| Onimusha:Warlords Kill monster, open door, kill some more monsters, open more doors,� This may sound familiar to you, Resident Evil anyone? No! It�s Capcom�s new survival horror game, Onimusha: Warlords. Want to know what it�s like? Read on� The game begins with a massive FMV where two power-hungry lords battle it of against one another, and right smack in the middle is you, Samanosuke Akechi, the hero of the game. Set in good old feudal Japan, you are a master samurai who must rescue princess Yukihime, Yuki for friends, from a hoard of demons under command of Nobunaga Oda, a lord whose goal is to take over the world and it�s your job to save the planet, rescue the girl and bring it all to a happy end. Your quest is set in a beautiful animated world, where everything from the smallest detail as a simple flame or a huge landscape is a truly astonishing sight. It all comes alive with real-time weather effects such as fog and wind. All the characters are extremely detailed as well and the satisfaction of killing enemies in such a world is just guaranteed to put a big smile where your mouth is. There is also virtually no loading time between rooms or when you load a previous saved game, making it even more fun to play! Although the story is simple and already been done so many times, everything is put together in a good fashion, making it a pleasant game and the gameplay is one of a thousand with a very simple battle system and good use of the controller: you kill a demon and then you cough up the souls he releases with a gauntlet you got from a couple of powerful Ogres who assist you. Hey, you�re here to save a princess and her world, you could use a little help! Everything is finished by some cool mini-games and entertaining moments to keep things interested so you stay on the top of your seat to play the game and enjoy it! After you have overcome the amazement of the graphics and notice how easy it is to slay a monster with one of your three magic swords, you sit down and complain just how short the game is, you experience some trouble the first time, but after two tries you finish the game in under three hours, making the fun well, crappy. And although the environment is great, you are still able to poke your sword in walls and doors and it all looks a bit chequered. Another letdown is the fact that it is all pre-rendered, this gives an opportunity for demons to attack you while being invisible to the eye which can get frustrating at times! But we�re not going to put our finger up our arse complaining about graphics and a little time, Onimusha: Warlords is a true great and cool game, so if you are fed up with the likes of Resident Evil and Dino Crisis this game is a must buy! So bravo Capcom, they�ve created yet another fantastic survival horror game for everybody who owns Sony�s box of next-generation magic and they should be proud of it! Onimusha is just one hell of a game: you'll be hooked untill you uncover all of its little secrets, but when you know the game like your back pocket; the game will lose some its difficulty and you'll play it just for sheer fun. Enjoyment garantueed! So what are you waiting for? Make the right move and play Onimusha, from the good beginning to the quick ending! What ARE you waiting for?? Go buy it! Go! Rikki Van Gas 9.0 The first successful survival-horror of the new millennium |