Omikron: The Nomad Soul

First of all, I have to admit, while I own the GOG version, I played this on Dreamcast. I've been told the Dreamcast is the bad version, but then I see the complaints in reviews about the PC controls, and I'm not so sure. I am very tolerant of old 90s control schemes. I love tank controls. I found the controls fine. There's not a great need for precision during gameplay anyway. The story and environment is the real winner here. I just love it. This futuristic dystopian setting is just awesome. And if I place myself in the mindset of a gamer in the late 90s, oh, wow. I get the comparisons to Shenmue in that respect. It's a big, "living" world. But interaction with the world is not anywhere near the level of Shenmue. But that's okay. Most games today still don't have the level of interaction Shenmue did. The big, big negative is combat and the first person segments. They are a chore, and they do not feel good at all. I set the difficulty to easy, and I'm thankful for that. I loved going through this game, getting to the next environment, searching for the next secret concert of David Bowie's band, and I didn't want frustration to make me quit. So don't be ashamed, and set it to easy. The adventure aspects are fun, in my opinion. There's exploration and some puzzle solving. It's worth it. I've liked most of Quantic Dreams' games, though the recent ones are more interactive movie than video game. This is probably the game-iest game he's made, and it's worth it for those who can tolerate 90s-era game design.

This is a game that starts out interesting and has a good amount of exploration and adventure and a sinkhole collapses you into the void of jank that is practically non-stop. From nearly game breaking bugs, to a save system that was spawned in the depths of hell. to graphical glitches that are too many to name, this game is quite literally the worst experience that I have had playing an adventure game in my entire life. If you buy this game, be advised that you will likely rage quit well before the game is done.

Once you get it running, it's a fun adventure game with shooting and close combat setions. Now, you need to understand that this game is janky a.f. If you can stand this and don't mind consulting a walkthrough occasionally, you'll have good time. Shooting sections are atrocious though. Install dgvoodoo and start the .exe directly from the game folder. Changed .exe compatibility to win7, run as admin, disable full screen opt. I also ran fraps to check the fps ran at 60. On Win11. This worked for me with ctd on alt-tab only. Sometimes froze for a few seconds after loading a save game and transitioning between indoors/outdoors. Enjoy!

The thing that most annoyed me about this game was the non-standard controls, and the inability to customize them. I felt then, and still do, that developers are being a bit arrogant when they do that sort of thing. On the other hand, the game has tons of immersion and loads of interesting turns and twists. At the time my comp could barely handle it, which didn't help with the clunky 1st person and beat em up sections; I look forward to having it running smoothly.

I haven't played this game since it was first released however long ago, however what it successfully managed to do was pull me in like no other video game has managed to do, I still remember the first time I changed bodies and thinking "what the hell is going on?!". This is an enthralling, often confusing yet above all highly entertaining classic that I would hope many would at the very least give a chance.