Daikatana

Try the Daikatana 1.3 community patch and stop complaining about things that happened more than 15 years ago. The patch makes the game overall much better and it's faults more bearable so you can actually appreciate what was good about it.

Daikatana has a really bad reputation. Some of it is justified, the rest is hyperbole. Yes, the game did not live up to its hype. But who cares today about the hype level of circa 1999? Yes, the game was technically somewhat behind the curve when it released. But GOG users usually don't really care about that stuff, and in some aspects, Daikatana was actually 10 years ahead! Yes, the game was broken in many ways. But today, thanks to the community that kept fixing bugs and making improvements (i.e., community-patch 1.3) the game is totally playable and its positive aspects become readily apparent after the initial batch of dreary levels (about 2 hours in). Daikatana has heart and soul -- and lots of it. It is a great example of old-school shooter design with it's fast pace, it's intricate levels (beyond the first few) with tons of enemies and tons of secrets to find -- once you make it past the dreary first episode. If you are looking to scratch that old-school PC shooter itch with something that is somewhat more ambitious than necessary, and if you are interested in the history of PC gaming, give this one a try if you are willing to persevere through the first one or two hours of mediocrity. But beware: install the community patch and disable your sidekicks since, alas, they are still mostly broken. With this in mind, you will certainly have at least 12 to 15 hours of old-school FPS fun that most people have never experienced!

First of all, I think you shouldn't approach Daikatana without the 1.3 patch installed. It is the only reason I finally decided to sit down and finish it. While it doesn't remove every little problem, it definitely fixes everything that kept me from playing this game all those years and adds a number of quality-of-life improvements. Right now, all you have to worry about is playing through the game. And how is it, exactly? Not bad, honestly. You just have to get through the first few levels before it gets going. The game starts off with literally the worst levels in the entire campaign so it does leave a rather sour taste, but things get progressively better after that. The entire first episode is pretty mediocre, mostly because of the small-hitbox enemies and useless weapons but as soon as you reach the second episode, it's a whole different story. I honestly enjoyed myself as much as with any other retro shooter from that era. You get better weapons, the enemies are cooler, and the environments look really nice, not to mention that level design gets way better. Second episode is definitely a highlight, although the third and fourth one are pretty decent as well. What I enjoyed about the game the most is the variety. Say what you want about John Romero, but with this game, he actually delivered everything that he promised back in the day. Without spoiling too much of the story, each episode offers a completely new set of weapons and enemies, and the environments are wildly different from one another. Despite the fact that it's probably the longest first-person shooter from that era I ever played (easily about 15-20 hours of gameplay), I never got bored due to how different each episode felt. The ability to level up either your abilities or the titular Daikatana also added to the enjoyment of the game. Once again, as long as you'll remember to install the 1.3 patch, this game is well worth your time if you're a fan of retro shooters.

(Attention! To make the game at least remotely playable, you HAVE TO install the 1.3 community patch. It adds widescreen support, unlimited saves, the ability to play without your sidekicks, and a plethora of other fixes. A must-have!) Daikatana is a game everyone likes to throw crap at, and let's be completely honest here, for very good reasons. But underneath the turd-mountain of technical issues, there is a hidden gem lying. To give credit, where credit is due, the game is very ambitious, and it's variety is really impressive. There are four chapters, and all of them have different environments, enemies and weapons. The first one is 25th century Japan, which is... horrendous. It has awful level design with narrow corridors, annoying enemies and counterproductive weaponry. Yes, the first chapter of the game is far the worst of all, so I'm not surprised that most people shut down the game after a few levels. But if you manage to suffer through that, the next one is ancient Greece, which is surprisingly good - I had quite a lot of fun with it. It's like a completely different game - much more opened up areas, better level design and great weapons. It reminds me of Unreal - of course that game is far superior in every aspect. The next one is medieval Norway, which is not bad either with it's snow-covered villages and lava-filled caverns. The weapons are useful too (except for that "satan-staff", which is utterly pointless). The last one is 21th century San Fransisco, which is OK, a little worse than the previous two. Here you can blast through your enemies with traditional FPS weaponry, like pistols, shotguns, a chaingun or a laser cannon. This is a story-driven FPS game, so that means you have to sit through a lot of awkwardly scripted and lame cutscenes, which drag on far too long, and witness the characters' still faces during conversations (this was 2 years after Half-life, which already managed to achieve moving mouths). Anyway, the story involves time travelling, paradoxes and betrayal. It's quite cliché and predictable, but acceptable for this kind of game. Daikatana uses the Quake 2 engine, which gets the job done, but nothing too impressive. The environments and effects look good for the time, but the character models are kinda bad, and the animations are very weak. The game's "advanced AI" is the real deal - it sucks. Oh god. The enemies are blind, deaf and braindead, and sometimes they doesn't even shoot, just stand in one place and stare at you. If they move, they get stuck in corners, doors and stairs. Your companions are no better either. They are always blocking you, and their pathfinding is so dreadful, that they always manage to stuck somewhere (even in an open corridor), so you have to babysit them all the time. They blindly run towards enemies to get murdered, and get crushed by elevators or doors. They are your real enemies in this game - they do nothing, but hinder your progress. Disabling them is highly recommended. There are some RPG elements in the game, which means you can upgrade your properties like Power or Attack speed. I like the idea, but they are not that significant, and the Speed and Acro upgrades are pretty much useless. If you kill with the Daikatana, it absorbs the XP, and the sword itself gets more and more powerful, which is great. So this game is a very mixed bag, but I'd say give it a try! It's a very ambitious concept of an FPS/RPG hybrid with cooperative gameplay, but the technical issues prevented it from being a great classic. It's disappointing, yes, but not nearly as bad, as everyone likes to claim.

It's a good time if you install teh fan patch that fixes all the bugs and is updated regularly in game.