Odium is what you get when you take
Shining Force-style battles, throw in
King’s Quest-style clue-hunting, stir in with some Stephen King-style dark apocalyptic setting, and then add lots more evil. Yeah. There are two main game modes -- the walkabout mode and the battle mode. Walkabout is a clean (well, dirty as hell, but you know what I mean) over-the-head view of the area you’re in, with your characters rendered and walking around on it. Find items, get items, use foo on bar. You know the drill. When combat ensues, however, you’re taken into a Battle Screen which is very
Shining Force-esque. You have your characters, which take their turns and line up and knife or shoot or whatever. The enemy has their characters which line up and knife or shoot or whatever.
One of the more interesting things about Odium’s battle engine is that you can move your guys in any order, not just in the order the game demands. Very nice, because you can set up chains where one guy shoots, gets out of the way, the next one shoots, gets out the way, and the third comes in with a flamethrower and torches the enemy. Very nice. Sure, your guns reach almost no distance whatsoever, but that’s typical of the Shining Force style games.
The plot of Odium becomes more and more apparent as you play the game, and considering it’s one of the major reasons to play the game in the first place, I won’t give it away. You’re a NATO team, consisting of an American, a Frenchman, and a Polish guy. You’re trying to find out just what happened in this decrepit city, and as soon as you step out of the boat, Bad Things Happen (tm). Suffice it to say, you’ll find it interesting. Of course, you may just get so frustrated at this game that you don’t even bother. Which brings us to the next category...
