Gameplay: Fists and Firearms

The fury of a woman scorned

Konoko has been trained not only in the art of gunplay, but also in hand to hand combat. Most of the levels of Oni have the tendency to provide you with a couple of guns here and there with even ammo fewer clips. Once you're out of ammo, the rest is up to your fists and feet.

The hand to hand combat in Oni is without a doubt the finest rendition of electronic pugilism to ever hit the PC. Oni is a beautiful blend of the finest elements of Tomb Raider and Tekken. Each character is individually capable of dozens of moves. Konoko herself can roll, punch, kick, leap and combo her way to victory. Each of these moves is also capable of being blended; you can leap into a punch or kick, or blend your punches and kicks, depending on your distance to an enemy, and whether or not you want speed or power.

It's a very BLAM moment.

Laser-beams + security systems=bah

Konoko can also pull off some incredibly cool anime styled moves. For example, if you roll over a gun lying on the floor, you can hit the key to pick the weapon, and you'll emerge midway through your roll with the weapon pointed, primed and ready.

The basic combat system functions on the "stick and move" strategy that Ali and Foreman lived by. As Konoko, your goal is to minimize your exposure and maximize your damage. In addition to your standard moves of kick, punch, et al, you also get new a special move every two or three levels.

He's sliding off the edge, muha!

Get up, come on, get up!

These special moves are incredibly cool, but really don't get that much use because they're highly specialized. One of the moves is a kick where you step back and go charging in feet first. If the kick hits it not only does a bit of damage, but it also stuns your enemy as you knock the wind out of him. In later levels you get exceptionally cool moves like the double spin kick, or neck lariat (kicks every enemy around you in addition to putting a serious hurt on the primary subject).

The fine art of gunplay

Though the emphasis of the game is on the hand to hand combat, you certainly aren't stripped of weapons. Every two levels or so a new weapon makes an appearance. The weapons are varied, with ascending levels of power. At first you'll be playing around with the simple hand pistol which is standard issue to all TCTF agents. On the next level you will be able to pick up submachine guns from fallen terrorists. Towards the end of the game you will be wielding weapons like the Mercury Bow, a scopeless pseudo-sniper rifle that kills most enemies in one hit, the Scram Cannon, which shoots a burst of homing missiles, and, above all, the Screaming Cannon, which fires an unnatural entity that feeds on life force.

Hitting your chin on that generator thing would really hurt.

We killed each other… Remember double KOs?

The weapons aren't balanced -a Mercury Bow will eat up a fellow rushing with a pistol. Then again, weapons aren't meant to be terribly balanced - it's all part of the design. As mentioned earlier, the game very rarely emphasize weapons. There is never a situation in Oni where you have to have a certain weapon. You are more than capable of handling every situation with your fists. Ammunition is scarce throughout the various levels, thus encouraging you to get down and dirty to save the guns for more important targets.