Oni

Description

Oni follows Konoko, an elite agent working for the Techno Crimes Task Force. The game bridges the gap between complex 3D fighting games and traditional action shooters of the early 2000s. Heavily influenced by cyberpunk anime like Ghost in the Shell. While the PC and Mac versions were handled internally by Bungie, the studio was famously acquired by Microsoft mid-development to focus on Halo. Consequently, the PlayStation 2 port was offloaded to Rockstar Canada (under publisher Take-Two Interactive).

The game features fluid, momentum-based martial arts over standard run-and-gun gameplay, forcing players to seamlessly transition between disarming opponents and delivering devastating melee combos. Unlike typical shooters of the era, ammunition is incredibly scarce, and players cannot carry a massive arsenal of weapons. Instead, the core progression relies on mastering Konoko’s extensive movelist of throws, sweeps, and acrobatic strikes. The combat system shines when players learn to slide under incoming fire, disarm a syndicate mercenary, empty their weapon, and immediately throw the empty gun at another enemy to stun them before re-engaging in hand-to-hand combat.

The development is notable for a massive architectural scale of its environments and the struggles of an early porting a PC-centric game to the PlayStation 2 hardware. The fluidity of the character animations and the blending of combat moves was remarkably smooth for the time, allowing for highly expressive fighting choreography. However, the PS2 version faced compromises. Because the levels were originally designed for PC architecture, the brutalist environments often felt vast, sterile, and entirely devoid of interactive props or furniture. Furthermore, mapping the complex, mouse-and-keyboard-designed combat scheme to the DualShock 2 controller resulted in a clunky, steep learning curve, and the console port suffered from noticeable frame rate dips during heavy encounters.

Upon release, Oni received mixed but highly passionate reception. Magazine reviewers lauded the incredibly satisfying melee combat and the dark, atmospheric cyberpunk aesthetic, though they heavily criticised the repetitive, barren level design and the lack of a mid-level save system, which often forced players to restart massive, gruelling stages upon death. Retrospectively, while the PlayStation 2 port is widely considered the inferior way to play the game due to its performance struggles, Oni has secured a fierce cult following. It is remembered as a remarkably ahead-of-its-time action hybrid that laid the conceptual groundwork for the free-flowing combat systems seen in later genre-defining titles.