- PentiumII 200MHz processor or equivalent

- Windows 95/98

- 32 Mb RAM

- 4 Mb SVGA Video Card (100% DirectX 6.1 compatible)

- 100% DirectX(tm) 6.1 compatible Soundcard

- 4x CD-ROM Drive

- DirectX 6.1 or higher (included on CD)

- Sharp visuals

- Generic Blade Runner-like look

- Bland soundtrack

- Different game styles don't connect well

- Very tedious game

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Platform: PC

Developer: Quantic Dreams

Publisher: Eidos

Genre: Action Adventure

MSRP: $20US

ESRB: T (Teen)

Released: Q3 1999

Omikron: The Nomad Soul 

Score: 5 / 10

Innovation is such a crucial element in games these days. Gamers are clamoring for new and interesting features with more malicious, insatiable zeal than a pack of five year olds in a toys store begging their parents for that new shiny action figure that just came in. While some developers are adding these fancy features to their titles, others are opting to go down a different path choosing to use hybridization of many long-time genres, combining them to make a familiar yet refreshing experience. Omikron tries to go down this "gaming collage" route, but while including many different elements, none of them are done very well, leaving the player with a bunch of mediocre game styles all pasted together.

Trying to slap together an adventure, a first person shooter, and a 3D fighter, Omikron throws a bunch of different play styles at the player. Unfortunately none of them are executed very well. The first person shooter has bland graphics and an awkward control scheme. Also, it doesn’t provide very exciting combat. The 3D fighting mode is also extremely weak. When compared to 3D fighting Goliath’s like Tekken 3 and Soul Calibur, Omikron’s fighting looks and feels grossly inadequate. Despite these two play modes much of the time spent playing this game is in the adventure mode. This gets very tedious within a very short rate of time. There’s a lot of running around the city to be done, and puzzles are very simple to solve. The only difficult part is trying to figure out what to do next, as the objectives are very vague.

Not only is the gameplay slow and tedious, but the presentation is disappointing as well. While the quality of the graphics is quite good, with plenty of detail, and some pretty lights thrown in for good measure, the overall design is very generic. The game world is a very typical Blade Runner-styled, dreary, cyber punk-like place that we’ve seen a thousand times in the past. On a sonic note, the often-hyped soundtrack by David Bowie is by and large quite bland. While there are some decent tracks, much of the music is non-descript and lacks personality helping the flow of the game move even slower. Sound effects too are not very impressive as they are sampled at odd volumes, and the quality leaves something to be desired.

Rounding out the dull package is the overall way the game plays out. While it is somewhat interesting how the game world freely admits that you’re playing a game, but are in another reality trying to stop a demon, it still doesn’t have a lot of strength to it. The main unique feature presented to the player is the ability to possess several different people in the game. The unfortunate part of all this is that all the different characters that can be possessed play virtually identical to one another, making it feel pointless to even take command of them in the first place.

Despite having tried to make for a refreshing gaming experience, Omikron: The Nomad Soul feels weak in all of the different play modes that it has present in it. Simply combing a bunch of genres into one game isn’t good enough, they should be very well done, polished experiences, not the drab, shallow, mish-mash of genres presented here.

- Mr. Nash