Gameplay:  
Although I did not expect the artificial intelligence in the game to match Stephen Hawkings intelligence, I can say that I’m thoroughly dumb-founded by the lack of ANY intelligence within the enemies you come up against. I played through the first few levels, with enemies that would waste their time charging at me while I blasted away at them, and excused it as just being that way because it was simply an early level in the game. But, by the time I reached Alcatrez, one of the last levels within the game, it is simply inexcusable to come against jailbirds that charge at me, and swing their fists like they’re punching at me when they are still no closer than 50 feet from me.

On top of the dastardly artificial intelligence, you have equally pitiful level design. I am still amazed how many times I got lost in the meandering levels, getting stuck because of missing such minute details within the levels, or because the level layouts challenge those of the best mazes. The following is an example of an experience of mine:
- I reach a point in which red lines, that I assumed to be laser lines within a path, prevent me from continuing on.
-I turn around, and spend close to 30 minutes backtracking through the levels on many occasions – looking for a switch, something to blow up – anything that would allow me to deactivate the lasers.
- Feeling dejected, and reaching the conclusion that the red lines must not be anything to harm me, I decide to try to proceed through them… Only to be killed.
- I restart the level, spend 20 minutes to reach this point again, wondering what to do, yet again.
- Spend some time wandering around the level yet again, and come to the conclusion I’ve missed nothing.
- I return to this location, look up on the ceiling, and see a small silverish triangle shaped thingamajig that looks like a light. Out of frustration, I shoot at it, it explodes, and the lasers disappear.

Now, why on Earth should some random, innate object located on the ceiling, control this? I asked myself this over and over, having wasted an hour or two looking for the key to moving on in this level. I’m still baffled, and occurrences such as what I’ve just described above are quite commonplace within Daikatana 64. On top of the shoddy level design, is the fact that cheap deaths and the likes are quite typical, turrets are placed on the ceilings of some levels and are nearly impossible to see until they’ve laid a dent to your health, and you’ll encounter too many laborious jumping sequences.

Through the usage of ‘RPG Elements,’ I am supposing it was Kemco’s intentions that this game would be more than just the ‘same old, same old.’ However, it is also an assumption of mine that they had no idea how to implement these ‘RPG Elements’, because what they’ve given us adds nothing to the experience in any way. As you progress through levels, from time to time, your character’s attributes – vitality, attack, speed, accuracy, and power – will increase their level, when you kill certain enemies or locate certain items. Unfortunately, these attribute boosts seem to have little real bearing on the game, and seem to be thrown in just for the sake of being able to state that Daikatana boasts ‘RPG Elements’. The ‘RPG Elements’ could have had a small amount of value had you been able to choose how to improve your character (ie. A speedy guy with good accuracy, but no power); but alas, you cannot even choose how to upgrade your character. Yet another worthless facet of the game.

Every game, however, does have some positives in it, and Daikatana, although containing fewer positives than most, is no different. The storyline within the game is interesting, and better than most first-person shooters; however, it could have been improved ten fold with less text-based cut scenes.

Also, there are many creative weapons, in which while they lack the graphical flare of a game such as Turok 2 or Perfect Dark, a large amount of the weapons are very slick none-the-less. The Shockwave is one example. It shoots a purple shock wave out of it, and after the ball hits something, it then launches a huge blue wave that extends out in a spherical shape out from within it, damaging anything within the vicinity; including you, if you are too close. There are other creative weapons as well, but a few interesting weapons is not enough to make up for the many gameplay faults present within Daikatana 64.

Sound:  
The sound within the game is another portion of the game that fails to impress me in anyway. Be it music that sounds straight out of my NES, the fact that the only voice sample in the game is an incredibly annoying “sayonara” that occurs when u exit the main menus, or the annoying aspect of all enemies having the same grunts and groans within the level; offering zero variety to the dull experience. Sound is supposed to add mood and atmosphere to a game, but when you are marching around levels for hours on end searching for one missing key or switch, or whatnot, the ambient music compliments the equally antithetic mood you’ll be in while cursing at the game.

Control:
Unfortunately, the control scheme does not cater to Daikatana’s large number of weapons. The Turok style control setup does work fine, except there is absolutely no way around arduous weapon switching. In order to change weapons while using the default setting, you need to hold down ‘B’, and then scroll through the weapons that you are in possession of. And when you are holding a lot of weapons, this simply doesn’t work in the heat of a battle.

Multiplayer:
Finally, Daikatana does offer multiplayer, although, the only reason I can possibly see anyone giving the multiplayer a try is to laugh at its supreme crappiness. With two modes – death match and jewel quest – there’s zero reason to even give the multiplayer mode a chance unless you are facing the unfortunate situation of being responsible for reviewing the game. For the final flush to the crapper, the selection of multiplayer levels is rather thin.

OVERALL:
In the end, you should avoid Daikatana 64 at almost all costs. The only positive that I can see is that gamers will waste no more than five dollars on this title when renting it at Blockbuster, rather than some ignorant fool plopping down 60 hard ones to bring this test of patience home. It is titles like these that help you further appreciate the gems of the world.

 

The Lowdown on  Daikatana 64 Aesthetics: Terrible Control: Below Average Gameplay: Terrible Multiplayer: Terrible Sound: Terrible Innovation: 1/6 Lasting Appeal: 1/6 Overall: Terrible! "For use as a Coaster, Frisbee, or for Skeet Shooting Only"