Oni Demo

Beat 'em up games can be quite fun and addictive, but they are usually not very serious and they lack proper action scenes. On the other hand, shooters can get repetitive as well after a while, especially since all you have to do is shoot everything that moves from a safe distance. An interesting idea would be to combine the two, which is exactly what Oni did.

Oni is a third-person action-adventure in which you have to tackle a totalitarian regime and a crime syndicate at the same time, in order to give the people some breathing space and lift their morale. Unlike most third-person shooters, however, the game also allows you to perform impressive martial arts techniques during the fights, in order to save ammo or get by without any weapons.

As previously mention, the world in which the game takes place is of the Orwellian dystopia variety, meaning that beside the fact that the people are not allowed to exert their basic rights, they are also lied to on a regular basis and brainwashed to feel safe and secure. As books taught us, however, such regimes do not last for very long, because it is enough for one man to revolt. In this case, it happens to be a woman by the name of Konoko, who's very good with weapons and hand-to-hand combat.

Because the totalitarian police is always on your tails, as are the ruthless henchman that are part of the crime syndicate, you can be certain that the maps will always be crawling with large numbers of enemies. In order to handle them, the game employs very smooth and elegant mechanics, which allow you to switch between styles at any point and take full advantage of your surroundings.

The state-of-the art graphics engine can render very convincing animations to keep up with the complicated martial arts combos you can perform, as well as colorful particle effects to go along with the shootouts. The same can be said about the sound department, especially the voice acting, which features very dedicated personnel for all of the main characters.

Although Oni can get a bit repetitive and somewhat boring after a few hours of gameplay, the interesting story keeps you invested in the action until the end, if only to see how it all resolves. The fact that you can unlock more powerful combos and find better weapons is definitely a plus as well.