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God save us from horrible experiments like this...

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 6 / 6
Date: August 15, 2000
Author: Amazon User

I was itching to purchase this game when it was advertised, cause frankly, on paper it sounds GOOD. The reality however falls waaayyy short of the mark. First off, this game DEFINES linear gameplay! There is NO where to go but exactally where you need to. Second, there are NO random combat scenes, which to me is essential for an RPG. Third, combat is awkward and horriblly frustrating, not to mention NO fun.

Talk about false advertising at it's finest.

Nice shell, but no nut

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 5 / 5
Date: May 03, 2001
Author: Amazon User

Hate coupled with disgust, indeed. The game goes like this: "you" and a tiny squad of NATO soldiers pop off the boat and walk into bombed ruins. There are items to pick up, like planks of wood, gloves and ammunition (precious little of that). Soon, the team encounters monsters. That is where the fun is supposed to begin, I guess, but where the first of many unfortunate disappointments await.

"Combat" mode begins with a goofy guitar riff (really??) and a floating message that you are in combat. It is turn-based. When you are done with shooting bullets at the giant things, they have their stab at you. And I must admit the monsters are pretty cool (as is the basic plot line). But you either kill the monsters, or they kill you. Nothing you can't get playing checkers. Odium wants to be more than a shoot-em-up, so they hyped the role-playing aspects of the game on the box. Yet, that doesn't work either.

How can this be an RPG if you have to play Cole Sullivan, with predetermined stats and abilities? True, once your team wipes out a few nasties there are some points to disperse among the troops but that can't qualify Odium as a character-development based game. I tried hard to like this game, but ran into problems. The game may as well take place on a sidewalk, because there is only one way to go. Any successful RPG allows a bit of freedom to direct the action. Second, the combat is riddled with baffling inconsistencies. It's ludicrous to stand a foot away from a 12 foot high monster and NOT be able to shoot at it. There must be a reason somewhere. Did the designers genuinely think that was a good idea? Next, when you find an NPC the game turns into a movie which you have to watch. The voice work is pretty miserable, and all the characters end up being the same macho guy, just with different accents. After an hour or so I couldn't care less what happened to them. Last, it is really difficult to heal. Too bad, cuz combat is tough. It should not be so hard to apply bandages. After all it's a peice of cake to carry a wooden plank in your back pocket.

After a while playing, there are more questions than excitement. Why did an elite NATO force land with only 15 rounds of ammo? Why are the monsters called Garcias, is that a guy who mutated? How could so much energy go into making a nice look for the game and so little into playability? And of course: why did I spend money on it???

Why 5 stars ???

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 5 / 5
Date: July 09, 2004
Author: Amazon User

I don't know what people expects from a game... BUT odium is very good, let me tell you why I gave it 5 stars:

I bought it at a very low price and obtained a very entertaining game. Turn based RPG. The first thing to remark is the intro movie, a good start is always welcome. second: it's not 3D, so the backgrounds are greatly painted. Third: the gameplay, although the game is short, it was a sweet time never getting bored.

Don't remember thinking it was difficult, when I was losing a battle, was because my strategy failed, so , I tried a different aproach and that's it ... straight to the end. Maybe the short amount of recovery items makes it hard, but for me it was fun.

One thing I didn't like was when I finished the game... That's it? ... I wanted MORE. If you think about it, that's good. a bad game doesn't do that.

Probably this game is not going to be available anymore, so get this gem before it's too late... I think I'm going to replay it right now... Goodbye ! :)

Plays like a demo of a bad game

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 4 / 4
Date: June 22, 2001
Author: Amazon User

I picked up this game for 20 bucks, figuring for that price, I couldn't go wrong. Unfortunately, I did.

This game offers no character customization, background or even NPC interaction beyond pre-written sequences. The fights are *extremely* difficult, and healing supplies are so rare that none of my characters ever regained full health throughout the whole game. Worst of all, new enemies almost always joined the battle mid-way through. In a better game, this would have been an imaginative twist to spice up otherwise banal combat. In Odium, however, where ammo must be carefully rationed and players are always badly hurt to begin with, it's just painful. Random encounters were much harder than Boss fights, which were easily beatable once their "weakness" was discovered. This combination of extreme difficulty in some fights and condescending simplicity in others reduced me to swearing at the screen on several occasions.

I finished this game.... The end, however, just make me even more frustrated. The plot that I worked so hard for is revealed entirely in a *video sequence* rather than through any resemblance of game play. What? What?? It's a shame, too; the revealed story would have made a great game.

Altogether, Odium plays like a demo: too short, problematic, with a good idea that unfortunately never gets any game time. Do not buy this game. Trust me; no matter how cheaply you can get it, you'll end up knowing it was a waste of money.

Now that you can have it for five bucks or less - GRAB IT!

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 2 / 2
Date: May 28, 2003
Author: Amazon User

This is definitely a low-budget, but high-difficulty game. A fun one, too, at least fairly fun (one of the characters supposedly speaks fluent English... heh), with neat adrenal battles where you're always watching out for dwindling ammo (and this is sooo good - my favorite parts of Fallout series and Jagged Alliance are when you're short of bullets and outnumbered). Funny thing is, I disliked the demo, but the complete product is really engrossing. The puzzles could be more plentiful, but that's a minor quibble.
Sounds are OK - music's very good, special effects adequate and dialogs... differentiated. The guy that scripted them didn't do too good work of that, though, and that's the major problem with the game.
Anyway, for the price it's practically unbeatable. Go get it.

simple and good

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 3 / 9
Date: April 23, 2000
Author: Amazon User

i just wennt for it and this was good. the savings and loading are fast and the grafic is fine. gets hard in the midle but easy in the final battle.

Like Homework or Orthodontia

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 2 / 5
Date: February 12, 2002
Author: Amazon User

Playing this game was alot like having to do all of the chapter and review questions in the first 200 pages of algebra book. The game looked nice enough, and the gameplay was interesting, but that is where it ends. The only reason I felt obligated to finish this game was to punish myself for wasteing money on it. Unless you are a total masochist stay away from this game and its terrible story and even worse voice acting. Do yourself a favor, take your ten bucks to the hardware store, buy some vice grips, and practice your amatuer dentistry on your self. It will be more satisfying.

Cool story line

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 1 / 8
Date: December 07, 2001
Author: Amazon User

It has a good story line and cool game play but it lacks something I don't know, maybe a naked chick for the gamers.

Not that much fun

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 0 / 1
Date: October 16, 2000
Author: Amazon User

I'd say the Gamespot review is right on target. Neat graphics, totally linear storyline, weird combat system, not enough ammunition.

I suppose the lack of ammunitions does a good job of simulating the tension that you might feel entering the secret city, not knowing what's around the next corner, but it's mostly annoying.

I played for a few hours, made it past the first boss, then just got fed up and bored.

Save your money.

Stop Slaugthering A Great Game

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 0 / 3
Date: January 16, 2003
Author: Amazon User

I've looked at serveal reviews and found that all of them slaughtered the game play did u ever consider that all RPG games have there limits ? and ever game has its pros and diss-advantages, how ever i found non in this game because i've played similer types of games witch have a different plot to them. yes the game is hard but why make a game too easy ? the age rateing isn't there for no reason stop crying just cause its a pain that the game is hard. and stop slaughtering the game giveing unfair reviews almost stopped me from buying it lucky i took the effort to download the demo and see for my self how truley and amazing the quility of the game is the grapgics are amazing the gamplay is what to be expected of that type of game. (Advice - 1 before u buy the game reasarch the gmae before wasteing ur money if thats ur case) 2 download or try a demo before buying it and 3 don't post stupied reviews that slaughter the game.

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