John Romero's Daikatana (PC, 2000)

Brandishing the mighty ancient Japanese Samurai sword Daikatana, fight your way through four time periods, from the post-apocalyptic San Francisco of as distant future to the grimy Ancient Greece of ages past. You'll meet 64 monsters and encounter 25 different weapons in the detailed 3D environment that uses an enhanced version of Quake II's unified engine technology. 

Daikatana was created in part by legendary Doom and Quake designer John Romero. Romero left id Software to form Ion Storm and this game is one of the new studio's first releases. Playing as Hiro Miyamoto, you're joined by two computer-controlled characters, Mikiko Ibihara and Superfly Johnson. The game's AI applies to all characters, allowing voice communications between you and your two sidekicks. 

The game's four episodes are all quite different with distinctice environments and period-appropriate weapons, art, music, and creatures in each time period. Daikatana also features original audio tracks -- a total of 18 songs in MP3 format.