The upcoming game Oni (Oni being the Japanese word for "Ghost" or "Demon") is a 3D action-adventure in which hand to hand combat with exciting shooting is combined. In Oni you are in the year 2002, where you play as the elite agent Konoko who has the mission to break up a brutal criminal syndicate. In 17 complex levels (e.g. an underground laboratory) which were all designed by real architects you will delve deep into the story as time progresses, and will unveil horrible secrets and learn that you can't trust anyone. Cutscenes between missions and movies before and after the game help to tell the story and help to create atmosphere.

The interface is simple, and allows you to run around shooting people or engage them in close combat with martial arts. You can choose between these two arts of fighting whenever you want. Unlike other beat-em'-ups you only have two keys/buttons and the directional controls so that a beginner can become a pro real quickly. I you run out of ammo you can throw away your weapon and pick up other ones. It's also possible to hit or kick a weapon from your enemy's hand. Konoko learns more moves which are stronger as the game progresses, so if the punch key only results in a small jab in the first level, then it will become a might swing later one as the game progresses.

You can also interact with the environment: for example, you can shoot out a light in a room, throw a grenade into the room and take cover while waiting for the explosion. Konoko has access to a big number of weapons (e.g. pistols, rocket launchers, explosives). So that this game doesn't become a shooter, the developers made sure that ammunition is sparse. In Oni you don't get the usual switch puzzles, rather, the game lives on a number of characters that have a new AI. The behaviour of NPC's depend, for example, on their moods which can of course change as the game progresses. Bored enemies will hardly notice you whilst aggressive types will start to shoot at you like there's no tomorrow. The enemies are also able to hide, to run away when they don't seem to have a chance anymore, to create ambushes, surround Konoko and to chat with other characters.

Your enemies also all look different. As the game progresses you will meet very flexible Ninjas or huge combat machines. Every character has a special skill, can do individual moves and has weaknesses of which some you have to make use of. The bodies of characters consist of a number of polugons, unimportant characters would have about 800 whilst more important NPC's and Konoko have 1200 polygons.

Here is a FAQ that Doug Zartman, the producer of the game (note: they are mistaking him with Hamilton Chu), created:

How many people currently work on Oni?
The Bungie West team consists of 12 people who are either artists, programmers, level designers and producers

Who had the idea of developing the game?
Brent Pease, the former project lead, had the idea and also brought together the team. He left the team though and the new project lead is now Michael Evans.

Oni differs a lot from other Bungie games. What made you so sure you could take on such a project?
Actually we are going back to our roots with Oni. We started our career with action games and we took a different direction with the Myth and Marathon games. With Halo and Oni we are back to the action games.

What problems did you encounter?
Because the architects designed the levels with a CAD program, our level designers had the big job of developing tools so that they could make use of their ideas.

Who created Konoko?
Alex Okita, one of our artists, did the greatest part of the concept drawings and then later worked with animators to make 2D sketches into 3D characters.

Why choose the Manga style?
You can see influences from Manga and anime in the game, this is because the inspiration of the game was Ghost in the Shell.

In what stage is the development of the game?
We are pretty much nearly done. All characters and environments are done, and a few levels are already playable. We hope to release the game in October (ed. note: the release date has been pushed back to early 2001).

Which feature makes you really proud?
We think the simple interface really came out well, in which the player can make use of weapons, kicks and punches with the same two buttons.

Will Konoko appear outside of Oni (like Lara Croft)?
Not like that. Konoko is a strong, deep character that has more to offer than just a nice body. Because Bungie is developing other games at the same time, I don't think Konoko will become the company mascot.

Why did you decide to drop multiplayer?
Half of the game depends on hand to hand combat. These depend on a very fast internet connection which doesn't really exist for any gamer.

How's the situation the voices and sound?
Because Total Audio did such a great job with Myth and Halo they will also do the work on Oni. The techno composers Power of 7 did the music. At MP3.com you can find some Oni songs for downloading.

Oni is expected to be out early 2001.
 

The preview can be found here