Oni Review
Oni’s story is set in 2032. In the game, you play Konoko; a female attendant who immediately notices the corruption among those at the head of the world, has to prevent the extinction of humanity and reveal the secret of her own identity, and works for the TCTF. For this purple-haired female heroine, it’s all a day’s work. The story is better understood thanks to text notes as well as short Inter-game dialogues. The dialogues are surprisingly presented with close-up portraits of talking characters. The lack of animation between these games is distracting and reduces something from the overall experience of the game. The sequence of events could and should have been understood much better. The main attraction of Oni is its magnificent combat system, where physical contact is abundant. There are many types of kicks and punches, as well as explosive combinations that will hit the back of your opponent. As the game progresses, Konoko will learn new moves and combinations to add to his repertoire(neck-breaker, devil spin kick, etc.) Perhaps the best part of this fight is the fluency created by the combinations. Character animations and combinations are not interrupted in any way.
In addition to his fighting skills, Konoko has a weapons warehouse, which includes traditional pistols, machine guns, plasma weapons and grenade launchers. It’s interesting that Konoko can only carry a weapon. If you add to that that ammunition is usually low, it won’t be long before you realize that Oni not only includes this amazing physical contact fight, but also wants you to rely on it. This is much easier understood by the fact that when the weapons are left on the ground, they mysteriously disappear as time goes on. Unfortunately, Oni does not have sharp weapons, but the combat is indeed very bright, and long-range weapons handle you well enough throughout the game. After surviving the initial shock of the fight, Oni immediately digs the ground and goes to the bottom. So where to begin? Apparently the decks are designed by professional architects; but I think they’re professional warehouse architects or something, because the spaces in the game are often large, empty, rectangular spaces with countless stairs and doors, and occasionally a smaller room is added. Of course, this does not mean that Oni does not come across impressive levels, such as the occasional difficult Airport task, but in general the level layout is decidedly disappointing. Many of the levels contain locked doors that open using computer terminals to escape security. Later in the game, this layout changes, and you now need to use multiple computer terminals to open a locked door. Of course, you should know that you can get beat up running from one terminal to another. Fortunately, health mixtures that allow you to restore part of your health are left in a suitable place for you.
Looking at the graphics, I can say that there is much more to this game than the cutting that my barber does. From a graphical point of view, problems appear at every corner, and they even affect the gameplay of the game. I remember once throwing an enemy through a concrete wall. I was performing one of Konoko’s launches, and I think I got a little too close to the wall of the stairs. Then a pair of scissors! And the enemy is dying. I wouldn’t complain if the opposite hadn’t happened later in the game. But a few times I put a guard’s head through the wall. All because of visual errors. Although the character animations during the fight scenes are impressive, the same cannot be said about those in other parts of the game. When you knock down an enemy, he falls to the ground as if he had a concussion. He’s not squirming by any means; he stays there for a few seconds and gets back on his feet ready for round two.
I saw critics praising the graphics in the promotional films made for Oni and in the reviews written. Did they play the game the way I did? Didn’t they notice the scissors? Oni’s controls are similar to those in a first-person shooter. You will use the mouse to navigate, kick and punch; WASD keys(OKL keys for lefties) to move Konoko; and several different keys for different functions such as jumping, squatting, and arming. The problem is that the keyboard layout is preset and the controls cannot be rearranged in any way. It’s beyond me why such a feature wasn’t installed in the menu system. You can’t even adjust basic elements, such as mouse sensitivity. But the camera angles that often trouble third-person action games, contrary to what I expected, didn’t cause much of a problem on the Oni. There have been cases where the camera has intervened, but in general I was happy with the camera’s movements.
Oni is more frustrating in many ways. The jumping scenes are annoying because it takes Konoko a minute to prepare for a running start. You can sneak up on the guards using a secret movement, but this feature is very little used. Oni automatically saves your game at certain points in a mission, but it is impossible to save the game every time you want it. This is annoying at the actual levels ahead, because these levels are longer and much more difficult. If you die one or two doors before a save point, you can play large areas again and again. In later levels, you will face multiple enemies simultaneously, almost always, and at least one of them will be carrying a long-range weapon.
I haven’t mentioned multiplayer yet because Oni doesn’t support it. Obviously, third-person action games are not known for their multi-player components, but Oni could be a prime candidate for such a feature. In Co-op and deathmatch modes, the possibilities are endless. As he played Oni, his flaws appeared. Admittedly, Oni brings a controversial, new and interesting fighting system. Despite these features, Oni is the victim of several shortcomings, such as repetitive level design, awkward control layout, numerous visual errors, and a lack of multiplayer options. I really wanted to love Oni; but he couldn’t use his potential enough. At least we can hope that Oni will well influence the direction in which future third-person action games are going.
