I gave the lovely Daikatana a try. On the first level, you’re fighting robotic mosquitoes, alligators, and frogs. Now let’s think about this. You start a game by forcing the player to look up and down constantly for enemies that blend in with the (all green) environment. Great motherfucking introduction! Then to get into the sound… the same clip is used for every mosquito. So you hear a half-second loop constantly throughout the level.
Then, the hub system that worked oh so well in Quake 2. I go to the second level to be approached by a flying automaton that comes down from above my head. So what’s my first reaction? Back off. What does that do? Puts me back into the first level in the hub because the enemy is about 128 pixel units away from the hub level switch trigger. I kill it in level one with the amazing Ion Blaster. (Sidetrack: why do you have the typical fist defense when you start the game, yet when the player starts the first level, there’s a projectile weapon sitting directly in front of you. Is this to make it open that the player will miss that weapon and have to use their fists throughout the first hub? Why does the first weapon hurt the player? Are you trying to make this game as newbie unfriendly and frustration as possible?). Ok, time to head back to hub level 2. It crashes. After a couple tests I conclude that once you return to a hub’s level hub you were at earlier, you cannot return to the subsequent level. So level 1->level 2->level 1->level 2 can’t happen. Then why is there an enemy right beside the level switch trigger? Have I mentioned that my save game for the level switch crashed Daikatana? Save games I had before that also crashed it? Did Eidos hire elderly women with Down Syndrome to perform quality assurance? That would make them ghosts since Down Syndrome shortens life expectancy. There isn’t a patch either. Good thing I didn’t pay for this.
