TeuszCK: I've installed my old Daikatana disc, and patched it, and played a lot, and I think, that for casual gamer, this game is really THAT bad. If you don't know what to do with your sidekicks (leave them at the beggining of each level, and then pray, so they won't stuck somewhere while you're waiting for them at the end of the level), you will be really mad. Before Daikatana there was Half-Life, there was Kingpin, there was Unreal Tournament and those games showed how sidekicks idea could work in fps. Even without sidekicks Daikatana is far from being "average". Shooting is just not that fun because of terrible collision detection. Most weapons have explosive or bouncy bullets, which are just as deadly for player as for enemies, so precision should be critical for gameplay. In those days you had Soldier of Fortune, or even Sin (which was 1,5year older than Daikatana), where you could shoot away enemy gun. In Daikatana you can barely shoot enemy: bullet will go just through it or explode in the air around enemy. And please remember: most enemies are some small frogs, mosquitoes, rats, spiders, bats etc. so you cannot hit them when you want, but when you'll try to kill something bigger, you can be sure that some small bastard will catch rocket right before you. Using explosives (which are 2/3 of avaible weapons) in tight corridors (which are 2/3 of levels) is really frustrating. I feel sorry for people who tried to make mortal sidekicks useful in this environment...
Gameplay core in Daikatana is broken, but with right attitude you can still have some fun with this game, like slashing ememies to pieces with daikatana, or grinding them to pieces with machine gun... Graphic is edgy (which shouldn't be problem, because right now every old 3d game looks edgy) and glitchy, but Ken Scott made some nice textures before joining id software (you know his work from Quake 3, Doom 3, Rage and soon there will be Halo 4), and some levels (mostly in Greece and Norway) have this old school atmosphere, which is absent in modern games.
So should Daikatana be in GOG? Yes! Not because it's good game (it's not even average), but because it's part of gaming history. There are games in GOG that are worse than Daikatana, but you still play them, because they bring you memories when you where younger, life was simpler and grass was greener. I still remember when I played Quake 2, Unreal or Half Life, and back then, I knew that Daikatana will be worse than those games. At the turn of the century Daikatana was something like Duke Nukem Forever is now (who thought DNF will be a good game? no one, but many people where still waiting to see it). I think real gamer should play them both because with his knowledge about games, evolution in design and gameplay, he will find many things interesting.
However for more casual gamers Daikatana should've been patched again, so you can turn friendly fire off, so sidekicks can't kill you, make them immortal (they really have suicidal tendecies) and not necessary to pass to next level (when they stuck somewhere). It would be much simpler than programming new A.I... Or at least you should be able to switch off your sidekicks completely in the options. I would surely give 5$ for that.
Your post makes me wonder if Daikatana is moddable (given that it uses the Quake 2 engine, maybe it is). Some horribly glitched games gets a second wind thanks to a modding community (like Trespasser).
Daikatana had interesting concepts and plenty of potential. With the bugs fixed and some flaws ironed out, it could be somewhat decent.
