This has got to be the most underrated game on Gamespot.
The game follows a mission of three NATO soldiers -- Cole Sullivan, Jarek Owicz and Thiery Trantigne -- to investigate happenings in a Polish city infested with strange creatures.
The three main characters have distinct personalities shown by means of frequent spoken sequences, all of which professionally voice-acted with national accents, which is also true of the characters you'll meet during the game.
The superb audio is more than matched by incredibly detailed pre-rendered background used by the engine as well as the 3D models of the soldiers and enemies moving on top of it.
While exploring the map you will often trigger combat events which are played in a turn-based fashion on a grid net. Although, the combat phase is not the most complex, personally, I found this part of the game very enjoyable. You will have a choice of various ranged fire-arms, melee weapons and area-weapons usually charged only once every couple of turns. You will have to make best use of them to defeat the mutants opposing you and choosing the right combination makes for intense battles. Do you wait to recharge a flame-thrower or attempt to kill the monsters quickly before more can arrive? Do you kill the enemies at a distance or do you save ammo and engage in melee? Do you distribute equipment evenly among the team or do you specialise each member for a different weapon allowing him to gain more experience with it?
The game's difficulty is not unreasonably high but there is quite a shortage of ammunition and you will have to make every shot count.
These four elements, superb voice-acting, detailed graphics, memorable characters and a shortage of supplies, combine to make Odium densely atmospheric. The atmosphere of the game is very similar to James Cameron's Aliens: dark, ominous, fight-for-survival kind of feeling full of desperation from running out of ammunition, shock from meeting ghastly monsters about to kill you, part macho, part fearful comments from the heroes, especially from Ovicz, who is very reminiscent of Private Hudson ... in short, this is the kind of game sure to give you goose-bumps.
Bottom line: this is not a particularly good RPG, neither an incredibly good strategy game, it is however and outstanding game. Beautiful presentation, ominous story, interesting heroes and atmosphere to remember. All of that with no noticeable defects to mar the experience.