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One of the most bitter and burned-out people I have ever met works at a local software store. It is rare to hear him say a single good thing about a game; he has something disparaging to say about virtually every game created in the last decade or so, with the exclusion of Half Life. He has always seemed to hold adventure games in particular contempt for any number of reasons, including the ever popular "if you want a story, you should be at a movie".
Imagine my surprise when I went in to buy Omikron: The Nomad Soul and instead of getting the typical abrasive comment about my purchasing mistake, instead received: "this game isn't bad". Omikron is primarily an adventure game, with strong action elements woven throughout. Mixing action into adventure games is something that usually goes very badly, as can be seen in games like Redjack or King's Quest: Mask of Eternity; the game engine in these hybrids has never been robust enough to pull off their ambitious goals and generally it is the action sequences that suffer. Omikron is different, it succeeds in many areas where other action-adventure hybrids fail. Like the software clerk says, it isn't bad. But it also still isn't nearly as good as it could be.
Invasion of the Body Snatchers
Is Omikron really a computer game, or is the game a portal to another real world?
This line is blurred the minute you start the game and are introduced to Kay'l.
He tells you that he lives in a parallel universe to ours, a world that is in
grave danger, but he does not have the time to explain. Only you, the gamer,
have the power to help. But to do so you must send your soul into his universe
via his body, using your computer as the gateway. Kay'l warns you that once
you have crossed the breach, you will be entering a real world, one in which
you must accept the consequences of your mistakes. You have no choice in the
matter but to accept to help him, and your soul is transferred into his body.
With that, he dives back into the portal and your adventure begins.
Enter stage left - a police robot with an odd sense of humor
You arrive in the world of Omikron in time to be assaulted and rendered unconscious by a monster. While in the process of draining a greenish substance from your unconscious body he is startled off by the arrival of a police mech. You begin playing from here, with only this disorienting experience and some inventory items to guide you. In order to discover what is threatening the world of Omikron, you must retrace the steps Kay'l took before traveling across dimensions to find you without anyone realizing that something has changed. After all, you have no idea who is a friend and who is an enemy. From this point on, the game is often suspenseful and interesting as you are betrayed and helped in equal measure on your journeys. There is not much more I can say about the plot without spoiling some of the enjoyment behind watching it unfold.
The world of Omikron is more familiar than perhaps it was supposed to be - you were meant to be entering a totally alien world. As I was playing it, I was very much reminded of both the movie and the game version of Blade Runner. Quite a bit of the visual imagery and atmosphere draws from this type of futuristic world. Lots of neon in the darkness, lighting up a corrupt and dingy existence, where man and machine co-exist, often in one body. Where one can find "sex shops" as easily as you can any other type of store, and where violence is commonplace. Throw a bit of Orwellian thought control a'la 1984 and you most likely have a good idea of what Omikron's game world looks like for a large portion of the gameplay.
Where's Deckard when you need him? And on the right, the Thought Police .. er
.. Controllers at work
The plot of Omikron is equal parts mystery, science fiction, and fantasy. I really liked many of the plot twists that arose in the game throughout, and more times than not I couldn't tell what would happen next. I really enjoyed the first few hours of play in particular in which you unravel Kay'ls background and discover the true nature of the threats to Omikron. But as captivating as the game was in the first few hours, the big plot twist is revealed far too early, and then is repeated too many times. I could not relate to the main character - who was supposed to be myself - when he kept asking the same questions over and over and getting the same responses from different NPCs. There is nothing like standing in front of the main bad guy and asking him a question that was answered in the first five hours of gameplay, but you're acting like you have never heard the answer.
Another highlight of Omikron is the presence of David Bowie, whose face appears on all the marketing materials associated with this game. The last time I remember a game giving this much press to a star was Take2 Interactive's game Ripper, which starred Christopher Walken as a corrupt detective. I made the mistake of being really excited about Walken's involvement in Ripper, and was shocked by how terrible his acting was in the final product. I went into this one expecting to see throwaway lines presented by Bowie and was pleasantly surprised at how much work he appears to have put into the product, most notably in the music and his voice acting.
One of David Bowie's alter egos, a wise and ancient "virtual being".
David Bowie and collaborator Reeves Gabrels put together most of the music for Omikron, and if you are a fan of Bowie's, you will like what they created. I couldn't get the main track out of my head for a few days. Bowie performs a number of other songs within the game itself as part of a virtual band named "The Dreamers". You can discover their concerts via rare fliers and watch a three minute or so cutscene while the band, whose lead singer bears more than a passing likeness to Bowie, sings and dances. I found the dance sequences to be a little disorienting, and for some reason the sound quality of the songs seemed bad. Supposedly the dancer's movements were modeled after Bowie's real movements, but to me it really looked like a puppet having a seizure. In addition to these scenes, Bowie appears as a virtual being named "Boz" who you have the rare pleasure of meeting during your travels, and delivers his lines in a very professional manner.
It's an Adventure Game!
A large part of Omikron's game play draws from traditional adventure game elements,
and these parts of the game are by far the best. You move around the game world,
conversing with the inhabitants, and collecting items to be used later on. There
are usually a few different ways to solve puzzles, some of which have impacts
further down the road. You carry your items around with you in your "Sneak",
a computer terminal grafted to your arm. It acts as both a storage unit for
uploaded inventory items as well as the means of calling transportation, learning
about your character, and altering the game options - everything but save the
game. I'm not certain if this has to do with the fact that there were plans
for a Playstation version, or if this was a game design to try and reinforce
the feel of a real world, but you can only save the game at save points scattered
throughout the world if you have at least one "magic ring". I'm not
a big fan of save points versus the ability to save at any time, so I found
this to be slightly annoying.
You are able to talk to other characters throughout the game world, and if they are important, you will be taken to a close-up view of their face and be presented with several conversation options. You must choose your responses carefully, or else you will miss a vital piece of information, and because of the savegame points, often it is too tedious to load and replay a conversation. The characters are somewhat well animated when they speak, have definite personality differences, and the voice acting was very well done for the most part. But for some reason I found the facial animations and body movements to be fairly wooden, and the lip synching seemed off. In addition, while they would emote pretty well during the conversation, they would often reset to some default position after they were done talking, which was not always an appropriate emotion for the conversation at hand.
And the prisoner smiles while she is under interrogation, facing a death sentence.
Something unique to this game is the fact that sometimes, a person is the solution to a puzzle. They are the much-advertised "virtual reincarnation" aspects of the game. When your character is killed, or sometimes at will if the circumstances are right, you can move your soul into that of another body. It is fairly easy to identify other characters that you can inhabit; when you encounter them they look graphically different and your character will make a comment about them indicating that they can be possessed. I personally found this whole process to be a little disconcerting. I felt like I was appraising a piece of meat whenever I looked at these bodies, which was reinforced by my character's comments about them. Sometimes these characters really were nothing more. I was at times required to commit suicide on purpose, or was killed on accident, in order to take over the body of the first person who touched me. On many occasions I needed to use the body just to take the money and belongings from it and discard it.
In line at the butcher shop .. and it isn't his clothes you are talking about
here.
Some of the bodies had extra work put into giving them personalities, distinct
movements, and even jobs and apartments. So you could dip into their lives to
whatever extent you wanted, even employ a little virtual voyeurism. There was
some irony in the nature of what my character was doing when compared to what
made the main bad guy so evil, it seemed to me that they were doing much of
the same thing. However, I know that I am somewhat odd in feeling sympathy for
characters in computer games, and I am certain that other people will not mind
this process at all. It adds an extra dimension into the game. Do you choose
to be the female journalist, or the brawny wrestler? Both choices come with
pros and cons, and will cause puzzles to be solved in different ways. You must
choose wisely, as virtually reincarnating more often than not means the loss
of the fighting and shooting skills that you may have worked to earn.
Um, no .. it's an Action Game!!
At moments, you find yourself in a situation in which your character must defend
himself. This happens one of two ways, either via a first person shooting sequence,
or a 3rd person hand to hand fighting sequence. The transition from adventure
game mode to action mode is usually very smooth, and is introduced by a short
cut scene to let you know to prepare to fight. These sections of the game can
be played in easy, medium, or difficult mode and the computer AI and number
of enemies adjust accordingly. The "Easy" scenes are indeed easy,
which can be a blessing for adventure game fans who don't really want to bother
with the action sequences. For instance, I could beat most of the fighting sequences
using a single button on the easiest setting. This tactic did not work on more
difficult levels.
The fighting sequences are the best out of the two types. You have four basic attacks, two kicks and two punches, as well as the ability to crouch, jump, and sidestep. There are many secret combinations you can learn to perform by reading books throughout the game world and by practicing your fighting skills. The higher your skill, the more fighting techniques you have available at your disposal. I have seen other reviewers compare these sequences to fighting games such as Tekken 3 or games like Street Fighter, and I don't think that it is fair to make these comparisons. The fight sequences are not nearly as complex as the ones found in those games, as those were designed to be "pure" fighters. At the same time, the fights in Omikron are definitely challenging and enjoyable. I found myself talking as much trash while fighting as I have any other game, and using strategies I've developed in other fighters with little difficulty.
Iman backs her opponent into the "Corner of Love"
The shooting sequences are much worse. This was not so much because of their content or design as much as it is because of the poor control. The mouse was extremely sensitive and I found myself having a very difficult time using it. Interestingly enough, the game defaults you to the lowest mouse sensitivity level, which is still far too sensitive. Even the slightest move swings the perspective around at alarming speeds, which just becomes ludicrous when turned up higher. Switching to the gamepad wasn't much better since it uses the same sensitivity levels. Either way, I was completely unable to fire with any degree of accuracy. Because of this, I had to use the weak "unlimited ammo" weapon instead of some of the more powerful ones in my arsenal simply because I could fire enough times that I would eventually get a lucky shot in.
Looks like a clear shot .. but it isn't.
Unfortunately, the enemy AI seemed to be lacking a bit, and they "cheated" by being able to see me from hundreds of yards away. They shot me with unnerving accuracy from such a distance, it took me a while of running towards the shots to see who was firing at me. There were generally puzzles or certain actions to be accomplished in each action sequence that, with better implementation, could have dramatically added to the tension.
It's ..
The action sequences weren't the only thing I found difficulty with. For some
reason, I had a horrible time installing this game and getting it to run. I
received three other games at the same time I got this one, and while all of
those installed and ran perfectly, Omikron crashed my computer with the Windows
Fatal Exception "blue screen of death" almost consistently. After
a long and tedious process involving reinstalling previous versions of DirectX,
I finally got it to run. But my sound was continually off - from skipping in
the spoken sequences, weird pauses mid-game independent of level loading, to
the music having a decidedly poor sound, to the sound effects seeming very wrong.
Sometimes the sound was too loud, sometimes too quiet. Even after I got it running,
the game was still unstable and seemed to crash at random. I never heard back
from technical support about any of these issues to know if this was something
specific to my configuration or the game itself; from reading other reviews,
however, I think that some of it might have been a function of the game itself.
Overall, Omikron is a fun game. And while it isn't as good as some of the "pure" forms of the genres it includes, together these genres combine in a very interesting mix. There are quite a few bugs and graphical and implementation issues that keep it from being a truly great game, which is quite a shame. But for all its faults, it still accomplishes a great deal more than any hybrid before has been able to. I think that this is something the casual gamer will enjoy, while hard core and dedicated fans of either action or adventure might not like it because they have seen all this done better in other games. For all its flaws, Omikron kept me at my computer until the end of the game, something not many games can do these days.
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