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        <h1><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><b><i><a href="../../index.html">loonygames</a><br>
          <font size="1">a <a href="http://www.bluesnews.com">blue's news</a> 
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<p>&nbsp;</p>Vol. 
                2, Issue 15<br>
                March 15, 2000</b>
              <b> 
                </b>
              
                <b><i>Pixel 
                  Obscura:</i></b></p>

                <b><i> 
                  Have Soul, Will Travel</i></b></p>
                by 
                  Josh Vasquez</p>
              
              <p>
                

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              <i>.“brother 
                can you spare a body?”</i></p>
              The 
                premise behind <b>Omikron:The Nomad Soul</b>, developed by Quantric 
                Dream, is that the soul is transportable, able to move with a 
                disturbing fluidity between “shells.”&nbsp; It is appropriate 
                therefore that the game’s cinematics are so centered around constant 
                movement.&nbsp; During the opening credits sequence, we are forever 
                moving forward, flowing with a preternatural smoothness down streets, 
                across courtyards and above the city as David Bowie’s neo-futuristic 
                title song (written explicitly for the game) hums like a crackling 
                current.&nbsp; Every cut is a shift from the end of one movement 
                to the beginning of another, a steady wave surging forward across 
                the landscape.</p>
              The cinematics 
                are broken into two sections.&nbsp; The first thing we see is 
                a commercial for a cola of some sort, heartily endorsed by a rather 
                enthusiastic talking head.&nbsp; But, as we discover, this is 
                a giant billboard a la Blade Runner when the “camera” veers off 
                to the side and passes down a street packed with hovering cars 
                and bejumsuited citizens.&nbsp; A man on the run, hotly pursued 
                by bi-pedal tank like machines similar to the ED 309 of Robocop 
                fame, rushes past us, firing back at his pursuers before exiting 
                stage left by way of a stolen vehicle.&nbsp; We cut from a strip 
                club to a snowy wasteland to a desert ruin, the same running man 
                being chased by a gang of less than sharp shooting soldiers, all 
                the time catching glimpses of a demonic eye glaring out at us 
                from the shadows.</p>
              The opening 
                certainly grabs your interest, getting the ball rolling as dramatically 
                as it does, and what it lacks in spectacle it makes up for in 
                curiosity inducing detail.&nbsp; The animation is similar to <b>Outcast</b>’s 
                in that it flows rather nicely and comes across as pleasantly 
                “realistic,” with the noticeable exception of the brief strip 
                club sequence, nude bodies not making the best computer animated 
                subjects, all plastic sheen and frighteningly defined angles.&nbsp; 
                The occasional snow beast, however, looks great as does the odd 
                explosion and resulting dash for cover.&nbsp; But this is only 
                the beginning.</p>
              We learn 
                a bit more of the meaning behind all of this frantic running about 
                in the “second act.”&nbsp; Standing before a swirling blue circle, 
                an out of breath man tells us that he is from a parallel world&nbsp;and 
                that we are needed.&nbsp; He explains to us that we will have 
                to transfer our soul into his body in order to cross the dimensional 
                rift (man oh man, are those popular).&nbsp; But beware for, as 
                he warns, we “can make mistakes” and must live with the consequences 
                of our choices.&nbsp; What is so charming about this intro strategy 
                is how cleverly and yet how simply it references the fact that 
                the player is about to interact with a game.&nbsp; The character 
                actually mentions that it is our computer that will allow us to 
                enter his world and that he will step in to reclaim his body when 
                we take a brake from game play.&nbsp; There is a wonderful honesty 
                about all this, an oddly effective attempt to not hide the fact 
                that <b>Omikron</b> is a game but, at the same time, not reduce 
                the stakes of the mission.</p>
              It is 
                because of this directness that the creators’ use of a character 
                looking at us and explaining the goings on does not seem boring 
                or trite, but instead refreshingly earnest.&nbsp; This strange 
                directness is continued during the before mentioned credit sequence, 
                where all the arial views and slanted angles are depicting the 
                everyday movements of this city of the future, as if the drama 
                is always being played out in the most mundane of settings, forever 
                present but always out of sight.&nbsp; There is a slightness to 
                the cinematics of <b>Omikron</b>, a breezy lack of substance that 
                is ultimately a bit damaging if only due to the fact that nothing 
                makes much of an impression, but that is also intriguing because 
                of its very insubstantialness, a ghost like quality that strikes 
                the viewer with the same oddly urgent significance as experiencing 
                deja vu.</p>

              <i>- 
                Joshua Vasquez is the resident film critic here at loonygames. 
                He also writes for the Internet film site Matinee 
                Magazine</i></p>
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<p><i><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="-2">Credits: Print CGI is 
  &copy; 2000 <a href="http://www.square8.com">Square Eight</a>. Used with permission. 
  Article is &copy; 2000 its original author. All other content is &copy; 2000 
  loonyboi productions. Unauthorized reproduction is prohibited. You got that??</font></i></p>
 