The game’s story is rather mindless and predictable, but entertaining nonetheless. There are also some dreadfully cheesy and mushy scenes every now and then, but they’re quick and relatively painless. The cutscenes are well done, the weapons are great, and if you don’t mind the button-mashing action, the gameplay is quite engaging too. Under ordinary circumstances, this would make for a must-buy game, perfect for the summer holidays when brain usage is at its minimum and all you want to do is save the world without thinking too much. But these (forgive the over-abused dialogue) are no ordinary circumstances.
The horrifying truth is, that Ubisoft-yes, dear old Ubisoft-have insulted this great game by a port that smacks of utter laziness and general dunderheadedness. For one thing, the in-game help still refers to the old PS2 controls! So if you throw away the manual (who reads game manuals anyway?), you’re sunk while you try to figure out which key is the equivalent of the triangle or the square. The keyboard layout couldn’t have been more ridiculously designed by blind monkeys with learning disabilities. It took me half a day to get used to, and another three days to stop fuming over the fact that it took half a day to get used to. Of course, you should play this with a controller-the universal truth for all ports-but that’s no excuse, really: there are a respectable number of ports out there that can be enjoyed even by keyboard warriors.
The graphics are sadly dated-the texturing should have been updated with some more hi-res maps, especially considering that the game is two years old. Thankfully, this is well offset by some well-executed character animations and action sequences.
| Rating: 6/10 Minimum System Requirements : 1.5 GHz Pentium 4 (or equivalent), 512 MB RAM,128 MB Graphics Card (GeForce FX5700 or equivalent) Developer : Capcom Publisher : Ubisoft Distributor: E-Xpress Interactive Contact: 022-22850245 Price : Rs 1,299 |
Finally, this last act of blasphemy: if you’ve heard of Onimusha 3 before, the subject of its intro sequence would have been broached, and not in vain-nearly six minutes long, it features Samanouske Akechi as he single-handedly takes down a massive Genma tank as it moves to support Nobunaga. It is by far the most jaw-droppingly awesome game intro I’ve ever seen, and can easily hold its own as an incredible CG movie even without a game to support it. Appallingly enough, you don’t get to bask in this extravaganza in the PC version of the game. Oh, it’s not like it isn’t included; it is-you just have to navigate to the game’s directory to find it.
As a game, Onimusha 3 is great. Yes, this despite a full page of animosity. Capcom got it right the first time, so even Ubisoft’s rip-and-forget approach can’t overshadow its solid dose of action-it’s why it was so popular for the PS2 in the first place.