Omikron: The Nomad Soul

 PC
User Score
7.9

Generally favorable reviews- based on 82 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 59 out of 82
  2. Mixed: 11 out of 82
  3. Negative: 12 out of 82

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  1. JaydenPickens
    Feb 20, 2019
    7
    This is not a game... it's an experience. If you'll play this, you won't ever forget this. I mean it in a good way and a bad way. Let's talk about good stuff... the soundtrack is magical, the graphics are old, but that is expected from a 1999 game, but the design is just amazing. Everything looks surreal and out of place... at least to me and I love it. Also David Bowie is in the game. HeThis is not a game... it's an experience. If you'll play this, you won't ever forget this. I mean it in a good way and a bad way. Let's talk about good stuff... the soundtrack is magical, the graphics are old, but that is expected from a 1999 game, but the design is just amazing. Everything looks surreal and out of place... at least to me and I love it. Also David Bowie is in the game. He might be dead in the real world, but he's alive and well in Omikron, so that's that. The story makes no sense and the gameplay is horrid... it actually causes pain. Especially the fights with bosses... what an atrocity. To me this is a good example of a wasted potential. Here's a game that had a living city full of people and cars in 3D long before GTA 3 with amazing art style and atmosphere, but thanks to ridiculous plot and awful gameplay it all falls short and becomes a big mess... this is a game that everyone should try out and see for themselves if it's good or not. I'm a big fan of the atmosphere of this game, so I won't rate it bad, because for the most of the time I had fun, but I won't forget the frustration that this game caused me and lack of rationality in certain parts of the game. Play it yourself motherhugger. Pickens approves!… Expand
  2. Jay_Pickens
    Jul 24, 2018
    6
    This is not a game... it's an experience. If you'll play this, you won't ever forget this. I mean it in a good way and a bad way. Let's talk about good stuff... the soundtrack is magical, the graphics are old, but that is expected from a 1999 game, but the design is just amazing. Everything looks surreal and out of place... at least to me and I love it. Also David Bowie is in the game. HeThis is not a game... it's an experience. If you'll play this, you won't ever forget this. I mean it in a good way and a bad way. Let's talk about good stuff... the soundtrack is magical, the graphics are old, but that is expected from a 1999 game, but the design is just amazing. Everything looks surreal and out of place... at least to me and I love it. Also David Bowie is in the game. He might be dead in the real world, but he's alive and well in Omikron, so that's that. The story makes no sense and the gameplay is horrid... it actually causes pain. Especially the fights with bosses... what an atrocity. To me this is a good example of a wasted potential. Here's a game that had a living city full of people and cars in 3D long before GTA 3 with amazing art style and atmosphere, but thanks to ridiculous plot and awful gameplay it all falls short and becomes a big mess... this is a game that everyone should try out and see for themselves if it's good or not. I'm a big fan of the atmosphere of this game, so I won't rate it bad, because for the most of the time I had fun, but I won't forget the frustration that this game caused me and lack of rationality in certain parts of the game. Play it yourself motherhugger. Pickens approves!… Expand
  3. UncleEd
    Jan 17, 2018
    5
    Omikron: The Nomad Soul is a very creative and unique experience in some aspects and a horrendous piece of crap in others. I remember the year 1999 when I was impatiently waiting for it. It didn’t only make a lot of big promises for its time, it also had a demo -which basically consists of the first 30 minutes of the game- that delivered those premises. The expectation was that OmikronOmikron: The Nomad Soul is a very creative and unique experience in some aspects and a horrendous piece of crap in others. I remember the year 1999 when I was impatiently waiting for it. It didn’t only make a lot of big promises for its time, it also had a demo -which basically consists of the first 30 minutes of the game- that delivered those premises. The expectation was that Omikron will have a setting similar to Blade Runner. The player was to be able to drive around the city, go to bars and strip clubs, eat, go to toilet, have sex… Also, remember there was no GTA 3 in 1999. When you die, you were to incarnate to the first character that touches you. On top of that, the game featured David **** Bowie! As a character within the game! Also in each city there will be concerts where he will perform songs which he made specifically for this game! How cool is that?! I honestly was never hyped as much for any other game at that time, except maybe for C&C Tiberian Sun. The resulting product, however, was a mess…

    First and foremost a note on David Bowie. He was ahead of its time for everything he did entire his career. It’s just a pity that the company that approached him was David Cage’s Quantic Dream, a company with very ambitious ideas, but zero clue on how to make a game. The album “Hours” he made for Omikron was great. Aside from some good ambience in the beginning of the game, Bowie’s presence in Omikron is everything that is good about the game.

    As mentioned earlier, it is hard not to be impressed by the first 30 minutes of Omikron. It looks like a perfect sandbox adventure game with an extremely cool setting. Everything goes down the hill from there. In fact, reading about the game years later, I have learned that the first part of the game was the part David Cage has shown Eidos to get their fund support. As soon as the budgetary concerns was over, I assume there was just no further need to make a good game.

    Omikron has so many issues that it is hard to list all of them. From a technical standpoint, the game is garbage. It is full of bugs and glitches, including game breaking ones. The tank controls are extremely bad (in my opinion, the game is only playable if you download a fan made patch that lets you play with an Xbox controller). Although the first city is beautifully designed with a great atmosphere and fairly good puzzles, the more you progress, the cheaper the graphics and puzzles start to get. Also, no, you cannot drive wherever you want. Most of the time, you cannot have any sort of engagement with the inhabitants of Omikron and no, you cannot always progress the game by becoming the first person that touches (or sees) you when you die. Towards the end, the game starts to look graphically so bad, it is kind of obvious that Quantic Dream lacked the capacity to deliver anything beyond a demo.

    Another thing Omikron promised was that it was to be a mix of all genres, namely Adventure-Action-FPS-Fighting. When the game plays as Adventure, it is sometimes good sometimes bad. Fighting mod that plays like a bad Street Fighter clone is just bad. Third person action (similar to early Tomb Raider) is bad, because of the horrible camera and controls. But the FPS part is so terrible, you will seriously consider quitting the game the minute you make that far into the game. And you know what? You just should… Trust me, the story doesn’t get more interesting either.    … Expand
  4. GreenSkullRider
    Jan 31, 2017
    7
    Quantic Dream siempre los considere unos genios de la aventura convencional, acá con su primera obra nos demuestran lo que años mas adelante consolidaron. una majestuosa aventura, llena de giros y puzles, acá se mezclan muchos estilos de juegos, desde acción, lucha, sigilo, puzles y aventuras graficas en un juego muy bien hecho, quizás gráficamente ha envejecido muy mal y la música es algoQuantic Dream siempre los considere unos genios de la aventura convencional, acá con su primera obra nos demuestran lo que años mas adelante consolidaron. una majestuosa aventura, llena de giros y puzles, acá se mezclan muchos estilos de juegos, desde acción, lucha, sigilo, puzles y aventuras graficas en un juego muy bien hecho, quizás gráficamente ha envejecido muy mal y la música es algo floja. pero es un juego bastante ambicioso y digno de pasarse una vez en la vida.… Expand
  5. TheDerebeyi
    Nov 6, 2020
    7
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. Omikron: The Nomad Soul is a good sample for its kind, specially for its own time. Good music, potentially good story (potentially because they spend this potential with lots of mistakes) and a lot of bunch of cool feature like reincarnation mechanics and magnificent cyberpunk atmosphere but when we talk about character depths and real story, we need to speak truth. Usage style of reincarnation mechanics in this game absolutely kills everything. I mean there is no a main character or any feeling when we switch our soul to a host. Devs make us forcibly not to attach to any character and this is the worst thing ever. How can I experience a good story without a good character. There was a lot of moment to make this game a masterpiece. Telis died and we did what? Didn't talk about it even one moment. I know that devs created a plot which involves the real player behind the computer but they don't give us any choice. Just they wants us to pretend like a stupid and
    reckless 15 years old teenager. I appreciate David Cage for this original and creative experience but this couldn't meet my expectations. I won't mention about controls, you know. It's terrible even for its time. It's a 6 or 7. Might be even seven and a half, I don't know.

    Peace.    … Expand