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A thorough and unbiased review, trust me and read it

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 11 / 19
Date: December 12, 1999
Author: Amazon User

Please read this review. Try to disregard the fanatical praises heaped on it by all the others that have succumbed to the rediculous amount of hype piled on the game. You'll thank me for it some day.

Ok, I'll admit i was suckered into buying this game just because Bowie was in it. I am still, however, a hardcore gamer. I've spent plenty of hours on Everquest, Tribes, Quake 3, Starcraft and plenty of others. So I know a quality game when I see one.

We'll start with graphics. First off, you need to be running a very high end machine for this game to look decent. I'm running a 'pitiful' P2 450 w/ 256 megs RAM, and a Voodoo 3 2000, and I needed to set the game to 800 x 600 with all the detail levels at medium for this game to have a tolerable framerate. I can run Quake 3 at 1024 x 768 and almost maximum settings, and its by far a much better looking game anyways.

And this MUCH HYPED facial moting capture? Its AWESOME, BUT THE PEOPLE DONT $#$%# BLINK! Thus shatters the illusion of emotion, as all the characters stare at you creepily like retarded zombies. Come on, how the heck did Quantic Dream miss that? Plug in your old Nintendo and you'll see that even the original Super mario Brother blinked! Cripes.

The setting is well done, if not original. Sort of 5th Element meets Dune. The plot is obscure at first and there's little to get you interested. it does get better, but there's one main problem. . .

the play mechanics suck BIG TIME in all modes of play! This is typical of games that try to cover too many areas. Rather than excell in one singular aspect (like Quake 3, Tribes or EverQuest) it spreads itself very thin and comes out mediocre at best.

the First Person shooting is choppy, the weapons are unispired and slow to fire, enemies appear out of thin air (probably due to some bug) and you are forced to rely too heavily on med-kits.

The fighting engine is also weak. Its especially difficult to play with the mouse and keyboard combo, not to mention the fact that its boring and usually fights are tossed in hap-hazardly to culminate a first person shooting round. I would have preferred that this was just left out and the FPS tweaked, but oh well, what do I know, I'm just the consumer.

So with all this frustration, tis a chore just to continue in the game. not to mention the fact that your objective is very damn obscure at first and you'll spend most of your time walking around aimlesly.

And then there were BUGS. And plenty of them. Certain commands like walking or crouching dont work when applyed to certain buttons. No particular reason it seems. For instance, I set walking to left shift, as almost all FPS players will do, and I use the WSAD running / strafing system. Forget it, cause that will cause a ton of problems. Instead of using the up arrow when at the game menu, you need to use the 'w' key because the game is too stupid to know when its playing and when its not. You cant us the 's' key in your name if you've done this either, because it takes you back to the menu. Sucks if your name is Scott. There's plenty of other bugs too, but'll lets not spoil ALL the surprises.

As for Bowie's 'gametrack', dont buy this game if you own his new album, 'Hours. . ' because thats all it is. Really. he doesnt supply the ambient sound as I had hoped he would, and the only time you get to hear his songs is at a bar where some badly animated singer jerks around like a puppet while Bowie's music is dubbed over. Sure the songs are great but by the album, its cheaper. The ambient sound is still good, but it skips, a LOT. So it gives you a headache most of the time.

As for the game, if you want depth, by Everquest. if you don't like D&D go the Final Fantasy 8 route. if you want shooting, by Quake 3 Arena or better yet Tribes. If Omikron only runs half decent on your computer these games will look amazing. if you want fighting buy Tekken 3 and see how it's SUPPOSED to be done. Avoid this Eidos cash-machine like the plague.

Hmmmmm

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 1 / 7
Date: January 17, 2000
Author: Amazon User

Only 1 star because I can't submit this without it! I have a machine that is well over the minimum specs for this game, but I have had trouble running it sucessfully. What angers me is that the the Eidos tech-support people won't return my e-mails. Shabby, shabby, shabby! If YOU read this I want my money back!

What a frustrating game!

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 12 / 21
Date: December 25, 1999
Author: Amazon User

If you are going to buy this game because of either David Bowie or because somebody said "you can interact with almost everything in this world", DON'T! It's just not worth the frustration of having to play the game. First of all if you want Bowie's music get it on CD sounds better. If you want an interactive world talk to your friends. Both these things get old in the first 30 mins of the game and you have hours to go before you are done.

First the positive, Omikron does give you a huge world that you can play around in. The graphics for the people and places are pretty good. The general story line is pretty good, enough to keep you interested for a while. The sound is excellent. That's about it for the good.

The Bad:

The Controls: Nothing good can come from having to set your movement controls for four different gaming situations (Exploring, Swimming, First person shooter, and hand to hand combat). If you don't mind the default settings this won't be a problem for you. If you do, you have to go in and change the controls for different situations independently.

The Graphics: Althought visually stunning, they are not so good unless you do the 1.6 M install, if you don't everything you do the game has to read from the CD kind of slows down the whole gaming experience. If you don't have the best in equiptment expect slow downs anyways. I'm also not exactly sure what the people at Quantic Dream deemed it necessary when they enveloved the entire game in a fog. It detracts from the gameplay because you can never find anything unless your standing in front of it.

The Gameplay: The puzzles in Omnikron are not that difficult to figure out, and they seem to rehash the same puzzles again under a different premise. Once you solved it the first time the subsequent times are just tedious (Actually the whole puzzle solving part of this game is tedious. It doesn't really involve all that much thinking it's more you have to run around and find the components which are sometimes obvious and other time just plain obscure or hard to read). You will also spend an inordinately large amount of time just running from place to place. The world is just to big sometimes. If you forgot something or need something from storage, it gets frustrating when you spend 10 mins having to run to the closest terminal to extract it. The biggest frustration in the whole game is you don't always know what your suppose to be doing. Other adventure games always give you a sense of what your suppose to be doing next. Omikron fails to do that several times and this is enough to get you to start cursing the day you bought this game. The game seems to have an agenda of its own and neglects to tell let you in on it. This is just bad game design.

The first person shooter: It's like playing a beautiful Commodore 64 (computer from the 80's) game. Not much challenge and enemies seem to have the ability to appear wherever they want.

The hand to hand combat: Remember the Original Street Fighter game this is even worse.

The final bad: Bugs lots of them everywhere.

Try this game at your own risk.

Ummmmm... a bit overhyped.

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 14 / 19
Date: November 21, 1999
Author: Amazon User

I've been reading a lot of online game reviews wetting their pants over this title, and I'm also a Bowie fan, so I really wanted to check it out. Everybody is saying this game promises a HUGE, fully-realized virtual reality. Well, I'm sorry, it's not--not for me anyway, not at the moment. The graphics are gorgeous, the controls smooth, the story excellent, the sound wonderful. And yet... the moment the game started and I saw that the "camera" trailed along behind my character instead of being in first-person perspective, I found it impossible to make that leap of faith that I was looking forward to so much. Instead, as I played, I kept watching my character walk about and thinking things like, "Wow, I wonder how much work it took to get the shadow beneath him to move so smoothly." Omikron allows you to do a ton of things like in real life, that's true, but there really isn't THAT much you can do here apart from playing the game despite what all the magazines would have you believe. There aren't even THAT many non-plot characters to interact with despite claims to the contrary. You can, of course, buy David Bowie albums and bring them home to your virtual apartment to play, but as those same songs are on the new album "Hours" I can just as easily do that in real life while playing the game itself, so that doesn't impress me overall. The game has REALLY fantastic design and camera angles--even though the camera angles are HORRIBLY confusing when trying to move around. The bottom line is, to buy into Omikron, you have to buy into the perspective which the game presents you with. If only this was a first-person point of view, it would be perfect and everything I could have asked for. As it currently stands, when I play it I feel like I'm a mere observant, not a participant.

Very, very good adventure game

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 5 / 6
Date: November 12, 1999
Author: Amazon User

I don't play many games, but this one intrigued me - it had an interesting story, excellent graphics, and incredible cut-sequences. I'm not too far into it yet, but so far the story and the main interface is immersive.

The main problem with this game is in it's "alternate" user interfaces, for the game actually has four modes: adventure, fighting, shooting and swimming. An somewhat uneasy transition takes you from one mode to another. Shooting mode is a traditional first-person shooter; however, it's one of the worst I've ever seen. It's fortunate you don't have to spend much time in this mode. Adventure and fighting modes are adequate; not the best I've seen, but they don't detract from the excellent story.

Overall, I'd recommend this game.

Prepare to kick your computer several times

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 2 / 3
Date: February 07, 2000
Author: Amazon User

The game is beautiful, but I do think Quantic Dream could have taken some time to fix a number of things. For one, the game has a huge grudge against my primary display driver (which works fine on the other 3-D games I play) so I have to use the software rendering, which isn't too slow as long as it's on 640x480 resolution and the detail is very low and the clipping is very near...

Also, the shooting mode is insanely stupid as other people have said. And the game refuses to respond to my keyboard about a third of the time when I try to fight in the arena. (My roommate didn't have that problem, however, so it might just be my keyboard.) And it would be nice to skip the cut scenes...seeing the video for the 50th time at the arena is really boring.

Now that I've bitched about the programming, I have to point out that it's a truly addictive game, and very fun for this not-very-hardcore gamer.

One more gripe: The Dreamers don't perform often enough. :)

An okay game

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 1 / 4
Date: February 12, 2000
Author: Amazon User

I bought this game b/c I read about it in a gaming magazine. I like it, but it is really hard. You know how TR3 just isn't as fun as the original? Well, this game is kind of disappointing like that. You spend a lot of time just walking around the cities and trying to figure out what to do. I had to buy a guide to get me through it b/c I was stuck. Turns out I missed a lot of stuff in the beginning and had to start all over. I don't really recommend this game. It isn't that great.

Sweet graphics and music, but...

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 1 / 1
Date: October 10, 2000
Author: Amazon User

the fighting interface isn't too bad, though it took a bit to get the controls to functions. The first person shooter is clunky, and very difficult to control. The people, while good detail to face and body, and general body movement, the minimalistic facial expressions is just creepy. While the plot is highly imaginative and original, the pace feels rather plodding. The eye and ear candy of the 3-D graphics, combined with Bowie and Reeves background music are amazing, and save the game. If you're looking for something different, or like the slow dreamscapes of mystery games, like Myst and Riven, give an Omikron a try. If you're looking for something faster-paced, look elsewhere.

I'm glad I bought it, but it lacks here and there

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 10 / 10
Date: January 18, 2000
Author: Amazon User

This game has an allure because of its revolutionary concept, but not all is delivered. To make it short:

THE GOOD:

-incredible graphics, with or without a card

-free atmosphere that just begs to be explored

-somewhat of a branching storyline and some choices along the way

-huge, seemless city areas

-great concepts - many inhabitable characters and NEARLY endless possibilities

THE BAD:

-the four different 'modes' (adventure, shooting, fighting and swimming) are kind of annoying

-the objects (books especially) are somewhat repetitive and limiting

-all the people in the street... do they all look EXACTLY the same or am I seeing double - triple - quad... AHHHHHHHH!

-I personally don't like the concept that you are REALLY sitting there playing a computer game which is controlling bodies in another demon-infested parallel universe... I'd rather put myself in the position of the character than just be myself sitting on my butt

-for the life of me, I can't drive those blasted cars

-some of the puzzles are very hard and in some, the solution doesn't really make sense. I had to buy the PRIMA strategy guide, which, in a bind, I recommend.

Original and entertaining but not without problems

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 5 / 5
Date: May 05, 2000
Author: Amazon User

This game has intrigued me ever since I saw the ads in game magazines. Now having expended close to several weeks effort on the game I can only say that the game is original, entertaining and fun if you can overlook some of the faults in the design. You play a 'nomad soul' that jumps from body to body living and interacting with the game world as a host of different people. Each new person you inhabit has his/her problems and goals which you try to solve as that character.

The good parts: a great story, an original idea (for a PC game), smooth 3D graphics, a chance to experience several different lives in a single game. The not-so good parts: clumsy controls (expecially combat) and the fact that while you can generally control when you want to jump bodies, at several points this is forced by the game (usually just when you thought the current one was perfect). It may just be me, but I don't really like being railroaded just because the storyline demands it. The new game 'Messiah' has a similar idea but allows you total control over when you want to enter or leave host bodies. Also you may want to web over to the publisher's website to check for patches - the game seemed a little unstable, at least on my PC that no amount of tinkering with drivers, Direct3D, etc could fix.

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