Recent reviews by IlyaP

281 hours and counting since the day the game released, and I refuse to give it up. It's just so ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ fun and full of wondrous sights and sounds and locations. It's not that it's addictive (I mean, it *might* be), it's that it's constantly interesting, with some new sight, sound, activity, location, and graffiti to catch your eyeballs' attention.

It's a wild and terrific blast of a PC gaming experience.

At present, the 1.3 version of Daikatana is, I think, the best possible version of Daikatana. It's the version I wish Ion Storm had shipped at launch, but I understand that the influences of Chrono Trigger prompted a different and experimental approach to the FPS genre at the time.

It's still one of my favourite games. The movement speed is so good. The soundtrack absolutely slaps. And the game requires a minimal amount of thinking, which is what I look for when I dive into an FPS at the end of a work day.

The insane variety of weapons, monsters, levels, regions, it's all so very cool and quite unlike anything around at the time.

And no, it's not perfect. AI followers in games are, even now, still a source of frustration in many games (I'm looking at you, Lydia!). It was clearly a game that had some big, bold ideas, and not all of them landed. But I can't help but applaud the big swings this game took.

While the game does make a few more obvious missteps that make me cringe (ethnic stereotyping, player-damaging weapons, excessive back and forthing in Greece), there's still a lot to enjoy, especially if you're given to wanting to look for hidden secrets. Each level offers a considerable number of them.

And the team that spent an exceptional amount of time making the game-changing 1.3 patch? My hats off to you. You've done an amazing and commendable job.

Now if you'll excuse me, it's time for me to go and rescue Superfly and Mikiko.