Oni

Published by Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc.
Developed by Bungie Studios
Released 2001
Genre Action

Description :

It's 2032. The planet is now ruled by the World Coalition Government which annexed 80% of the countries, with the remaining quickly dragged into the WCG. While their official goal was to solve humankind's problems, it was about money. Massive spending bankrupted poorer countries, and soon all traces of individual government disappeared. For those who were poor, the situation didn't improved one bit, and for the richer, maintaining the status was done at the expense of their privacy and personal freedoms. To make things worse, life outside the major cities, far from the atmosphere processors is nearly impossible, as the so-called "Wilderness Preserves" are poisoned, and those who venture into them risk a painful death.

Konoko, fresh out from TCTF (Technology Crimes Task Force, a secret police to take cyber drugs and weapons from the streets, as well as explore the induced technophobia to operate and investigate on a blank check permission) academy is placed under the command of Terrance Griffin and Dr. Kerr and linked to a SLD - an android - called Shinatama, who is neurally linked to her. However, Konoko knows next to nothing about her past, other that she was orphaned at the age of three and felt "different" to other people while was being brought up under the wing of TCTF. After many years in training, she has finally the chance to prove herself to Griffin and the TCTF, and so, heads for a warehouse rumoured to be under the control of the Syndicate, a criminal organization which grew exponentially after a young man called "Boss Muro" climbed to the top of the organization.

The game play is a mix between generic third-person shooter and a classic beat'em up. While Konoko has at her disposal several hand-to-hand acrobatic moves (with more unlocked as the player advances), she can also find weapons in the levels, and the decision to go armed or bare-fisted is only up to the player. Each weapon either draws from ballistic or energy cell clips, the number of rounds in each clip depending on the weapon: a Black Adder (a short, one-hand machine gun like an Uzi) can get 30 rounds from a ballistic clip, while a Mercury Bow (a sniper railgun sans scope) only two. Combined with the limited availability of clips, this adds a strategic element to the game, as the player can only carry a weapon at a time, so if a powerful weapons runs out of ammo, the player must choose between keeping the weapon and fight hand to hand with the enemies until Konoko finds fresh ammo clips, or discard it for a lesser gun that uses different ammo. However, if the player runs out of ammo completely when facing a tough challenge, Konoko can "overdose" on hypo sprays (used to heal damage) by using them over her natural health bar, which provides her with faster movement and tougher blows.


Requirements :

Min.CPU PIII
Min.OS Win 98
Min.RAM 64 MB
Keyboard
Mouse

Notes :

Does not support Voodoo 1 or Rage 2c 3D cards.

Trivia :

• Oni was originally intended to be multiplayer, but the designers dropped this when they couldn't get the game engine to perform fast enough over a net connection. There are remnants of the lost multi option in the finished version: The manual still describes the other characters' various strengths and special moves, and once you've won the game (or hacked a certain file) you can play as characters other than Konoko.
• In the American edition of Oni, mailing back the registration card entitled you to receive a "Gathering of Goodness" CD that contained patches, demos and movies of upcoming GOD (Gathering of Developers) games plus a bunch of special godgames content.

Cheats :

Create a backup copy of the file before proceeding. Use a hex editor to edit the "persist.dat" file in the game folder. Go to hexadecimal offset $44. Change the $02 or $06 value at that location to $07. Save the file and start the game.

Press [F1] to display the diary screen, then enter one of the following codes to activate the corresponding cheat function. Repeat code entry to disable the code.

To enable cheats without a hex editor, type evrything at the diary screen, then activate the codes.

Effect	Code
Press [F8] to change characters	shapeshifter
Invincibility	liveforever
One hit kills	touchofdeath
Cannot be knocked down	canttouchthis
Ammunition and health	fatloot
Breakable objects	glassworld
Win level	winlevel
Lose level	loselevel
Super ammunition	superammo
AI controlled characters fight each other	reservoirdogs
Gatling guns mode	roughjustice
Daodan power mode, more damage	chenille
Godzilla mode, become giant	behemoth
Fists Of Legend mode	fistsoflegend
Ultra mode, tougher enemies	killmequick
Slow motion mode	carousel
Big head mode	bighead
Mini mode	minime
Regenerate health	elderrune
Phase cloak	moonshadow
Weapons locker	munitionfrenzy
Enable developer mode	thedayismine