog stick can wildly swing your weapon around, and thus it takes considerable time to line up each shot. Overall the control scheme is not intuitive at all, and even after extended practice with it you’ll still find yourself struggling at times.

Page 3 of 3-->