Retro Let's Play February 2023 : Oni

Retro Let's Play: Oni (Bungie West 2001) - February 2023
To find out what this is and why we're doing it, click here.




Intro:

original trailer (poor Quality)

Apologies in advance for what may be a frustrating experience. I've had a rose tinted memory of Oni in the back of my mind for the past couple of decades and always wanted to replay it. In retrospect, the reviews suggest there was possibly a better choice for Retro Let's Play - Feb 23, but fuck it this post is written and it's going to get played dammit!

I remember Oni as an unknown gem, a pioneering 3rd person beat-em-up shooter. Not sure if it's actually a pioneer or just one of the first 3D games I played that executed varied melee combat moves well via a KB & Mouse (similar to Rune). The appeal of the game to me was the 2D fighter move list, set in an open 3D platform, with guns. Kind of a cross between Street Fighter Alpha & Double Dragon. To top it off Oni had a Ghost in the Shell style to the protagonist and police-state setting.

I certainly have fond memories of flawlessly dancing through levels, dodging enemy fire and executing an endless array of disarms, flip/choke throws and kick/punch combos. While the special moves and combos were difficult to pull off at times, they animation and sense of damage dealt was very rewarding. The whole combat experience was fluid, effortlessly moving through a series of punch, kicks and grapples then drawing a weapon to deliver some ranged or point blank damage.

Fast-forward to some test runs this past week and my memory of fun combat has been tainted by frustration. I'm putting the experience down to age. I recall wanting Oni to be more challenging back in the day, revelling in the distance between checkpoints and minimal health & ammo. Thus far I can only execute the basic moves and struggle to stay alive on easy. It's possible I've been too molly coddled by a decade of couch co-op gaming with regenerating health and variable difficulty.

Anyway enjoy and/or suffer together!



GmanLives Review




Overview:


Oni is a single player third-person action video game released in 2001 on Windows, MacOS & PS2 and developed by Bungie West (their only release), a division of Bungie. Gameplay consists of third-person shooting with hand-to-hand combat, with a focus on the latter, set in a cyberpunk world with similarities to Ghost in the Shell.

More Detailed Rundown - https://www.myabandonware.com/game/oni-c5c#download

It received mediocre reviews at the time of release due to the lack of multiplayer, mechs and weapons showcased during hands on demos at MacWorld Expos. That said, Oni was praised for smooth character animation and large array of fighting moves, as well as how it blended gunplay and melee combat. Despite less than stellar enemy scripting, later feedback yielded mostly average-to-good scores in recognition of the enjoyment factor of the game. (this is my personal memory of Oni and why I'm keen to replay it, endlessly jump-flipping enemies followed up a blast from a plasma rifle)

A planned sequel to Oni was under development by Angel Studios but cancelled prior to release. The dev build of Oni 2: Death and Taxes is playable via a PS2 emulator.

These days Oni remains a Cult Classic with a small but strong fan base and modding community who released a maintain the Oni Anniversary Edition enabling modern OS support and Modding tools. The community has continued to release patches and mods in recent years (see OniX) to ensure this game can continue to be enjoyed by newer audiences.



Plot: (credit Mobi Games)


It's 2032. The planet is now ruled by the World Coalition Government which annexed 80% of the countries, with the remaining quickly dragged into the WCG. While their official goal was to solve humankind's problems, it was about money. Massive spending bankrupted poorer countries, and soon all traces of individual government disappeared. For those who were poor, the situation didn't improve one bit, and for the wealthy, maintaining the status quo was done at the expense of their privacy and personal freedoms. To make things worse, life outside the major cities, far from the atmosphere processors is nearly impossible, as the so-called "Wilderness Preserves" are poisoned, and those who venture into them risk a painful death.

Konoko, fresh out from TCTF (Technology Crimes Task Force) academy is placed under the command of Terrance Griffin and Dr. Kerr and supported by Shinatama, an SLD (android) who is neurally linked to her. The TCTF is a secret police to take cyber drugs and weapons from the streets, as well as explore the induced technophobia to operate and investigate on a blank check permission.

Konoko knows next to nothing about her past, other that she was orphaned at the age of three and felt "different" to other people while was being brought up under the wing of TCTF. After many years in training, she has finally the chance to prove herself to Griffin and the TCTF, and so, heads for a warehouse rumoured to be under the control of the Syndicate, a criminal organization which grew exponentially after a young man called "Boss Muro" climbed to the top of the organization.



Gameplay:


Gameplay is focused on melee combat mixed with some gunplay. The player can punch, kick, and throw enemies; progressing into later levels unlocks stronger moves and combos. There are ten different guns in Oni, including handguns, rifles, rocket launchers, and energy weapons. Since the player can carry only one weapon at a time and ammunition is scarce, hand-to-hand combat is the most effective and common means of defeating enemies. Power-ups such as "hyposprays", which heal damage, and cloaking devices, which render the player invisible, can be found scattered throughout the levels or on corpses. Saving is via checkpoints which adds a level of difficulty / challenge to the rationed health and ammo, at times the checkpoints are an annoying distance apart.

Playing via a Gamepad / Controller feels more natural to pull off attack combos and moves compared to a KB & Mouse (PC), however the mouse look via joystick is a bit clunky and double tap forward to run is tedious (macro needed). Also note the "inverted" checkbox does the opposite of what it says on the tin (again on PC). The modded gameplay is a slightly better experience with a few bug fixes & added combo/move animations without taking too much away from the original game. There are lots of character texture pack available but unfortunately only a couple of levels have a complete texture overhaul. The modding community have also produced a multiplayer mod and various arena maps to accompany expanded weapons and enemies, taking full advantage of Oni’s fluid and rewarding combat experience.

To enjoy the original game along side a mod enhanced experience one can run side by side installs patched with OniX (vanilla) and Oni AE (mod manager). Best of both worlds.

 

Installation - How to play:



Step 1 - choose Platform


PC - Win98 SP3 / 2K | 266 MHz P3 | 64MB RAM | 3DFX Voodoo 2, ATI Rage Pro, ATI Rage 128 (OpenGL compatible)
Mac - Mac OS 8.6–9.x | 300 MHz PowerPC (450Mhz recommended) | 64 MB RAM (96MB recommended) | 800 MB hdd | 3DFX Voodoo 2, ATI Rage Pro, ATI Rage 128
PlayStation 2



Step 2 - acquire game (it's abandonware)


Win Demo, Mac Demo
Full version - Easier said than done via legitimate means as it has not been officially re-released, try your luck with eBay.



Step 3 - installation


Fire up your period correct hardware of choice, install, profit
... or ...
Emulate PS2 version (e.g. Duckstation)
Run via WINE - elvis has confirmed WINE 7.22 with 32bit PulseAudio libraries + WinXP fix for Oni.exe
Patch for Windows 10 or Mac OS10.0 - 10.14 (10.15+ unsupported as it's a 32bit application)
OniX is the most recent rebuild of the vanilla game that supports Win95 though to Win11



Step 4 - cheat codes (no need to find an old magazine)


PC/Mac &PS2 - https://wiki.oni2.net/Cheats
(requires a completed run through or patched game)


Step 5 - apply mods to enhance the experience.


The world is your oyster when running Oni on Windows or Mac using the Anniversary Edition build.
Oni Mods - http://mods.oni2.net/mods/all

My recommendations...
Oni Key Editor (block cannot be bound unfortunately)

Textures -


Bug Fixes / Enhancements -

 

Man one of my first great PC builds as a youth I remember paying and loving Oni at the time it's been literal decades since i've ben back! Going to see how the Seventh Anniversay edition goes, nice choice for the month.

 

Fantastic write up fredhoon , your passion (existent or past) really shows! I just got XBSX2 working and have been thoroughly enjoying it, so it'll be the PS2 version for me

 

Demo works great on Win11
colours look fantastic on oled too

I dont have much spare time right now, but will defo give this one a solid run. cheers fredhoon

 

I've been wanting to give this a go for a heck of a long time. Good excuse to pull out the p3 700 Compaq sff. AND it's voodoo compatible, you gotta love that!!
Ill set it up when I get home in 2 days. Excellent choice Fred and excellent write up. I enjoy reading about what games mean to different people. It's the human connection.

 

If you are wondering why this flew under the radar consider 2001 in gaming.

I'll wait.

 

I'm sure I played this a fair bit when I was younger....
But i was remembering it as being a robot.... or is there a similar game that is a robot?

 

Konoko (Oni) is more on the human spectrum not a robot, when you say robot do you mean cyborg? Was the game released in that same year as Oni?

 

Possibly...
I don't think it was a cyborg....

 

What game? Now you had me curious? What was the gameplay? It may help to remember how that game made you feel to remember the cyborg

 

possibly released around the same time as Oni... and gameplay was running around kung fu style (3D ish)... i'm sure of it...
it WAS a long time ago for these tired old brain cells.....

I'm probably remembering it totally wrong..

 

was it fighting force or its sequel by Core?



All OG tombraider people.

apart from that you had dynamite dekka (die hard arcade by Sega) etc at the time between that and 2001?

 

Nah if anything it would have been earlier....
what ever it was i always meant to get back to it, but never did... but the name Oni stuck in my mind...

 

I gather it's not One Must Fall as it was released in 1994... then One Must Fall Battlegrounds was 2003, so I gather not that either. Rise of the Robots was also 1994... 2 was 1996, maybe that?



JSmith

 

Nah, it was a game in a 3D environment...
Watching the full playthrough, i might just be remembering it wrong...
but it seems different to what i do remember.. (Wouldn't have played it on PS2 if that matters)

 

Such a fascinating game. It feels like SO MUCH polish was put into everything but the actual game itself.

You've got all this high end voice acting, marketing material, this anime-inspired artwork, etc. But then you've got a game that just feels kind of empty. There's a complex mix of melee and weapon based attacks, but then it's all kinda clunky. There's cool shit like stomping on downed enemies, but then it kinda doesn't really work well.

I can totally see why this never took off. But at the same time I feel like there are just a shitload of great ideas in here. This is the sort of game that if it had a better technical lead on board and another 6 months in development, it could have quite literally changed history as we know it and gone from the flop it was to something as major as Half-Life or Tomb Raider.

Absolutely worth a play with as much of a focus on what they did right as what they did wrong. Again, I think the real shame here is the unmet potential that could have totally blown this thing up if it had just executed correctly.

 

I tried to play a bit last night and rage-quit, I just can't get these stupid moves to work on demand aside from the basic punch-punch-kick style combos (which are boring). Also the soul sucking green glow slow moving rocket weapon is just plain strange, I've been panicking and running away when I hear the sound to preserve my meagre supply of health & hypos.

Agree here - the levels and objectives are just big empty corridors running between locked and unlocked doors. Also the wareshouse and other levels must have been built by the same tradies who built the death-star - no safety railings!

Combat feels clunky these days as many games have perfected the 3rd Person melee in various flavours, however as a product of it's time I hadn't played anything like it aside from SF Alpha. Everything else up to that point was very basic "attack in compass direction", maybe with high/low thrown into the mix.

 

Gonna have a go today

 

Protip - don't jump flip enemies near the edge of high platforms