O.D.T.: Escape... Or Die Trying

"Or Die Playing"

ODT is a questionable action/rpg game in which the player must retrieve gas for their downed air balloon which escalates to further investigation of the tower which develops in this journey. One can choose the brute corporal, Ike Hawkins, the adventurous cartographer, Julia Chase, the impulsive engineer, Maxx Havok, or the mysterious archbishop, Solaar. Other characters are available through separate means. As one of these characters, you must bravely venture into the deep and dark tower to find gas which conveniently waits for you inside the unknown tower for some reason. Spells, mines, grenades, and your gun which can fire several types of ammo will aid you in this macabre voyage against the creatures lurking in the structure.

Control 3/10 - The first noticeable feature about this game are the controls. The ''turn and walk forward'' system is more confusing than the conventional ''walk in any way you want'' method frequently use in action games. It takes a while to get used to the controls. One must jump precisely to avoid falling into the nothingness and timing and judgement are crucial in calculating a jump. There are lots of things your character can do, such as crawling, crouching, and rolling, but they are all unnecessary for the most part and they require memorization. (up + square + R2 just to crawl!?) Quite inconvenient for something you probably won't use. Spells must be set up while the action still goes on around you, so it is optimal to wait in a safe spot to set up spells which is time consuming and tricky in the midst of exchanging shots with a monster. One must aim their gun to actually shoot anything with accuracy, fortunately you need only to press L2. The controls can really frustrate you, especially when you die or lose something valuable as a result of them. Very annoying they are!

Gameplay 2/10 Save points are ultra rare! You'll need to ensure that you will play the game for long periods of time to actually make it worthwhile. The bad thing is that they can also only be used ONCE. This makes you have to plot when to save and decide if you want to save. This leads to repetitive play when you die, which you probably will, more than once too. Your life goes down way too fast when you are hit, especially when you find an explosive crate or barrel which is a good way to seriously reduce your life. There's no particularly effective way to dodge monster shots and attacks because they will eventually get the best of you. Even using the 180 degree turn can be ineffective. The only way to increase your performance is through the ''Shift Stats'' mode. The experience you use in this mode is obtained only through killing monsters. The experience you get is way too little to even be noticed. There is a very obvious bad side to everything in this game.

Story 5/10 - Even though it is half RPG, it is also half action which drags down the story. A Green Pearl benevolent artifact must be delivered to the city of Calli where an epidemic is dominating the people. The crew decides to fly over forbidden territory since it would take too long to travel over known land. The flying ship crashes on top of a creepy tower and now ceases to function.

Audio/Video 4/10 - The graphics are ''blocky'' and music is almost non-existent. The sound effects are noticeable such as one's fired gun and the lurking monsters behind a corner. When some music is evident it is quite freaky because you expect things to happen with the silent mood the music establishes, but sadly, nothing out of the blue. Spells have decent animations but aren't too flashy, just simple. You expect more from both categories in terms of quality and quantity.

Replayability 1/10 - Once you have finished this game you are finished. It is too tedious to play all over again since it is so repetitive. Period.

To buy or to rent? - Neither. Unless you really crave an action game and have tried everything else, then stay away from this game. It's not worth the bucks to buy or rent.

Overall - A bland game that is almost too challenging without ''extra help'' (cough*..cheats...*cough). Not a very good offering to the action or RPG genre at all.

Reviewer's Score: 3/10, Originally Posted: 08/18/02, Updated 08/18/02