Daikatana

I am actually surprised how good that game is. Honestly. I mean, i knew the N64 version and i knew the reputation of the game in general. But thinking of all the new retro games like Wrath etc. that simulate the old Quake stuff - Daikatana actually plays and feel like those. And it's fun. The cutscenes, the ambience and sound, the world's style: if not a hidden gem, it feels a little underrated by now at least.

I did try it back in the day, but stopped before even getting past the swamps. Finally going through Daikatana in 2018 with the latest patch I'd say it's pretty darn good. Sure, it still crashed twice, and the companions got stuck to the point of having to reload a handful of times, but those were just annoyances. There's a lot of cool stuff in this game and, the first and final episode, which seem so hated, really reminded me of Sin. Part of that is definitely down to the modern setting and high-tech fortress infiltration setup, using terminals and finding side routes to get around. Got a serious break-in/out and heist feel to them with that music! The soundtrack as a whole was far better than I expected, really driving the whole thing. The middle two episodes has a lot of Hexen 2 in them. I mean, you've got Greek and medieval Norway, which could just as well have been in that game. Also, Daikatana as a whole has that type of destructible object and item pickup "puzzles" that Hexen 2 is famous for ( ok, to some it's infamous for it, but nevermind that. ). Lots of secrets too. Will definitely replay this one down the line, as I missed a ton of 'em ( also, I wonder how it works without companions. ). It may have been seen as outdated at the time, but this game looks great as long as you dig that chunky Quake1-2 engine style. That said - what is up with the screenshots on this page? Makes the game look terrible when is has so many beautiful locales. Bummer. Finally, there's plenty of cool weapons exclusive to each episode. So a highly enjoyable old-school shooter with a lot of imaginative ideas then. Some annoyances here and there really doesn't break it. Not anymore at least.

Patch 1.3 makes it so much better and closer to what it should have been from the start. Enemies placement is still pretty bad so don't feel bad if you enable unlimited saves

Thank god some users pointed out, that there is an unofficial patch 1.3. This is a great improvement. I liked it somehow, this old school shooter. The only real pain are those damn sidekicks that always get stuck and are just plain pain in the ass. It is true that chapter 1 isn't that good but after that it is quite ok and it is really weird with all those different time lines and different weapons in all those time lines. Follow this introduction https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=282094762 and you can have a good time with it. Had about 26 hours fun with it.

After hearing so many horrible things about Daikatana, I figured I'd give it out for a spin myself to see what it's like. I was very pleasantly surprised by it. One major thing to note for this game is that it takes a while for the player to get good at the game's mechanics, and that it's not unlikely that you won't have a great time at first. Most people shove the game aside and never try to learn how, for instance, the AI actually works or how to progress through areas properly. The game is not easy, and you can expect it to kick your ass in a bunch of places, but once you get better at it you'll start appreciating that a lot more. A lot of the weird and quirky design elements end up being good fun. That's not to say that the game is flawless: Some of the puzzles can be far fetched; the Quake 2 engine makes movement very weird; AI companions can be pretty slow sometimes. If you learn how to work around those issues, you'll have a really cool game that simply suffered from being overhyped back when it was released. Definitely worth trying out!