Oni (Bungie, PC)

By PETER ELEY

(Herald rating: * * * * )

Bungie made its name with the Marathon shoot-em-ups, and followed that up with the excellent Myth.
Anyone expecting more of the same from Oni is in for a surprise. Marathon and Myth were Western-style action games, but Oni is firmly out of the Japanese school.
Its characters are straight from Japanese TV cartoons and comics — big eyes, slim hips and $200 hair.
And the action is straight from Tekken — everyone does kung fu fighting here.
We haven't seen many female leads since Lara Croft, but Oni's main character is Konoko, a woman whose stylish purple hair and good looks belie her proficiency in martial arts and firearms.
She is a member of The Technology Crimes Task Force, charged with catching futuristic criminals.
Unlike early console versions of these kung fu beat-em-ups, Oni has an involved storyline which gradually unfolds as you move through the 12 levels, all the time unravelling more of Konoko's darkly mysterious past.
The characterisations are cartoon style and drawn with lots of detail, and, probably because of this, tend to be static.
The cut-scenes are good, though, and it's here that you get the clues to plot, through text memos and dialogue with various characters.
But the real fun is the action, and it's here that the game really fires. Konoko has a dazzling array of moves, including a trademark backbreak flip, and she and her opponents move fluidly and realistically.
The 12 levels take some getting through, although some are quite similar, including huge Doom-style rooms with staircases leading to smaller rooms and corridors.
Some are better than others and at various times you'll have to fight through a civilian airport under siege, an industrial plant or an enemy-infested base.
The shoot-em-up staples of health power-ups and ammo clips are scattered along the way, as are computer locks you have to crack to move between levels.
Oni is a solid, playable game and its main appeal is that there isn't much else like it on the PC platform.
In fact, probably the reason for it being there is that the game was developed simultaneously for the PlayStation 2, where it will be perfectly at home.

e-mail: petereley@nzherald.co.nz