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Daikatana (PC) Eidos/Ion Storm
There are few games in the world that ever get the kind of marketing hype and build-up that Daikatana received. Coming fresh off his triumphant stint at id where he had contributed to the mega-successful DOOM, it seemed as though John Romero could do no wrong. When he hooked up with Tom Hall and a few others to start Ion Storm, gamers everywhere drooled with anticipation. Here was a place where "Design is Law," a place where the future of 3D shooters would be defined.
The game that would define that future? Daikatana -- an epic first-person shooter that would revolutionize the genre. Investors, including Eidos, were pounding at Ion Storm's door, offering an absurd $3 million per game for its first three games plus another $4 million for console rights. Romero himself? With his long hair and outgoing personality, he was a natural publicity magnet for mainstream reporters looking to put a sexy face on the burgeoning video-game industry. Romero was truly in his element, enjoying the attention and throwing himself behind it. For more details on Ion's boom and the fallout when things started to go bad, check out our Dumbest Moments in Gaming: #9.
Who's the bitch now?
To his credit, when Romero began to realize that the game was starting to slip off the tracks, he did try to reign in the hype machine. At that point, however, it was just too late. The anticipation for the game was just too high. Yet, despite the torrent of negative publicity that accompanied Ion Storm's collapse, everyone -- gamers and press alike -- continued to give Daikatana the benefit of the doubt. The common refrain was "If Daikatana is good, all will be forgiven. Romero's a talented guy -- he can still pull this one out."
The upshot? Daikatana was released and, well, let's charitably call the reviews somewhat negative. Daikatana is living proof of the gaming adage that a game is only late till it's released, but it's bad forever.
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Delsyn: I hate beating on John Romero. If justice is making the punishment fit the crime, then his fall from grace surely pays for the sins he's committed. When it comes to Daikatana being overrated, though, it proves just how powerful John's reputation was that right up until the day the game was released, both press and gamers were still taking a "wait and see" attitude with it. Given the game's troubled development and the debacle of Ion Storm's collapse, why was there ever any doubt that this game was going to be a disaster?
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Benjamin: Daikatana just boggles my mind. I mean, here was the guy who contributed to two of the best first-person shooters ever, Doom and Quake. You'd expect something special, right? Why, then, did the game involve shooting robotic toads and mosquitoes with some of the least satisfying weaponry to ever disgrace a modern shooter? Not even the titular sword was fun to wield, being just as mind-numbingly boring to swing as every other melee-based FPS weapon up to that point. In short, Daikatana was a boring, uninspired mess of an FPS that could have come out of any third-rate developer.
Ah well, two out of three ain't bad.
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slowdrag: Poor John Romero. If Daikatana had been as successful as its heavy hype machine responsible for churning out one of the most memorable gaming slogans of all time -- "John Romero's About to Make You His Bitch," I probably would have had no problem snuggling up to him for a while. Hey, good games are hard to come by!
Sadly, to this day, whenever gamers think John Romero, they also think of Daikatana: that giant albatross he'll forever wear around his neck. But hey, when you tell the world to "Suck it Down," you better be ready to unload or suffer the consequences.
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Fargo: There's something good to come out of this. I'm seeing a lot less hype for games that are still years away. Publishers are beginning to watch themselves. Advertising for Daikatana was bought out years before the game, which is what drove the hype up to ridiculous levels. The same was true for Unreal -- years before the game hit shelves, you could find big magazine spreads for it ("Real ... Unreal!") Even as impressive as Unreal was, a lot of gamers had been expecting too much by the time it came out. But Daikatana? It didn't stand a chance. These days I rarely see PC-game pre-hype if the game isn't expected within a few months.
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