Daikatana

I bought this game when it was first released on the PC. You have no idea how many issues I ran into trying to play this game ( I mean at least I was able to enjoy playing Ultima IX ). I am however tempted to buy this again because I read Masters of Doom which was the story of both Romero and Carmack and think that it is ironic that the DnD game they were playing was ended by the Diakatana, and this game for the most part ended Romero's career...sorta. I always thought that if Romero would have done things differently and was not trying to so up Carmack, this game could have been good. It had some good ideas...sorta

If you liked Quake II and want something with a few more bells and whistles and a lot less poo-brown, you'll find it here. The opening levels don't help (when you're getting used to movement and mouselook), but dig in to the mad story and the crazy weapons and you'll find something here that has plenty of enjoyable peaks to offset its rugged edges. At worst, mediocre. At best... Pretty good. Not great, but definitely good. I have no regrets.

I found this in the bargain bin at a local retro-gaming shop a few years ago. It was listed for 50 cents. This game is worthless. Not worth a single penny. Don't waste your time unless you really feel that your time is useless. It is an affront to retro games to have this for 'sale'. What garbage and major FAIL on GoG for selling it. If anything it should be listed as $1 permanently (to cover their costs/taxes or whatever) and that's it. Maybe even have it 'free' but it isn't worth a damn thing even if it is free. Don't waste your time.

Trashed during its launch for horrendous bugs, Daikatana still gets bashed in hindsight. Looking back and replaying its GOG release, Daikatana ain't all that bad. Have the basic mechanics been used before in games like Unreal? Yep. Has the premise of wildly different locations been used more effectively in later FPSes, like Time Splitters 2? Yep. Did the concept of companions fall flat due to technical limitations of the period? Oh, you betchya! In retrospect, I think John Romero's creative ambitions were just too far ahead of the tech of 2000. From a basic gameplay perspective, Daikatana ain't bad. Its basics are rather average and at only $6 (USD), it ain't a jip. Just go in acknowledging the swath of cool ideas were a bit too far ahead of what could've been done at the time of release. Many of these ideas have now been fine tuned by other developers who had time on their side...and probably got some of their ideas FROM Daikatana.

I got this 2 weeks after release for £2! It just didn't sell. It got terrible reviews, but I thought I'd try it anyway. First chapter was a bit average. Also a bit weird. Battles to the death against small insects. Then the sidekicks appear. Oh dear. Every door became an epic boss challenge that took 30 minutes to defeat. Every fight became a pain in a butt as your sidekicks run straight up to the bad guys to ensure that the bad guys can get a good shot at them. So much for the amazing AI that was promised. You spend the rest of the chapter attempting to shepard suicidal idiots who can't work out what those mysterious rectangular holes in walls are for and instead mash their faces against the wall to try to get to the other side. Then came chapter 2. No sidekicks and all you have is a sword. And then you realise you're fighting skeletons in ancient Greece. It was "Jason and the Argonauts - the Game"! It was epic. If the entire game had just been that it would have declared the greatest game ever made. Then sadly chapter 2 ends and chapters 3 and 4 are like chapter 1. The game wasn't terrible. It was just average except for the completely unexpected awesomeness of chapter 2. And it also gave me a lifelong irrational fear of doors.