Re: Ye olde list of complaints
Posted By: Dan Rudolph <Ace_of_Sevens@mac.com>	Date: 1/5/01 2:01 a.m.
In Response To: Ye olde list of complaints (Zyrxil) :: graphics: like a 32 bit version of Shogo. low detail textures and rather : generic architecture and characters. the occasional flare and alpha : channel effect round out the measly special effects department. and : those image overlays to show that they couldn't do mouth movement like : they did with Halflife how many years ago? Oni could have definately used a kick in the technological pants. And the environments aren't as interactive as I'd like. I wonder if they'd have been pbetter off using a licensed engine. : gameplay: i'm not sure how many times i've elbowed hard into mid-air a : good two feet from my target. the combos are booooooring and you're : lucky if you land your hits. you can only carry one gun at a time [???!!!] and : you spend all your time hitting switches and logging into console : machines. I have no problem with the fighting. THe controls are fairly simple, but you can do a lot of stuff. Sounds like someone just wasn't used to hand-to-hand and the rather different kind of timing it takes from shooters. : NO ONLINE PLAY? The technological difficulties with this have been iterated many times. : This game could have been so much more complex, but perhaps seeing : as it needs to be playable on a ps2, the aspirations were toned down. : There might have been skill points, fighting styles, skills, tools, little side : things to do, weapon skills, alternate routes for everything, more ways of : sneaking, full multiplayer modes e.g- beatem up DM, CTF, a Commando : style mode, loosely based on CS, but with TCTF officers vs Strikers on : missions more stealth emphasized with built in voice communication. : Etc, etc. You can see how much bigger Oni could have been. This is an odd, somewhat contradictory statement. THe writer seems to want it to be like a console-style RPG, yet says it was dumbed down for consoles. Quake could have been a turn-based strategy game as well, but that's not what its creators had in mind. And it could have been pretty cool multiplayer. Maybe for Oni 2, but the internet will likely still be out of the question. : The game is pretty basic. : Besides the sliding and flips, there aren't any complex maneuvers the : person themselves can do. No climbing, precise jumping, : lifting/throwing things. So much potential for fun.... Actually, there are lots of combos, plus the umpteen different throws. : Combat seems okay after a while, but the special moves are pretty : difficult to pull off on the keyboard. A little more leeway in the control : scheme would have helped a lot. I'm not sure what the author meant, because Oni doesn't have special moves in the same sense as most fighting games, and most of the fighting is done with the mouse. The most complex thing you'll do with the keyboard is dash, slide and jump-flip, none of which are very hard. : Your buddies are pretty stupid. They won't weave towards a guy with a : gun, but run directly at him while getting machine gun in the face. I haven't played the manplant level, so I can't comment on this directly, but the enemies are pretty smart. : You can kill innocents after they give you... *shudder* hypo. No : reprimands for that so far! The TCTF isn't a nice organization. : The lack of moves is disheartening. Kick combos are lacking. There'll probably be more kick combos that appear a little ways into the game. : Graphics are basic. Environments seem stiff and motionless. You won't : be destroying things like the king of interactivity, Duke Nukem 3-D. I also wish there was more stuff around. Early press releases imply this sort of thing was planned, but it apparently fell by the wayside. : The voices are still horrible. The "villain" doesn't seem very : villainous at all. Maybe he isn't supposed to. : Anime cutscenes are still poor. Konoko's face when she sees the enemy : run out at the beginning of the second level is laughable. That isn't a cutscene. That's a still. : Where the hell's the multiplayer? Arena combat is VERY doable for this : type of game. Co-op? Capture the flag? Steal the bacon? Football? Time : trials? What makes it so doable? From a design point of view, sure. But there are technological problems. : Well, both demos have seemed to be pretty easy. The first level the first : time I played it seemed kind of approaching difficult, but now is very : easy. The first time I played it I did not know about the compass thing. I : hope that their is either a difficulty option, or a lot of levels. Whoever wrote this didn't know what they were talking about. There's a difficulty menu in the options screen. The levels are fairly easy because they're from early in the game. : Oni just isn't fun : For starters, I hate jumping : Also, I'm sick of Lara Croft ripoffs, and I never saw what the big deal was : with Lara Croft anyway : Hence, I hate games that seem like Tomb Raider to me : The tutorial mission is trite : The control scheme at least in the demo version I played (I can't imagine : buying the real game) was awful and unusable It's great to see people complaining Oni is too much like Tomb Raider alongside those complaining that you can't grab ledges or pull blocks around. : I think it has so much more potential, but as it is, after the second : play-through, the demo becomes so insanely easy that it's ridiculous. I : want to like this game, because I think the style is great, but I just : can't bring myself to really get excited about it. The problem is that it : is blatantly showing you that it has to be a console game first and a PC : game second. Now, I have nothing against console games. I love some : console games - I currently can't stop playing ZeldaMM - but this game : belongs on a console, and only a console. : The lack of precision in the controls, plus the weak combo system, plus : the scarcity of enemies in the levels - it all points to a console game. I : don't doubt that it would be fun for a little while, but once the shine : wears off, I'm sort of worried that there won't be anything else to the : game. For a game that promised to be so much more, it's disappointing : to see it be so very little. This person's complaints don't make a lot of sense. None of those things are generally thought of as characteristics of console games. : ; : Oni doesn't have a complex combat system by any stretch of the : imagination, basic compared to today's fighters. It's control scheme is : basic compared to yesterday's favorite, Tomb Raider. It's interactivity is : basic compared to Build engine games, and its environment is basic : compared to... well, almost anything that's actually worth playing. The controls are simple to make it easy to learn. They really aren't much simpler than Tomb Raider, and they're simpler than fighters' because fighters' are generally hard to get the hang of. : I can see how people who are new to console-style games would dig : Oni, but anyone else who digs 2-d or 3-d fighters... I don't see the appeal. Oni isn't much like fighting games though. Certainly no more than Double Dragon was like Street Fighter. : You can't even pull yourself onto crates! Wtf is with that?? And some : mouse sensitivity settings please?? I also think you should be able to grab ledges. It's nearly weird to be able to jump up to waist-level with something, but not be able to get on it. If I had desiged Oni's controls, I would have combined the pick-up stuff/holster key with the action key for a general action key that also grabbed ledges, but this is a minor complaint. The mouse sensitivity thing is part of a generally poor UI that will hopefully be addressed at some point.

Ye olde list of complaints	Zyrxil	1/4/01 5:08 p.m.
Re: Ye olde list of complaints	Jesse	1/4/01 5:17 p.m.
Re: Ye olde list of complaints	Zyrxil	1/4/01 5:20 p.m.
Asking us to debate *opinions*?	Michael Spencer	1/4/01 5:57 p.m.
nah, he's looking for birds of feather...	Rakki	1/4/01 5:23 p.m.
Re: Asking us to debate *opinions*?	Zyrxil	1/4/01 5:24 p.m.
Re: Asking us to debate *opinions*?	Nijhazer	1/4/01 5:40 p.m.
Re: Asking us to debate *opinions*?	Lemon-Tea	1/4/01 6:01 p.m.
Re: Asking us to debate *opinions*?	Zyrxil	1/4/01 8:13 p.m.
Re: Asking us to debate *opinions*?	Lemon-Tea	1/4/01 8:18 p.m.
Oops...sorry, Jesse...	Michael Spencer	1/4/01 7:21 p.m.
Re: Oops...sorry, Jesse...	Jesse	1/4/01 10:01 p.m.
Re: Oops...sorry, Jesse...	Michael Spencer	1/4/01 10:21 p.m.
Re: Asking us to debate *opinions*?	BananaFish	1/6/01 12:30 a.m.
Re: Ye olde list of complaints	aneep	1/4/01 5:26 p.m.
Re: Ye olde list of complaints	Zyrxil	1/4/01 5:43 p.m.
Re: Ye olde list of complaints	Zyrxil	1/4/01 5:44 p.m.
Re: Ye olde list of complaints	aneep	1/4/01 6:03 p.m.
Re: Ye olde list of complaints	DanPerkins	1/4/01 5:30 p.m.
Re: Ye olde list of complaints	Lokus	1/4/01 7:21 p.m.
Re: Architecture	Twrch	1/4/01 7:59 p.m.
Re: Ye olde list of complaints	Otokam	1/4/01 7:22 p.m.
Re: Ye olde list of complaints	Dan Rudolph	1/5/01 1:21 a.m.
Re: Ye olde list of complaints	Harry	1/5/01 2:24 a.m.
Re: Ye olde list of complaints	Jesse	1/4/01 11:11 p.m.
Re: Ye olde list of complaints	aneep	1/5/01 5:24 p.m.
Re: Ye olde list of complaints	Dan Rudolph	1/5/01 2:01 a.m.