Sprt: On the Oche [by Series One Software]

Game Review:  On the Oche
Release: November 2, 2004
Genre: Sports
Developer: Series One Software
System Requirements:  Windows, DirectX 8.1+
Players: 1-2 (vs)
Price: $19.99
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Let's start out brutally honest.  If you are like me and have no idea what an 'Oche' is, this game really may not be your cup of tea.  For those who use this term on a daily basis, this may be the greatest game ever to have an Oche in it.

From talking to friends and other people I've come to believe that there are in fact very few people who are familiar with what an Oche is.  It refers to the line that you step up to when you are going to throw in the game of darts.  On the Oche is a darts simulation.  Prior to playing this game my knowledge of darts came from throwing darts at various dartboards in the different places I've lived.  We always played some form of scoring the highest number of points possible.  Those who are familiar with darts just shake their head at such an amateurish experience with their enjoyed past time.  Wonder why?  Let's talk darts for a minute.

On the Oche allows players to play multiple types of dart games in addition to different game modes.  In the game there are 3 different modes of play available, World Cup, Challenge Games and Versus play.  The World Cup mode pits you against the best dart throwers that the pub can muster for the amateur level, and then takes you to the Riverbank to play against the Pros.  The game that you play in the World Cup is 501.  While that may not seem like much, for those who haven't played darts, you must keep reading or you will undoubtedly end up quite frustrated.  In 501, you need to take your score from 501 back down to 0.  Sounds easy enough right?  Hit the bullseye a few times right?  Yeah, you don't have a clue how to play darts. 

On a dart board there are 3 rings with the inner and outer bullseye in the middle.  The outer ring is quite narrow and scores you double points, so if you hit in the 20 section, in the outer ring, you score 40.  The middle ring is called the single section and it scores whatever the board says around the outside.  That ring is divided into two parts by the treble ring, which scores 3 times the amount of points for that area (so a 20 in the treble ring portion would be a 60).  Then you get to the middle where you have the OuterBull, which scores 25 and the Bullseye, which scores 50.  So where is the highest point shot on the board?  Hitting the 20 section in the treble ring.

In the game 501 there are specific rules, you must not only get from 501 down to zero, BUT also, you must have your last shot be a double-points shot.  So if you have 20 points left for your last shot you need to hit the 10 in the double ring, there is no other way to finish.  If you hit the 20 on the single ring, you bust.  This will likely be very new for many people and it leads to some of the frustrations that come with this game, which I'll mention later.

In addition to 501, there other games available through the other modes of On the Oche.  The versus play adds in 5 different game types including 301, 501, 1001, Cricket and Round the Clock.  For those playing the versus games I strongly recommend checking out the instructional manual for the rules & scoring on each game type if you are unfamiliar with them.

The last mode of the game, the challenge mode, provides 5 more games, each requiring your to accomplish a goal while playing against a stop-watch.  The last of the 5 games in that mode actually isn't a real challenge game, but lets you take pot shots at a picture that you import into the game.

Graphics: 8
The graphics are quite solid throughout the game.  The menus are done very professionally and leave the overall impression of playing a AAA studio game.  There is quite a good bit of use of 3D in the game that leads to you feeling like you are throwing darts at a real board.  Probably the biggest strengths go to the variety of the different boards and the characters.  There are multiple characters and even locations in the game, and they go a long way towards giving the game a lot of the feeling of being in an actual location taking on specific foes.  The only real negative was the overall lack of texturing throughout the game that would have given the darts a little more realistic look.

Sound: 7
The sound is all very well done, with phony British voices to match up with the drawn out characters.  The background noises in the pub includes on-going conversation, video games and the regular rude noises of a pub.  The music throughout the game doesn't quite measure up to what I'd hope and quickly becomes repetitive as you hear it over and over again as you try to advance through the levels.

Game Play: 7
Though dart players will probably really dig the game play I found myself wondering why people play so much darts after playing the game.  The game does a good job of showing you how it is that you throw a dart, using an on-screen gauge that works very similar to what you would see in a golf game.  The gauge has two spots where you need to press your mouse button, the first controlling the power and the second controlling the angle.  Hitting each spot will give you a perfect shot, which means the dart will go wherever you have positioned the dart.  However, unlike a golf game, there isn't as much ability to play your way out of a bad shot, which leads to the game play being a series of trying to make multiple perfect shots again and again.

While the game does make it easy for players to quickly come to grips with how to throw the dart, there is no extra help in showing players how to actually play each of the games.  The instructions for each of the games are extremely light in-game, telling you such things as "complete one leg of Round the Clock."  The problem players run into is not having any idea what a leg or "Round the Clock" is.  In order to determine this they are required to exit the game and pull up the instruction manual, which does a pretty good job of explaining things.  However, expecting players to exit the game to figure out how to play the game is an area that certainly should be improved on.

Value: 9
With hours worth of challenges and a solid 2-player mode, On the Oche delivers for the price.  This is especially true for those who are familiar with the game of darts and enjoy it.  There isn't any other dart game out there that is as well-done and entertaining as this one.

Concept: 9
Taking the time to do a darts game scores the points here.  This is one of those areas where indie games provide something to the gaming public that they wouldn't get any other way. 

Fun: 6
The big knock on the game here is the lack of the fun factor.  Before going on, I have to say that this only applies to people who don't already know darts backwards and forwards.  Those who know the game and love it will love this game.  The issue I ran into is that those who don't know the game will be continually frustrated by this game.

The biggest issue here comes from understanding the scoring and the rules of the game as mentioned above.  The game should explain when you start a World Cup that you need to hit a double point on your last shot.  Not doing so leaves players who are new to the game becoming amazingly frustrated as they get to the point where they think they should be winning, but what should be their last shot ends up not winning the game for them.  The lack of information spreads as players take on the challenge game.

In trying to beat the 30 second clock in "Round the Clock," players quickly realize that the most darts they could possibly throw in the 30 second period is about 10.  However, doesn't Round the Clock mean hitting all the numbers on the board, and aren't there 20 numbers on the board?  In the game there are no instructions telling you how this works, the only instructions provided in game are the ones that state that you need to complete a leg of Round the Clock.  Playing until you are frustrated, you might decide to go check the manual and figure out what is going wrong.

In reading the manual it tells you that you have to find shortcuts to complete the game.  So I started trying to hit the point areas on the double and treble rings.  This helped, but it lead to a new issue.  I could hit the 1 on the 3x ring and the 3 on the 3x ring, then the 9 on the 2x ring, then the 18, then the 19, then the 20, then the OuterBull, then the Bullseye, but doing so would still means 8 perfect shots.  If you happen to miss any of those you are pretty much screwed, and most of those shots are quite difficult. 

Unfortunately there isn't any way to restart once you make a bad shot.  Your options from the pause menu are to exit and go through the menus to get back into the game, or you can just wait out the 30 seconds after you miss your shot (which takes more time as you have to start over at the first challenge).  What adds to this frustration is that after failing the game it takes nearly 30 seconds to take another crack at it.  This means while playing this challenge, like I did for just over a half hour, you only spend 1/2 of your time actually playing, the other half you spend going through screens telling you that you failed, asking if you want to try again, and then INEXPLICABLY, telling you once again what the "instructions" were..those same instructions that caused you to go to the manual in utter frustration the first time.  Then, when you finally get to take another crack at it, if you happen to miss your second shot you are again screwed and knowing that you cannot get past the challenge, but you can do nothing but again sit and wait.  I wondered several times what the developers were thinking in creating such a piece of frustration that didn't give any tips even to the fact that you should use the double and treble rings, but more so I wondered why I didn't have a restart challenge option for those many times where I made a bad throw.

Again, for someone who knows darts, the frustration would have been greatly mitigated, and I think that fans of the sport will find it much more fun than I have presented here.  However, for those who don't know the sport, which I think is most everyone, the game's lack of help in presenting how to play and the inability to quickly restart after a mistake leads to a mountain of frustration.

Overall: 7
This is a difficult call to score as an overall score.  Dart players will surely find this to be a tremendous game that easily will rate an eight or a nine in their books.  Those who don't play the game long, or just give a score out based on graphics will definitely score it high as well due to the presentation, which is wonderfully done.  However, I think for those who are unfamiliar with the sport On the Oche comes off as a frustrating way to learn the game that most will probably not enjoy enough to go far beyond the demo, which in and of itself is something that sport fans should probably download, just so that they can come up with their own opinion about it.

Added: January 8th 2005
Reviewer: Russell Carroll
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