Voice over: the thing is, kids, he really, really didn't... He didn't in a spectacular fashion. He didn't so hard that he unbitched a few people who were already critically bitched.
The first episode was very, very, very mediocre - with it's excessive green hue, annoying buzzing enemies, and lack of titular Daikatana.
The rest of the game was decent though, and dare I say good in places - and it had a fairly atmospheric soundtrack too. Episodes 2 and 3 were by far the best middle two quarters of the game.
It's a shame that it left such a poor impression at the start, the AI at launch was in a shit state, and the game-breaking bug on the penultimate mission at launch was unforgivable really.
If anyone's ever at a loss for what to play and see Daikatana on offer - then honestly grab it, get the community-made 1.3 patch, and try the game beyond the first two or three hours. It's not an amazing game by any means but it's reputation is generally perpetuated by people who have played twenty minutes and thought "lol green frog enemies everywhere!!!" , or saw the game on a list of bad games and went in with a Debbie Downer mentality to begin with.
If you're really keen, then the multiplayer still has a hardcore fanbase, and it's probably the closest "pure" deathmatch experience there is to QuakeWorld.
The N64 version was horrible though and is like playing while looking through the bottom of a pasta sauce jar. Weirdly, the Game Boy Colour version was actually good!
I think I'll start researching and pricing scanners. I probably wouldn't get around to it until springtime, but I will open a community here on lemmy.sdf.org when I do and start posting.
Additionally, I also have a near complete set of the demo discs that came with the issues. I've already ripped them to .ISO. I should probably get those up on Archive.org.
I also have a huge retro console and handheld collection. A 300+ LaserDisc collection, and 3 decks. Probably 200+ VHS, and 4 decks. A small camcorder collection, and some rackmount Teac hi8 decks, because I really like filming in hi8. An unspeakable amount of modern and retro computing gear. Etc, etc, so forth.
I basically have a curated museum, all delicately taken care of.