Omikron: The Nomad Soul is a—what, exactly? An RPG? An FPS? An adventure? I don’t think it matters, because David Bowie is in it and that pretty much speaks for itself. A late 1999 game by a younger David Cage and his Quantic Dream studio before it moved on to bad-parenting simulators on consoles, Omikron is a story about a futuristic cybercity and its mysteries. And David Bowie. It’s on GOG now for $10.
Omikron’s narrative centers around parallel worlds and the ability to inhabit the bodies of encountered characters. (“Nomad Soul,” get it?) The rest of the game apparently attempts to toss in every sort of mechanic it can, from brawling to shooting to increasing stats and breaking the fourth wall. It’s definitely an ambitious concept, including the unspoken rule of eventually adding David Bowie in every game ever made.
GOG has Omikron prepped for Windows XP, Vista, 7, and 8, but it’s kept the visuals at the original, smudgy quality. Here’s a trailer for the whole experience set to a tune by the Thin White Duke himself, who conveniently returned from the land of the dead this month with his comeback Next Day album.
http://www.pcgamer.com/2013/03/16/omikron-the-nomad-soul-now-on-gog-because-david-bowie/
This is one of my Top 10 of all time games, made in days before David Cage decided to take the path he is walking now - for us who admire this early work of his (and I know there are few of us here), let's hope he revisit it sometime in the future, or at least make Singularity feels and play similar to it.
