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Daikatana
Slice and Dice Through Time in ION Storm's Upcoming Shooter
by Robert Coffey
Is it still a shooter if the main weapon is a sword? Well, when it's a great big two-handed, power-sucking, mystical, time-travelling badass of a blade, you betcha. Do not despair, action fans. Daikatana is no frilly-shirt fencing sim.
Eon Flux
The game's story, one of time travel through four different periods with two gun-toting NPCs to thwart a history-altering madman, has not changed. Of the game's four periods, the two shown the most during our ION Storm visit were Greek and medieval. The Greek levels will have at least a Medusa level, an Acropolis level, a Minotaur's maze, and a King Midas level. The names of each level refer to the boss characters you will face (while the Acropolis level will be the actual building), according to the Greek period's level designer John "Dr. Sleep" Anderson.
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Developer: ION Storm
Publisher: Eidos Interactive
Target Release Date: October 1998
Engine: Quake II
Synopsis: Wielding a powerful magic sword called the Daikatana, you must embark on a quest with two teammates through four time periods to stop a history-altering villain.
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Levels will play out more as missions with specific goals, with gamers doing more than wasting bad guys while searching for keys. And while Daikatana doesn't embrace the branching structure of a Wing Commander game, you will have a few choices in missions - do you reach the castle by climbing up the mountain or by working your way up the dungeons beneath it?
Sight-Seeing Through Time
TERRIFIC TRIO Meet Mikkiko, Hiro, and Superfly Johnson, the heroes of Daikatana. |
Like many other games, Daikatana will be using the Quake II engine. While the conversion from the original Quake engine temporarily bogged down the development process, ION Storm was able to show us some levels during a recent visit to its offices. Graphically, the game was sharp and beautifully detailed, with sweeping skies and lighting effects that created an appropriately gloomy gothic feel for the medieval levels. Much of the game will take place in expansive outdoor levels. Unfortunately, the game was running a bit sluggishly at the time of our visit, but that should be addressed and corrected eventually.
Cinematics will play between episodes and between some levels to advance the story.
Next: Daikatana (continued) 
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