Daikatana (PC, 2000)

Daikatana is a first-person shooter computer game developed by Ion Storm and published by Eidos Interactive. Released on April 14, 2000 for Windows,[1] it was led by John Romero. The game is known as one of the major commercial failures of the computer game industry. Daikatana was later ported to the Nintendo 64. A different version of the game was developed for the Game Boy Color, with a version for the PlayStation canceled during development.

The game takes place during the year 2455 AD, in a world suffering from a major pandemic caused by a man named Kage Mishima. Through use of a magical sword called the daikatana, Mishima traveled back in time and prevented the disease from being cured, allowing him to take control of the world. The protagonist takes the form of a martial arts instructor named Hiro Miyamoto. Hiro, along with minor characters "Superfly Johnson" and Mikiko Ebihara, attempts to recover the daikatana, traveling to a number of different times and places in the process.

Daikatana's title is written in Japanese kanji which means "large sword", but their correct reading is actually "daitō" in Japanese (see Daikatana (sword)). The name comes from an item in a Dungeons & Dragons campaign played by the original members of id Software,[2] which Romero cofounded.

Yeah, it got slated on release and justifiably so. Romero just wasn't competent to run a design studio.... great ideas, good vision, but woefully short on expertise. I recently took it out again and, forgetting the bad press, it's not a bad fps, certainly not as bad as we all thought at the time. Technologically, it was average for its time, but you have to give it full marks for trying to do something different. The concept was good; the execution left a lot to be desired. Shame really, because the industry needs people like Romero - people who try to push the envelope.... he failed, but at least he made the attempt. I, for one, hope that he tries again, but with decent backup.

What a bunch of mama's boys those earlier reviewers are! THis is a great game, period! And what's with the guy that entered the readme with his own comments???? Wuss!

Daikatana has good action, good combat, intuitive gameplay. No, it's not Crysis, but it has a LOT to offer the serious gamer.

Oh, and to the hacks that gave it a bad review - get a life. One guy hadn't even bought the game, just WATCHED his friend play it for a while. PLAY THE FREAKIN' GAME!!!!

Daikatana was met with high expectations over the several years of development it received from a very well-respected game designer. But what came out failed to justify the time and expectations. Lighting is horrible, controls are unresponsive, enemies can be annoyingly repetitive, and paths past obstacles can be difficult to discern. It got bad scores when it came out, from a variety of reviewers, and it appears to have deserved all of them.

This is an interesting PC game, but make sure it is not for the little children.
Spend time if you have it... Enjoy!