I have heard this title compared to the upcoming Dreamcast title, Shenmue. Certainly the concept is somewhat the same, and it is certainly just as ambitious. The story is solid, and the range of abilities bestowed upon the player at all times is staggering. Omikron still suffers from control that doesn't find any sort of standard form, major framerate inconsistancies, and some frustrating bugs.

The story is actually quite complex, but at the beginning comes off as a little strange. A strange being appears on the screen, claims the player is the only one who can help him, and through some sort of magic, the player transports their "soul" into the form on the screen. It is explained that the player is the only person who can really help the situation. Not too much pressure. Immediately the player is thrust into a world not their own.

After taking the form of an Omikron cop named, Kay'l, not much is actually known about the goal of the mission the player has been chosen for, and this leaves only one option left, to explore. This isn't the usual case of exploration found in a lot of adventure games. Finding some key in an abandoned mine is not a required task, in Omikron you play out your part as a member of society until clues make themselves available, and the plot develops. This may not be as straight forward as some adventure titles, but the overall effect of carrying out your job, having a relationship, and dealing with day to day "chores" is very realistic.

There are many Non-Player Characters to be encountered in Omikron. Each has their own well scripted set of lines that reflect distinct personalities. Each encounter is carried out through a series of available questions and answers, each one with their own consequence. I myself had chosen to take the more subtle route by pretending I was Kay'l, rather than explaining to everyone how I was really someone else in his body. I don't know exactly what happens if that line of question and answer is opened up, but I suspect everyone thinks the player is a absolute loon.

Interaction with most of the stand in city NPCs are pretty much limited to one word responses. If walking on the streets of Omikron, and Kay'l bumps into someone while walking, actual apologies will be given, which makes even walking around town a bit more real. There are restaurants you meet Kay'l's love interest at, supermarkets where holdups take place, and even multiple apartment complexes where characters reside. All transportation between these points can be carried out two ways. Kay'l can simply hoof it to the nearest location of interest, but of course in a city as big as Omikron, one can easily be lost. The other, and ultimately easier option, is the public system of anti-gravity transportation vehicles that run through the city. Using Kay'l's personal data device, known as the "sneak", one of these vehicles can be called up and instructed to take the passenger to the instructed destination.

The voice acting is actually really good, which was much to my surprise. Lately it seems developers have been spending a lot more time finding good voice actors to fill the roles of the characters in their titles. Even little notes of sincerity, distrust, and anger can be heard during key conversations that take place in the title. Did I mention David Bowie does a little singing in Omikron? Although I will say the opening theme is somewhat odd, and a little hard to understand, it does have a nice tempo that fits well with the opening real time cinematic sequence.

The title's overall attitude is mature. Sex, violence, and lies. Pretty much everything a parent tries to keep a kid away from. The sex sequences are toned down to before and after fade to black scenes, which is all the title really needs. I suspect this feature was thrown in more to enhance the sense of overall completeness, rather than introduce shock value to the average PC gamer. The language used isn't bad at all. Since Omikron is this distant alien city, I suspect our slang applies there anyway.

With all of these options and possibilities comes the hard part of implementing a simple yet complex control structure. Unfortunately Omikron fails to find standardization. As the game progresses and the player is made to switch from exploration mode, to two different forms of combat control, they will probably come to learn that Omikron's control is literally all over the place. While exploration uses numerous keystrokes, the gun based combat control system uses the mouse and a few arrow keys. When in hand to hand combat mode the player must use a few obscure keystrokes to execute some awkward fighting maneuvers. The dependency of a keyboard layout during action sequences is sort of a let down. Hand cramps and frustration ensue as the player is introduced to harder opponents while being hampered by lack of tight control.

Fighting can be practiced in the simulation room at Kay'l's house, and this little addition is probably what saves the title's combat system from utter meltdown. Although the control won't get much better, at least a person can attempt to adapt to it without being forced to interrupt their game. The combat simulation room is as much a part of the game as the bathroom Kay'l uses.

The engine used in Omikron obviously could use a little work too. The default fog line is a little close, but it is there to try and keep the massive size of Omikron from squashing the players framerate to nothing. There are actually a lot of options to remedy system cramps that might be created from such a monster of a city bustling with so much activity. Things like population activity on the streets, sky detail, clipping distance, and shadow control can be tweaked to get maximum performance out of Omikron.

Omikron uses the same style loading sequence as Soul Reaver: Legacy of Kain. Using a load sequences that take place without an actual loading screen does give them game a much smoother feeling. Yet during some parts of the game, right after a new area loads, things get terribly choppy. Even to the point of a slow crawl, which can make the game unplayable to those with a low tolerance for 5 frames per second gameplay. Every once in a while when the title encounters another load spot, this wrinkle will fix itself and the game will run smoothly once more, but this is something the player can't completely bank on.

There are other bugs, most notably is the bug that won't allow my CDROM to read the second CD unless I physically press play on my CDROM. There are also crashes, and of course the extreme cases of slow down. What I don't get is how a title with this much promise has still yet to get one patch. Games like Cutthroats have received numerous patches. While Cutthroats suffers from simply being a mediocre game, Omikron has to suffer from some technical flaws that are ultimately keeping the title from showing what it's made of.