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.

I always feel that games like this one, Anachronox, Beyond Good and Evil, Deus Ex, etc. should get PSN remakes for Vita. I would love to play many of these old wonderful games, but I feel like the big screen isn't the place for them anymore. They would feel much better on a handheld, just like Stranger's Wrath does.

great game ,played it on dreamcast,but with several flaws-was more about experience than gameplay as shooting and fighting mechanics didn't work really good but a great design,interresting story unsatisfying end(just a sim)and a great moment meeting bowie performing in the underground disco.

I don't share your view about his games now:
they are still like omikron-new,different,great atmosphere,interessting story,ambitious,still an experience with some gameplay flaws.

only difference to omicron:people overreacting and complaining about eg fahrenheit and especially heavy rain as if they are the gaming anti christ threatening gaming culture though such games are only released twice a decade and not copied by other developers =no influence at all,
while at the same time they don't complain about always the same boring"save the world/country from aliens/terrorists"-fps games released twice a weak with shit stories codhalokillzone style and repetetive gameplay that has even infected and destroyed other genres and ip's like resident evil,mass effect or dead space=100% influence.

ps:wish they'd made a hd version for consoles and hope cage will make omikron 2 soon

I tried to play this game on my PC, but it's complicated to make it run on W7.

The game freezed when I changed resolution. Also the control scheme is terrible.

Yeah, Dreamcast version had lot of problems, and was scored much lower than PC version. I remember FPS parts being not too good (luckily, there was not too many of them), but I actually had no problems at all with fighting parts. I loved exploration and overall feel of the world - it was semi-open adventure game in its core, and quite ahead of its time in my opinion.

Oh, and don't get me wrong, I liked Fahrenheit quite a lot (Heavy Rain bit less) - actually, I think there is potentialy huge untapped market for Heavy Rain/Walking Dead styled titles, I would even dare to say that's one of potential future Blue Oceans - perhaps industry just needs to figure out how to market it more like interactive fiction and not games to attract more of non-gaming population into that (I've seen lot of that with Heavy Rain)...

Of course, for my personal taste, I would much more like to see Quantic making Omikron styled games with more or less "standard" gameplay than what they did afterwards. Though Omikron had some gameplay issues, I really enjoyed its gameplay. David has never been particulary strong when it comes to stories, so Omikron, like his other games, is no masterpiece in that department either, but it is very decent. In addition, the whole world was superbly designed. This is perhaps what I've been missing in his later works - stories were more on less on the same level as Omiikron's, but gameplay and overall feel of the world is much more simpler...not to say I haven't enjoyed them, but it just might be my personal preference that makes me see Omikron as his best work.

Anyway, I hope he revisits it some day, sequel was in production when Fahrenheit hit it semi-big, so they decided to keep going that path....as I said, I think Singularity (which, from what I've understood based on interviews, will be about technological singularity) would be perfect for him to go back to roots in some way...even if it's not Omikron, that setting can give same freedom and overall feel...plus we get to see Kara again :D