Daikatana Part 1 (Nintendo 64)
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I am not cheating like the PC players do with patches and mouse look. Instead I am playing the release version of Daikatana on the only console which can handle it: the Nintendo 64! 64! 64! Oh my god! Thank you santa! Now the N64 version has many changes from the PC version, which sacrifice some things, but perhaps some sacrifices make it better? So this will be a N64 focused review which will be different than the PC version.
Daikatana was a hyped first person shooter released in the year 2000. People were clamoring to learn what John Romero could do as the primary lead on a project. Upon its release, Daikatana was heavily criticized for various reasons, including being based upon the Quake 2 engine, which was aged at the time. Many went as far as to say it was one of the worst games of all time. But I have played some of it and already I can tell it does not belong on a worst games list! I think it's just a game of its era which has tropes of what FPS games were turning into at the end of the 90's. In the end it is not too dissimilar to Quake 2, Half-Life, and Unreal. It is a style of FPS which can still appeal to many.
The game is primarily mission based (like Quake 2), but the levels are mostly linear affairs (like Half-Life). This was common in late 90’s FPS and Daikatana delivered it. These days we recognize the value of the non-linear levels as found in Doom and Quake, but then it felt old to many. And one benefit with linear levels, it’s hard to get lost! Daikatana even gets some of the combat right, for old school FPS fans at least, where the weakest enemies are killed with one shot. Now some of the hitscan enemies attack you with little warning which isn't too fun, but not unusual for FPS games of that era. The PC version of Daikatana also suffered from a ton of small, hard to hit enemies, which plague FPS games till this day, but luckily seem to be reduced on the N64 version. I am not used to all of the weapons yet, but I am finding a balance between the primary weapon and the rocket launcher. It is unusual though that the primary weapon sometimes damages the player due to ricochet; probably not a wise choice in the end. Now I am finding the recoil on some of the weapons too excessive. Only a subtle push back and tilt up is needed; while here they make the player backpedal.
Now the N64 version has some pretty big omissions. First the computer teammates are gone. This is probably a good thing as they could cause players to fail missions apparently. Sometimes by having less can improve the gaming experience! Unfortunately you can't get this message through the heads of big corporate publishers these days. But the voice lines are also cut from this game. Technically it was possible to fit those in but it required a more-expensive cartridge. You can still read the storyline in text during cutscenes which oddly lack sound effects. And its storyline does have its tropes too. You're a Japanese protagonist, who has a destiny due to his family, and must achieve this destinity. It's the same with the Japanese antagonist, and the Japanese allies; all their motivations are due to family destinies. People seemed to love this stuff then and still do oddly. As a scientist, these tropes are a bit incredulous to me so it's not my cup of tea. What is more interesting about the storyline, is that the timeline has been disrupted due to a mythical Daikatana sword in the wrong hands. Thus you are set on a journey to find the Daikatana and fix the timeline. So far the environments have been varied enough to keep me interested, and I do look forward to going into the past.
Daikatana is not the most exciting game, but it doesn't belong on any list of worst games of all time. Perhaps the PC version is different enough in worse ways to earn that spot, but the Nintendo 64 version certainly does not. People may not want to hear it, but it has the good and bad of its era. I think the reception of Daikatana is more of a criticism of late 90's FPS gaming than Daikatana itself. Sure it graphically was aged by the time it was released, but that also means all of the late 90's FPS games were also aged by 2000. We recognize now that earlier shooters like Doom, Quake, Blood, and such don't require cutting edge graphics to have staying power. Now the FPS games which came after experimented more in gameplay; which tended not to have aged as well. It seems to me now that they weren’t criticized for it in the late 90’s, but as Daikatana came out in 2000 it got the heat. I have not finished Daikatana yet, so maybe my tune will change as I keep playing. But considering its contemporaries, Daikatana is not a bad game. It doesn't hold up to me like Doom 64 and Quake do, but I do look forward to playing more of it.
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