You are Konoko: a highly-trained, bio-engineered woman working for a government anti-terrorist agency. You have no memory of your past. You have the same haircut as Wolverine and an attitude to match. You can only carry one weapon at a time so you have to punch, kick, fling, scuffle, slide, spin, jump, twist and bite your way past armies of bad guys to reach your next vital objective—which usually involves pressing the button on yet another computer terminal left out in the open.

Actually, I'm just kidding about the biting part. However, I'm sure if Sony had put just one more button on the PlayStation controllers, this game would surely find a way to put that button to mastication use.

ONI is not a bad game, but it's not exactly a riveting adventure either. The graphics are nothing to shake a missile launcher at and the complexity of the controls is oftentimes carpal tunnel inducing. However, the plotline is fairly engaging with above average voice acting and a couple of surprisingly funny moments.

As you play the game from a third person perspective, you spend most of your time looking at Konoko's rear end. You have to lead her through various factories and office buildings, fighting off guys in goggles and the occasional firearm. One nice element of ONI is that since Konoko can only carry one weapon at a time and ammo is scarce, much of the combat is of the hand-to-hand variety. Konoko can punch, kick and throw her opponents with a variety of combinations, but the learning curve of the game's camera perspectives and controls is a little steep.

ONI uses a different button for nearly everything. There are the obvious ones: like one button to kick and another to punch. But then you need different buttons to jump, another to spin/slide/crouch and yet others to pick up items, heal yourself, open doors and activate consoles (which you will have to do a whole heck of a lot, two or three dozen times a mission it feels like). Don't forget one analog stick moves you around while another turns you and looks around. Since so much of the strategy of the game revolves around skulking about and sneaking up on enemies, I found my hands forming un-ergonomic cat's cradles trying to keep Konoko low while inching her forward and aiming her weapon, eventually just giving up and trying to blast my way out of trouble (which usually didn't work at all.)

There are fourteen missions in ONI, with two different endings, but I must admit I haven't quite felt the burning desire to finish the game myself. The missions do get kind of repetitive: you just follow the compass, skulk/fight your way past the guards then press a button which opens a door so you can follow the compass, skulk/fight your way past the guards and press a button... etc. etc. Each mission has at least four automatic save points as well, and while these allow you to backtrack to previous points if things aren't going so great, ONI also lacks the flexibility of many other games that let you save anywhere, anytime. At least Konoko changes outfits with each mission.

One objective did make me laugh out loud though. Not because of the gameplay itself (which merely involved running around a room, avoiding lasers and pushing buttons), but rather because Konoko was trying to shut down this giant brain that was apparently spamming itself all over the Internet and demanding to be given feet. As Konoko dodged the gunshots and basically disconnected its modem, the brain just kept grunting and squealing in the background while the captions depicted its disembodied illusions of grandeur. Great fun.

Most of the time though, ONI takes itself very seriously and pulls this off gracefully. Each character has a couple anime headshots for when they're speaking, and regular players will soon become very familiar with the variety of anime loading screens that accompany each mission. My only quibble here is that Bungie seems to have hired a different artist for nearly every illustration. Like when an anime series farms out an episode to a different production house and the characters look just a little bit off, some of the pictures in ONI don't reveal a unity of vision. You also can't skip past the characters' conversations, which gets really annoying when you have to repeat a difficult sequence over and over.

All in all though, ONI is not a complete waste of money but neither do I feel like anyone should break down the door rushing out to buy it. Think TOMB RAIDER meets GHOST IN THE SHELL, just not quite as intriguing as either of those fabled institutions.

Rating: 7.0 / 10.0