Surprisingly.....AVERAGE!!!
Gameplay and Depth
One of the first and most important things to realize before you dive into Geist is that it’s much slower than most modern FPS games. In fact, it’s difficult to even call Geist a first-person shooter, because there are so many additional elements of exploration, puzzle-solving, and, well, even many times where you don’t have a weapon on hand at all. It’s more of a shooter than, say, Metroid Prime, simply because you don’t have the luxury of lock-on to take your mind off of aiming your weapon. On the other hand, it’s also chocked full of all sorts of gameplay that you might find in something like a Metroid Prime game. Don’t get too excited, though; while the two formulas are related in principle, the games feel entirely different overall.
Geist is a tale about technology, incantation, and the supernatural… though it starts off looking and playing like a typical FPS. In the beginning, you’re following an elite squad of operatives into a facility to try and rescue an endangered ally. This ally has been working undercover in the depths of a sinister organization known as the Volks Corporation, which specializes in the production and sale of dangerous military weaponry to whoever ponies up the most cash. Shockingly, however, something goes horribly wrong during your rescue mission, and your team (along with the character you are playing, John Raimi) ends up getting killed.
The next thing you know, you’re being placed in a spiritual separation chamber – some horrific device designed by Volks to separate people’s souls from their bodies. Assuming you don’t mind, the good folks at Volks then violently rip your soul from your corpse, leaving you wandering around without a “host” (or so they call the bodies you manipulate as a ghost). Luckily for you, however, you manage to break free of containment and roam the facility as a poltergeist (hence the name). Thus begins your adventure as a nonphysical entity searching once more for your body, during which you will possess and control everything from guards to rats to pressure gauges.
The ghost gameplay is pretty darn cool; you see everything in a brighter, bluish haze, and everything moves in slow-motion (except for you, of course), in order to signify how much quicker you are relative to the physical world around you. This actually factors into the game quite significantly, as there are times where you will need to zoom from one place to another ahead of humans and other events taking place to prevent them from happening. And, of course, it’s pretty fun to watch explosions propelling people across the room in slow motion (the ragdoll physics actually are pretty entertaining). Also, being a ghost allows you to do other cool things, such as pass through chain-link fence and slip through cracks in walls (marked by blue icons).
But the biggest part of the game is the ability to possess things. The progression of Geist could be defined as “find host, complete task, repeat.” At any given time, there are a number of things Raimi can possess and use to further his agenda as a ghost. These things are marked by a red aura that is visible surrounding the object or creature. As you roam around in ghost form, your spiritual energy meter will deplete, and if this reaches empty, you die. Replenishing the meter, however, is as simple as possessing something or draining a plant of its life force, and there are plenty of these resources littered throughout the game. Inanimate objects can be possessed without any difficulty whatsoever; however, humans and other creatures are a bit more complicated. In order to possess anything with a pulse, you must first scare it so that it will become vulnerable. This is done by first possessing nearby inanimate objects and using them to do all sorts of crazy unexplainable things.
For example (some slight spoilers here), at one point in the game, you have to possess an oven to burn the food cooking inside and produce smoke. You then possess a nearby fan and blow the smoke over to the cook to make him realize that something is burning. Finally, once he is within range, you possess a stack of plates and fling them at him until he is too terrified to move. At this point, you can move in and commandeer the poor guy and use him to do your bidding.
If it sounds mean… well, it sort of is. However, the way the game is presented, you never feel too guilty about knocking off the bad guys, because for the most part, they are all sort of in on this massive plan of producing weapons and ripping out people’s souls. In fact, there is an even larger scheme in the works underneath all of this that you discover about halfway through the game… but of course, I won’t spoil that here. Let’s just say that Geist really doesn’t have all that bad of a storyline. While it’s true that it’s a bit farfetched, the whole game comes off as moody science fiction, and once you get used to the whole premise of ghosts and hosts, you won’t have too much trouble connecting with the rest of what’s revealed as you play further.
To quickly describe the controls, Geist employs a dual-analog scheme (think Timesplitters): you use the two analog sticks to move around (you can choose to swap them if you wish), and R fires your weapon. Z performs secondary functions (if available), Y reloads, A is context-sensitive, and L performs any special abilities your particular host may have (such as sprinting, jumping, etc). While they aren’t perfect, and sometimes feel a bit unrefined, the controls generally get the job done, and you won’t find yourself fighting with the interface very often. And just in case you were wondering, there is an option to invert your pitch, so FPS fanatics who like to think backwards can rest easy.
Geist’s single-player adventure is split up into several different chapters. One of the most interesting aspects of the game is the fact that while you are always playing the same character, you are controlling many different hosts throughout the course of the game. In terms of living things alone, you’ll control guards, scientists, dogs, rats, rabbits, bats, and more. And the simple fact that you assume control of a female wrapped in a towel at one point is sure to make some people we know in the internet gaming communities purchase this game without a second thought. All of these possessions work together to help Raimi progress through the depths of the Volks facilities (and elsewhere) and uncover the truth about what’s going on within the mysterious corporation.
One thing you might have noticed is that you haven’t read much about action so far. Don’t let that mislead you, because Geist is, in fact, about half action, half puzzle-solving adventure. Unfortunately, while the puzzle elements are often clever and enjoyable, the action sequences many times are just annoying. As previously mentioned, the controls are sufficient. However, the action often feels unbalanced. You will notice that at times, you’ll go for a very long time without any problems at all fighting off the enemies that are thrown at you, but then shortly after, you’ll be met with a challenge that seems utterly impossible; difficult for all the wrong reasons. For instance, one particular boss (about a third of the way through the game) is so difficult in comparison to everything else surrounding it that you’ll swear you accidentally bumped up the difficulty level. For a short period of time, I was actually so frustrated with the game that I stopped playing and started watching television. Of course, I returned, gave it a few more tries, and eventually beat the sucker (which you’ll probably do as well), but when I was finished, rather than feeling gratification, I simply breathed a sigh of relief and shook my head at how illogically hard this boss was.
Nevertheless, Geist is peppered with its fair share of intense action sequences, and most of the time, the steady unfolding of the storyline is enough to keep the player interested (even if you have to try that same boss about fifty times because it keeps lambasting you with randomized blue balls of flame). The environments and experiences near the end of the game help make up for the annoyances along the way, so stick with it, and there’s a good chance you’ll be satisfied.
In the single-player mode, you’ll be able to pick up Ghost Collectibles (which increase the capacity of your spiritual energy meter) and Host Collectibles. The latter unlock new characters and arenas for the game’s multiplayer modes (which we’ll get to in a moment). So, you’ll want to explore your environs as much as possible before moving onto the next area to ensure that you aren’t missing anything. As you look around, you’ll find that pressing A on almost anything of interest around with you invoke a short, observant, and sometimes witty descriptive comment. There are also plenty of NPCs to talk to, most optional, who offer up only marginally interesting conversation.
The exploration you have to do to progress is sometimes rather creative. I won’t spoil much here, but one cool touch is the fact that upon possessing some living things, you will catch glimpses of their recent memories. Some of them are truly interesting (if you’ve ever wondered what a rat’s nightmare might look like, Geist is for you). Geist also has its occasional sense of humor; judging by circumstantial evidence, Samus Aran showers at the Volks medical facility, and also, Friday is Hawaiian-shirt day (so if you want to, go ahead and wear a Hawaiian shirt and jeans).
There are a few more noticeable issues with Geist’s gameplay, and all of them deal with resident bugs. First of all, there are plenty of clipping errors and problems with collision detection that lead to some explorative issues. A good example would be one point in the game where the player has to jump into an elevator shaft. I did what most players would do, and I leapt into the elevator shaft without trying anything else beforehand (nothing else was immediately obvious). Although the elevator was just below me, I found that it was actually impossible to leap back out of the shaft and onto the ledge again. In order to get out, I had to possess my host once again… but he was nearly out of reach, back in a corner! After trying for a few minutes, I finally made it, but this type of thing should have been caught before the final release of the game.
Secondly, there are some other strange issues with the game, as well. Once, I picked up a fire extinguisher (which I needed in order to progress), pulled the trigger, and nothing happened. After resetting the game, however, it worked just fine. And the frame rate, while generally sufficient, is just entirely inconsistent. There was actually one point in one of the later chapters (where I was launching rockets at my opponents) where the frame rate dropped to somewhere between 5 and 10 frames per second for at least thirty seconds. It was completely out-of-place and unexpected.
The last big issue deals with presentation; menus are bland and unoriginal, and the general interface is entirely ordinary. You will notice some awkward lapses in production, as well, such as the death sequences, where the music just stops for several seconds, and a menu pops up to ask you what to do next. Again, it’s nothing crippling, but it detracts from the perceived overall quality of the package. However, one issue with presentation does hurt the game: the AI. Enemy AI is all but nonexistent, so it seems; enemies usually won’t chase you, they won’t communicate with others, and they won’t make any decisions pretty much at all apart from shooting you and falling to the ground dead. Truth be told, Geist just isn’t much of an action game; it’s really a puzzle-adventure with action elements.
Aside from these problems, Geist is mostly enjoyable. And naturally, once you’re finished with the single-player adventure, there’s a decent number of multiplayer endeavors to keep you and your friends happy for a little while after.
Multiplayer includes plenty of options (though nothing as robust as, say, Halo 2 or Perfect Dark), and is actually quite fun. There are three different modes to play:
Possession Deathmatch – All players begin as ghosts, searching for a good host with which to kill the other ghosts. The weapon you have depends on the host you choose, and you can switch hosts at any time… but if your host is killed while you’re inside, you die. Also, your host is vulnerable for a few seconds even after you exit (a sitting duck), and if he’s killed during that time period, you lose one point. You can toggle an option for possessable objects, which, if enabled, will litter explosive boxes and other hazards around the level in which you can hide and take your opponents by surprise.
Capture the Host – This is sort of like capture the flag with multiple flags and, well, with humans instead of flags. Basically, you just run around, collect hosts, and bring them to your base for points. You can score points by killing other possessed hosts on the way there, but any time a host is killed, any points he has scored leave with him. There is also an additional play option that requires you to find keys to access the base and then wait for it to turn your color, which is fun in a different, frantic, let-me-in kind of way.
Hunt – A novelty at best, Hunt Mode is ghosts vs. humans. The humans just fire at ghosts with anti-spirit weapons and try to kill them. The ghosts, on the other hand, must possess the humans and steer them into nearby hazards, such as spike pits, fans, and acid. Charming! Once possessed, firing an explosive spirit round at the ground can expel the ghost from a human’s body, and even if they’re continually unsuccessful, the ghost only has a limited amount of time to interfere anyway… so it’s not as though hosts are permanently possessed.
In all of the multiplayer modes, you can set up teams with up to eight players (no LAN play, just humans + bots), and pick a level. Unfortunately, you can’t specify which weapons to include, which music tracks to play, or anything like that. And regarding the latter, there are so few music tracks (most quite repetitive) that it actually becomes annoying hearing the same songs over and over again. All of these music tracks are also from the single-player adventure, so by the time you hear them in multiplayer, there’s a good chance you’ll be tired of them. Overall, there are about a dozen battle arenas (mostly themed from the single-player adventure), and a couple dozen different possessable characters. It’s nothing terribly extensive, but it is enough to be a fun distraction for a short while after you’re finished with the single-player adventure. Especially when you figure out that it’s possible to kill someone by towel-whipping them while playing as a girl in a towel.
Speaking of longevity, Geist’s single-player adventure will probably last the average player around ten to fifteen hours, depending on how much exploration is done and how long it takes them to figure out the various puzzles. And, of course, the multiplayer will extend the life of the game if you have interested friends, but how long it lasts completely depends on the player(s).
Graphics
Geist is a fairly pretty game, with some rich lighting dynamics and vivid environments. Textures are somewhat clear from close range, though they usually consist of very little more than seemingly random detail. Regardless, there are times where the beauty of your surroundings will catch your attention.
Character models are sufficient, though animation is stiff and occasionally unrealistic. Cut scene animation always is excellent; even the character’s mouths move somewhat convincingly as they speak. Unfortunately, though the game can be attractive, the frame rate takes a noticeable hit as a result. Each and every time you pass a locale of significant detail, the frame rate will hiccup and stutter. Usually, it rests somewhere around 30fps, but it often drops to 15 – 20 depending on conditions. Most of the time, this doesn’t detrimentally affect the gameplay, but it is annoying and distracting.
Sound
Geist’s sound engine and environmental sound effects are excellent. The ambience of many locations is immediately noticeable, and the quality of the effects is second-to-none. For instance, at one point in the game, you’re in an abandoned, derailed subway train, and one of the cars is titled sideways. As you walk through the car, you will hear metal creaking all around you, as slowly dripping water echoes at the entrance and exit of the car. It’s quite immersive at times. The voice acting is good, as well; it’s only present in cut scenes (not in-game), but when it’s there, it’s great. Audio is such a crucial part of a game’s presentation, and it’s good to know that the Geist team recognizes this fact.
Unfortunately, the music can’t be praised in the same way. While it’s pretty good for the most part, there’s just not enough of it – not at all. You’ll frequently hear the same two or three action songs, and the same battle music, throughout the entire adventure (and multiplayer). The ambient songs are quite a bit more tolerable, but there still isn’t enough of them. Luckily, the developers included an in-game volume control for the music and sound effects, so that’s a plus.
Fun Factor
With the exception of a few key points in the game, Geist is a relatively enjoyable experience. You’ll be drawn to play further simply to find out what will happen next in the storyline, and more than likely, you won’t find it too difficult to forgive the game’s shortcomings. It has a personality of its own, and enough fresh ideas to keep the average action fan satisfied for the entirety of its adventure.