Introduction & Story

Developer: Metropolis
Publisher: Monolith
Release Date: Spring 1999
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What do you get when you combine turn based strategy, role playing elements, and a plot that could double as an X-Files episode? No you don't get Scully and Mulder in a compromising position! You end up with Odium, a new 3D accelerated game from Metropolis. Before Monolith showed off the game to us last week, we had never heard of Odium or Gorky17 (the name being used for this game in Europe). After the demonstration, we were left wondering how such a promising game could garner so little attention in the domestic press. Odium combines turn based strategy (not unlike X-COM), role playing and puzzle solving elements packaged in an astounding looking graphics engine. The final copy might prove to look even better than the demo Monolith showed us, because Odium will be one of the first games to utilize the Katmai New Instructions featured on Intel's Pentium III chip.

On the rooftop

Facing down a beast

As I mentioned before, the story of Odium would have made a nice X-Files episode or perhaps a sequel to the movie with its horror and science fiction elements. You play the role of Cole Sullivan, a commando with specialized scientific training. Sullivan is assigned as commander of a small team of NATO soldiers dispatched to an obscure Eastern European city. This secret city is actually an old Russian covert ops base, and the inhabitants have been terrorized by scores of ghastly human/animal hybrids. Your job is to uncover the mystery surrounding the appearance of these monsters as well as investigate the disappearance of the first NATO military team to enter the city.