“Oni” serves up tired scenery that most game players have seen a dozen times before-warehouses, secret headquarters, office buildings.įor fans of mission-based fighting games, “Oni” may be worth a look. What respite the game provides from fighting is often spent dashing from spot to spot flipping switches to open doors. And players spend plenty of time on the run. The controls provide elegant manipulation during a fight sequence, but they make running from place to place overly difficult. Most of the bad guys have very similar fighting styles. But in “Oni” the levels are repetitive and uninspired, meaning it feels more like a chore than an accomplishment to clear them.ĭespite a unique-and tough-to-master-control scheme that enables Konoko to fight several enemies at once, most of the action in “Oni” changes very little from the first to the last of the 17 levels. Players control Konoko as she jumps, kicks, punches and shoots her way through room after room of levels that seem to go on forever. Her mission: Infiltrate the Syndicate, a crime ring that threatens to mess up the WCG’s utopia. “Oni” follows the exploits of Konoko, a purple-haired agent for the Technology Crime Task Force, which provides the muscle of the World Coalition Government.
And PC players can find much more joy in other games. It may rank among the top tier of PlayStation 2 titles, but that’s not saying much. Oh, heard that one before? Sadly, “Oni” doesn’t offer game players much new or much to get too excited about.