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The Lowdown
Pros: 3D Full Motion video looks nice, has two different characters to
play
Cons: Awful controls, twitchy jumping, repetitive, nothing to make this
game stand out
 Purchase
at Play-Asia
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Many people have heard of the movie Ghost in the Shell by now. The popular Ghost in the Shell franchise
had its first game on the PS One. While many fans of the movie liked it,
the average gamer saw it as a ho hum licensed game. Now the Ghost in the
Shell anime series that has been running in Japan for quite awhile and
will debut in America in the summer gets a game, too. Does Stand Alone
Complex suffer the same fate as the Playstation One game? Sort of, but
not exactly. One thing for sure is like the original game Ghost in the
Shell: Stand Alone Complex will divide fans of the series and gamers
looking for a decent action game.If you are unfamiliar with the Ghost
in the Shell anime series know that the game features two main
characters Motoko, a cyber solider with the gifted ability to hack into
people's minds and Bateau another cyborg under the command of Motoko.
The game will progress with story segments from the anime before and
after levels as a reward for completing them. One thing to note is that
instead of cutting and clipping segments from the anime series, the
developers created full 3D computer graphic animation. Fans of the
series will be pleased to know that the character models for Motoko and
Bateau look really good. If this were a movie Ghost in the Shell: SAC
would have scored fairly high, but its a game.
Playing Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex puts you in two
completely different sets of shoes. Sometimes you're Motoko who is an
agile fighter. She can perform acrobatic leaps with the press of a
button like doing aerials or swan dives. She can also move pretty fast
to dodge enemy attacks. Then there is Bateau who plays like an
invincible solider who can hold his ground with his guns firing endless
rounds. While it is nice to have two different styles of gameplay, they
aren't different enough to make it worth while. No matter which
character you play Ghost in the Shell: SAC follows a simple formula run,
gun, jump, fall, jump, fall, jump, fall, well you get the picture. In
between the action there is more jumping than you would expect. There is
way too much in the first level, a shipping yard, where it just happens
that crates are aligned for you to jump on. The controls for
jumping call for the trigger buttons, one button to jump and another
button needs to be pressed in mid air so you hold on to whatever is
higher than you. For awhile the control scheme is frustrating, I found
it better to set my own scheme than deal with the default screen. Even
then jumping was a boring chore. Maybe its the depth perception of the
game, but it seems looks like you can jump over many objects, only to
find out that you can't. When you first start this game allocate one
hour for pure frustration.
Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex emphasizes a stealth element
to the game. One of these elements is "hacking" a person's mind. After
shooting down some enemies you may notice a floating triangle over one
of them. If you want you can download hacking data, which will allow you
to hack another troops' mind. Before you get into a person's mind you
must align three spinning discs together, like fitting a key into a
lock. The puzzle gives you a time limit where if you can't complete it
you don't fail, but have to do it over. Since you have unlimited tries
there really is no reason to care about solving the puzzle, its merely a
formality that shouldn't exist. It does have its reward because hacking
is one of the coolest features of the game. When you're in someone
else's mind you can control them for a limited amount of time. This
allows you to do sneak attacks on enemies or infiltrate new areas. As a
bonus once the time is up the enemy dies. Although part of the stealth
element is cool, there is no reason to use it. The average enemy has the
IQ of a blind goldfish. You can walk right in front of an enemy and they
wont even react. You'll find it much faster to run straight up to
enemies and blast them away or use your hand to hand attack for some
variation.
The only challenge you'll get in this game is playing with another
player. Thankfully, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex does offer a
multiplayer mode. You can even play with up to four players, if you have
a multitap. The multiplayer mode is your standard split screen
deathmatch. You can pick the type of character you have between varying
levels of speed and attack and pick different areas to fight in. Pretty
standard video game stuff that you've seen in many games like
Timesplitters 2 or XII, which offer online support.
Visually, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex has some things
going for it. I already mentioned the beautiful full motion video
sequences. I'll also mention some slick in game animations like Motoko's
aerial cartwheel move and the hand to hand combat animations. Other
times the graphics are laughable, like the hand to hand combat finishing
moves. When finishing an enemy off with hand to hand moves the game
switches to a slow motion camera, which captures the last hit a la the
Matrix. However, most of the time the last hit doesn't hit the enemy. So
you'll see an enemy get knocked down in slow motion from a gust of wind
instead the kick you used. Instead of being cool, it just looks silly
and out of place. Another addition would be to add some more details to
the backgrounds. Most of the backgrounds lack unique land marking
objects. Instead you're given the same objects over and over. This is
more than boring it can confuse a player into thinking they're in a new
area.
While the graphics aren't the greatest there is something to be said
about the sound quality. The background music is ambient techno. There
are few beats in it, but is mostly white noise. The feel of the down
tempo music meshes well with the game. The voice acting in the game is
plentiful. In all of the FMVs and most of the in game story segments
the characters talk. The sound effects are your standard boom, boom,
bang, bang that fit the job assigned to them, too.
Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex doesn't have the action you'd
expect from the name. It plays more like a platformer game at times
mixed with the idea of stealth action. Along with the frustrating
controls the game makes it hard for gamers to get into. Fans of the
anime series will appreciate that the game follows the same story.
They'll even appreciate the graphical translation and the whole hacking
bit. Although, for your average gamer with no ties to the series Ghost
in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex is something better experienced
watching than playing.
Import Friendly?
Few of the in game menus are in English. Most of the important
tutorial information and controller options are in Japanese, too. So
even if you want to play the game and ignore the all Japanese voiceovers
you'll have to invest some time.
US Bound?
Cartoon Network plans to air the series this summer so you can bet
on an American release after the anime is shown.
Overall
Everything that's in this game has been seen in other games and many
of those do it better. While fans of the series will still jump to pick
this game up, its not great enough in any area to fully recommend as a
game.
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