Daikatana
| Daikatana | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Studio | Ion Storm , Kemco (N64 port and GBC version) | ||
| Publisher | Eidos Interactive | ||
| Senior Developer | John Romero | ||
| Erstveröffent- lichung |
April 2000 | ||
| platform | Windows , Nintendo 64 | ||
| genre | Ego shooter | ||
| Subject | Fantasy , science fiction | ||
| Game mode | Single player , multiplayer | ||
| control | Keyboard / mouse | ||
| medium | 1 CD-ROM | ||
| language | English , German | ||
| Age rating |
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| information | German version censored | ||
Daikatana ( Japanese for "big sword", a traditional weapon of the samurai ) is a computer game from the genre of first-person shooters developed by the development studio Ion Storm under the direction of John Romero . The development of the game, originally announced for 1997, was problematic and was delayed until 2000, with multiple changes in the release date. The computer games press, which had already been increasingly negative during the development phase, rated Daikatana largely negatively when it was released late. In Germany the game appeared cut. For example, human non-player characters were replaced by robots and blood was colored green.
action
The story of Daikatana revolves around time travel and the opportunity it opens up to change the future by intervening in the past. The game begins in a dystopian future in Japan in the year 2455. The martial arts teacher Hiro Miyamoto discovers that the powerful industrialist Kage Mishima traveled into the past with the help of a magic sword (the eponymous Daikatana) to influence the present in his favor . In this way, Mishima prevented the development of a cure for a rampant pandemic , in order to create a monopoly for the pharmaceutical products of his company. The player then sets out in the role of Hiro Miyamoto to steal the sword from Mishima and to correct the manipulated past. On his journey, which takes him through a total of four epochs, he finds allies in the former security chief Superfly Johnson and in Mikiko Ebihara, the daughter of a Mishima scientist, who wants to avenge her father's death.
Course of the game
Daikatana is divided into four episodes that take place in four different epochs: episode 1 is set in Japan in the distant future (2455), episode 2 in the mythical world of Greek sagas (1200 BC), episode 3 in early medieval Norway ( 560) and the final episode, finally, in the near future San Francisco (2030). In addition to the different design of the levels , each of these epochs also contains its own types of enemies and monsters, which thematically fit the background of the respective epoch.
A special feature of the game is that an independent, six-part arsenal was designed for each of these epochs, which fits the theme of the respective episode, so that you fight with a total of 24 very different weapons in the course of the game.
The course of the game is characterized by the usual fights and the solving of smaller puzzles in Daikatana, as well as by the integration of the two secondary characters Mikiko and Superfly, who act as sidekicks . Using a simple list of commands, the player can instruct these two companions, for example, to assist him in battle or to wait at a certain point. The technically not fully developed artificial intelligence of the two sidekicks could, however, impair the course of the game and was therefore heavily criticized by the players.
reception
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The game received mixed ratings. While the German-language computer game magazine GameStar classifies the graphics as up-to-date and ascribes variety to the game, PC Games criticizes Daikatana as an unspectacular shooting game, the game principle of which is stale compared to Half-Life and whose technology can by no means keep up with the reference titles of the time. In the test of the N64 version, IGN states that the mediocre PC first person shooter on the Nintendo console is getting even worse.
"What remains is a solid action title for nostalgics and die-hard fans of the supposed game god Romero."
Web links
- Daikatana News - Current news about Daikatana (English)
- John Romero's page on Daikatana ( Memento from February 23, 2014 in the Internet Archive )
- Daikatana: The Crash of a Hype (retrospective review)
Individual evidence
- ↑ Censorship tricked. In: Nickles.de. Retrieved August 29, 2020 .
- ↑ a b Matt Casamassina: Daikatana. In: IGN . November 22, 2000, accessed August 29, 2020 .
- ↑ a b c Peter Kusenberg: Search for the lost time . In: PC Games . No. 07/2000 . Computec Media , July 2000, p. 118–120 ( archive.org [accessed August 29, 2020]).
- ↑ a b Daikatana. In: GameStar . July 1, 2000, accessed August 29, 2020 .