The Nomad Soul - PC Games

You arrive in the city of Omikron and your job is to research who you are (since your soul has been transported into another body) and why your partner, Den, has died. Through exploring the districts of Omikron for clues--and battling monsters in predictable fight scenes--you discover the truth about Den's death, mysterious serial killings and demons that haunt Omikron.

The action scenes are thrilling, but more complicated than necessary. Each type of fighting requires new keystrokes, leaving you to think more than react to your opponent. The first-person shooting scenes are hard to master in using both mouse and keyboard to dodge, crouch, shoot and run. The hand-to-hand combat is much more exciting, and easier to manoeuvre.

The graphics are wonderful but require the recommended system to fully enjoy the depth of the city of Omikron. Your interaction with the objects and people are not as sophisticated as you would expect. You find your character often saying things like "Why am I doing this?" and "I don't need to do that," when you want him to either pick up the object or ignore it.

The interaction with other characters is similarly limited. For example, when approaching many of the female characters, you only check out their bodies and can't learn information they could give you. Similar plot issues may make you wonder about the teen rating, since women in the future seem destined to wear pasties and hot pants.

It is almost as if Quantic Dream took on a little too much in creating Omikron: The Nomad Soul. The scope of what could be RPG fans wanting to take a risk may find this combination-format game as intriguing as the mysterious world it's based on. --Madeleine Miller