Ok I checked a frequently asked question to see how far I was in the game. Turns out im at the end boss. Anotherwords review time.
Also you might be interested to know that I have rented this game, there is no reason to play it up so you can trust my review, but remember its only my opinion.
So Onimusha Warlords is Capcom\'s first entry for survival horror on the PS2. So its a pretty hyped game, esp considering how many copies this thing has sold in Japan alone.
The reviews i\'ve read all say its a decent game except a bit short. Well heres my opinions.
Gameplay: Onimusha takes the Resident Evil formula of other Capcom games and uses it distinctly, this is evident in the static camera angles and puzzles.
You will instantly notice that the game is more action orientated. A action game with adventure elements rather than a adventure game with action elements is how I would describe Onimusha, this differs from Resident Evil which I would describe with the latter description. Basically this is because attacking monsters is encouraged throughout.
The main character (I won\'t even bother attemping to write the characters names cause of typos
) has a guantlet which can suck up souls from undead monsters, these can aid life, weapon upgrade and magic. In addition to this 3 different swords can be used in the game which all have different characterists and can be fueled by the magic souls. So collecting souls is well rewarding which means you will find your self actually wanting to get in fights unlike say Resident Evil where you really want to avoid the monsters.
Fighting is a simple process and the controls have been improved upon compared to Resident Evil. I personally found I ignored the "onguard" button which allowed you to step about and simply went for the press the action button a lot, that allows your character to do a combination attack. This is most cases works perfectly, so really theres not much tactics to beating the monsters.
Theres also sections where you control your female commerade, a ninja. Unfortunatly although she handles perfectly fine, I felt she could have been put to better use. She was basically the same as the main character, i.e press the trigger button and kill the enermies. You do find play a little different with the ninja as killing enermies isn\'t rewarded so you find yourself basically running past them, ala Resident Evil. Shame really they could have put the ninja sections to much better use. As they stand though they are mainly fillers for the main story.
So you basically progress through the game going to a few different buildings and like in Resident Evil exploring each room. Theres also this thing called the Dark Relm which is a 20 level sort of slash em up with some bonus at the end (I won\'t tell you what it is.
). This seems to have just been added to make the game longer. Its quiet a hard thing to complete you see and it becomes frustrating and inevitably not fun.
So the whole game takes this action element of collecting souls, solving puzzles and getting snippets of story throughout - that is the Onimusha formula and for the most part it works well.
Graphics: The graphics are very good. Both CG cut scenes are very nice as well as the rendered cut scenes which remind me of those from Tekken. Ingame is also very nice. The static backgrounds have a lot of details and it all runs along at a nice frame rate. The only slowdown that is in the game is with loading. Theres a section where you need to light some candles and the room goes from dark to light, the game pauses for a second whilst the new room is loaded. The loading is different to Resident Evil and is a lot faster. No more opening door sequences.
Also the character models are impressive.
Sound: The sound is very good, its all well presented. Its not exactly my kind of music but suits the game perfectly. Good stuff.
Ok the downfalls: Unfortunatly im going to have to give this game a relativily low score in comparasion to the other games i\'ve reviewed, red faction, sky odyssey and gun griffon blaze and its because it has some anonying flaws which ruin what would be an amazing game.
The flaws...
Lastability: I rented it last night. Im on the final boss today. £45 for one day. The hour counter (present at the save game section) isn\'t reading 10 hours (like mags suggested). Be warned you should expect this game to last a day if you gave it a go. Longer if you broke it up but its ridiclously short. If your curious about length in comparasion to Resident Evil, its like Resident Evil 1 with just the mansion and guard house.
Cut scenes / frustration: Ok folks, this game is frustrating. Theres times when you die, say at a boss, or at a puzzle. Fair enough. However imagine this puzzle or boss taking 10 attempts and each attempt requires you to get to the room, watch some unpassable cut scenes, do some more stuff and then finally have a shot at the task at hand. This will have you spitting teeth. Also the Dark Relm is plain anonying.
PAL Conversion: If you can IMPORT! This is a poorly done PAL conversion. Thats right folks! After the wait for this game its a bad conversion. Basically no 50/60 Hz option, fair enough, the intro movie is a little jerky, i could imagine this being faster on NTSC footage at PSW, then again fair enoigh you only watch it once. Finally the screen is way off centre. It can be centered but I still never got it totally accorss. I mean its very high up, needs lowered and moved to the right. Also the boarders are big. What was the guys at Capcom thinking?
Conclusion: Ok there is no doubt in my mind that this is a good game, however this is all it is. It isn\'t wonderful and it unfortunatly doesn\'t have the same impact as Resident Evil. Its a firm title which should be solid ground for the sequal but pales when compared to the likes of Resident Evil 2. Im glad I didn\'t purchase it due to the game length. At its heart it still is a same old Resident Evil clone (theres even a puzzle where you lift something off a statue and the door locks, meaing you need to find a replica of the item, we aint seen that too many times!). It can be very frustrating. The action is nice and its a good change, but truthfully speaking it is really, hack monsters, collect souls, complete an area, move onto next and repeat. Finally the shortness is unforgivable. So its not a must have title. Its a good game thats for sure but only whilst it lasts which isn\'t long.
Score 7/10 (I was tempted to give it 6.5/10 but its many charms pulled it up to 7).
If you really want it, go for it. I personally think Sky Odyssey (9/10) Gun Griffon Blaze (8/10) or Red Faction (8/10) will be money better spent.
Topic: Rich\'s Onimusha Warlords (UK PAL) Review (Read 1136 times)