Odium (PC)

GameSpot editors' review

• CNET editors' rating: 2.5 stars OK
  Detailed editors' rating
  Overall score: 5.9 (2.5 stars)

• Reviewed by:
  Erik Wolpaw
• Reviewed on: 12/14/1999
• Updated on: 05/02/2000
• Released on: 11/30/1999
• Originally published on GameSpot: Odium (PC) Review

At first glance, Odium appears to be an intriguing cross between the X-COM and Final Fantasy series of games. It promises a deep plot, statistics-based character development, stunning graphics, and tactical, turn-based battles. Unfortunately, most of its features turn out to be underdeveloped, and for every element of this mix that developer Metropolis Software House gets right, two go horribly wrong.

In the near future, a secret military compound in Russia is bombed into smoking ruins. A team of NATO commandos is sent to investigate. It disappears. You are Cole Sullivan, leader of a team sent to find out what happened to both the first team and the facility. Actually, you play the role of Cole Sullivan and his two subordinates. You soon discover that the destroyed base is filled with angry mutants. Not surprisingly, that discovery is followed by the realization that you must fight the mutants to complete your investigation.

So begins Odium's tale of exploration and combat. And for the first ten minutes you'll probably be enthralled. The game takes place on prerendered backgrounds through which you guide your polygon characters. A huge amount of effort must have gone into creating the game's backdrops; they're amazing. Every area is a cluttered masterpiece filled with elaborate little details. Odium is locked into a 800x600 resolution, but the images are so well drawn that the limited resolution is really a nonissue.

Because the characters are rendered in real time, you'd expect them to stick out from the lush, prerendered backgrounds, but each model is so lavishly depicted that it blends into the surroundings almost perfectly. Your mutant enemies are monstrous hybrids of man, animal, and machine, and they look great. The polygon count on virtually every model is high enough to make it appear seamlessly real, and smooth animation completes the effect.

The game's interface is excellent as well. It's intuitive and nonintrusive to the point of being almost invisible. From inventory manipulation, to movement, to combat commands, access to every option seems clearly thought out and is no more than a few logical mouse clicks away. It won't take you long to become completely acclimated to the controls so that you can concentrate on the adventure.And that's the last good point in Odium. Unfortunately, once you get past the terrific graphics and the nice interface, agony sets in. The game's story is told mainly through spoken dialog. Dialog needs to be well written and well acted to be effective. However, about the only positive thing that can be said about the voice acting in Odium is that it's marginally better than the horrid dialog. Characters waffle between being generic action heroes and cowardly idiots, often within the span of a single sentence. Their limitless capacity to come completely unglued at the start of every encounter - randomly mixing saucy taunts with simpering displays of fear - becomes tiresome very, very quickly.

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