Reviewed by CL on 6/19/2004
When I first played Onimusha: Warlords, it reminded me a lot of Resident Evil without the guns. However, after playing it and looking back, I see that it is in fact an entirely different game that shares the same camera and control scheme as Resident Evil, but has a completely different ideas and innovations.
The most noticeable difference between this game and Resident Evil is that instead of shooting zombies from a distance and running like a little girl whenever anything got too close, Onimusha: Warlords is all about the close combat. You play as a sword-wielding samurai who is trying to save a princess from a bunch of demons. This is a pretty unoriginal story and the cut scenes and dialog are just as bad as any Resident Evil, but you don't really get a game for the cut scenes. The gameplay and controls in this game are both similar and wildly different from previous Resident Evils. The character is still controlled with the directional buttons instead of the analog stick. Up is still forward, left and right turn the character, and backwards steps back.
This is about where the similarities end. In Resident Evil, trying to dodge attacks and run around was a nightmare given the limits of the control scheme described above. However, in Onimusha, once you lock onto a target, you can side step, dash forward/backwards, and even block. This adds an incredible amount of depth to the combat parts of the game. And given that the entire game is pretty much combat, this is definitely a good thing. And if your timing is good enough, you can even perform super cool one hit kills.
As stated above, the main draw of the game is the superb combat. There are tons of different enemies to encounter and all of them have very good AI programming so that they actually present some challenge. The graphics in this game are very good even by today's standards. The game was one of the first to come out for PS2 and one of the first to make it on the Greatest Hits list. This makes it a great addition to any collection since the gameplay and graphics are top notch and you can pick it up anywhere for only $20. I would definitely recommend playing this one first before playing its sequel since there isn't much replay value and you'll probably get spoiled if you play Onimusha 2 first.
