RetroSpective - Geist

[Ganepark32]

Another week, another one of these. If you enjoy reading these, you can look forward to a couple more in the run up to xmas next week, ending with one of the best games on the GC. But before that, we have this. So lets get started.

 

 

Geist

 

Released in 2005 after nearly 3 years in development, within which there were several reboots of the game, Geist, developed by second party n-Space, was the second M rated title to be released on a Nintendo console that was published by Nintendo. The game put you in control of civilian scientist John Raimi who, with the help of the CR-2, were sent to investigate the activities of the Volks Corporation. But when they enter the facility, strange things start happening, with a monster appearing and killing one of Raimi’s squad members. When they try to evacuate the facility, they are confronted by one of their agents who has been possessed and all but Raimi and Thomas Bryson, who has been working undercover in the Volks facility, are killed. Raimi is placed into a machine which rips a person’s soul from their body and his soul is held in containment and brainwashed to fight in Project Z, which is a plan to assassinate all of the world’s leaders and have the spirits inhabit their bodies so that Volks can take over the world. But before the sequence can be finished, the ghost of a young girl, Gigi Volks, destroys the machine and Raimi manages to escape. What occurs after is a series of stand-offs between Volks soldiers and various monsters as well as puzzles to progress through the game. It all takes place from a first person viewpoint with the puzzles and scaring of new host bodies being the main objective, until you re-acquire your body. The game was initially well received upon its reveal at E3 2003 but the final game was considered mediocre in the eyes of the gaming press and sits with a Metacritic rating of 66%. So, how does the game hold up now in an era where first person titles are being released on a regular basis?

 

The first thing to tackle is the genre. Regardless of the fact that at many points you’ll be wielding a weapon, this is not a first person shooter. It is a first person action adventure, similar to the genre in which Metroid Prime sits. But this immediately proves a problem as the game has an identity crisis: it isn’t sure what genre it falls into. You can see clearly that it isn’t and wasn’t destined to be a first person shooter, with this very evident from the controls wield handling weapons, but the game doesn’t know this and keeps throwing you into gunfights which are awkward due to the control issues. It is in the non-shooting bits where the game stands up well. The puzzle elements are particularly great, with a wide variety of scare tactics available to use to get control of your next host target to progress further. This alone would have made for a great game, where it could have been more stealth based and focused solely on these puzzles and scare tactics. Then again, if the shooting sections had been tightened up control wise then it would have been great as it is.

 

With a great idea for a game, where you walk the hallways of a facility as a ghost looking for your body, it is a real shame that it has been so poorly incorporated into the design. Yes, you can still walk the corridors as a ghost and possess various items and hosts but the game never focuses on this like it should do. It was a revelation in the first person genre, and since its release the only game that has tried something vaguely similar is Prey and even that failed to hit the mark. The idea is still great today and would still be very workable in the hands of talented developers, but it just feels very flawed playing it here. That’s not to say that n-Space isn’t talented. Far from it. You only have to look at their version of Call of Duty World at War on the DS to see that these guys can make really great games. It is just that there was too much going back to the drawing board and changing of ideas, with both n-Space and Nintendo looking at two different types of games. And so this appears to have been a compromise failing to hit the mark in either category. You feel that if n-Space had been left to work on it as they intended it could have been a better game.

 

The controls, especially for the shooting bits, feel too sluggish and are not accurate enough so when confronted with Volks soldiers, lining up a shot can take a considerable amount of time and can be very tricky. The controls in these bits don’t allow full movement over where you aim. It’s as if the game has assigned areas where it can aim, small windows, stationed next to one another so when you move the controls it merely moves to the next small window. They don’t feel fully analogue. It would explain the jittering in the controls and the inability to get a decent standing shot on an enemy. Comparing the controls in this to anything that is released nowadays really shows how bad the controls are in this game. The vast majority of shooters now offer a very smooth experience while this doesn’t. And any comparison to a Wii shooter further rubbishes the controls. One can only hope that if it were to see a release on Nintendo’s New Play Control selection of games, and it’s entirely possible considering the games initial release was near the end of the Gamecube’s lifespan, that the game would control much better with the use of the Wiimote and the Nunchuk. While what has been said focuses mainly on the FPS controls, some of the complaints do carry over to the sections where you are a ghost. Again, the controls just feel sluggish and inaccurate compared to today’s offerings.

 

One of the good things about the game upon release was that its graphics were actually pretty good for the generation it was released in and for a first person title. The textures for the environments look fantastic and still hold up well today, looking better than the vast majority of those in other Wii shooter titles. The bloom lighting in the game is well done and never seems excessive, even while in ghost form where there is more of it. Character models are adequate if a little lower poly count, which is possibly a result of the use of rag doll physics for the characters and various objects in the environments which does lead to some slow down in fights. The major gripe with the graphics is that all of the environments look very generic. They look like they could have been lifted from any other shooter and never look original at all. But then, so do most modern shooters and so in that respect, it sits pretty well with them.

 

The single player experience is still pretty good in comparison with shooters today. For the most part, the difficulty of the game never becomes an issue. But there are parts in which it does get a bit ridiculous. For instance, one boss requires the player to hammer the A button on the controller to get them to dispossess you. And I literally mean hammer. Unless you are hitting that thing faster than lightning strikes, you’ll soon be dead. Another boss has you fight in a circular room and you have to shoot its head to inflict damage. With dodgy controls, it wasn’t going to be the easiest of tasks but when they’ve made the bosses demi-gods where even if you unload an entire clip into it, it only does a very, very small amount of damage. While I understand games need to incorporate a challenge, these are examples of ways in which developers shouldn’t go about incorporating it. These, and several other sections, are still so frustrating to do now that you’ll likely toss the controller aside and remove the disc, never to play it again. But if you can look passed these, then it isn’t a bad single player experience. You just need a will of steel to keep pushing on. There is a multiplayer aspect to the game as well, which involves variations on the standard modes: Possession Deathmatch, Capture the Host, and Hunt. The game can be played with 3 other players or with bots. But it really doesn’t hold up well. The experience was never great to begin with but it just pales in comparison to that which is offered in other games nowadays.

 

Geist is a flawed game; very flawed in many respects in regards to today’s releases. However, I don’t feel it got the right attention when released as many expected an FPS and reviewed it as such. If you go into the game expecting little of the shooting bits then you may well enjoy it more because the puzzle elements and the scare tactics are fantastic elements. The game had a lot of potential and as a series, it still does. I know for a fact that n-Space are working on several Wii titles as we speak and either a remake or a sequel to this could possibly be one of them. And I’d welcome it. The idea behind the game is fantastic and if they were to focus less on the shooting and more on the adventure/puzzles then we’d have a better game. With Wiimote and Nunchuk controls, there would be very little in the way of problematic aiming. We’ve all seen what can be done with the controls on Wii titles so if it is to happen, lets hop n-Space has been keeping an eye on what other developers have been doing. It’s just a question of whether n-Space would be willing to have another go.

[Cube]

It was a brilliant concept. A remake or another game based on the same thing, but this time done correctly (perhaps Nintendo could help out a little more), and it could be an amazing game.

 

It was a fairly decent game, but really lacked a lot of thought. The Wii Remote and Nunchuck could really help out with controlling not just the shooting, but also all the various objects you can possess, allowing for more than just one action for each thing.

 

Also, the creature you possess in the tutorial bit had black and white vision. They need to have more stuff like that. I was rather disappointed when I possessed a bat and found out it had full colour vision. Next time, make it blind then give us a few seconds of vision when we squeak. Little touches like that are what this game needed.

[Ganepark32]

^ that would actually be a great idea with the bat. Would make for some very interesting puzzles. But yeh, it's a shame they didn't focus on this more as the shooting bits really are quite bad. Been playing it through again and I'm at the Wraith boss who has been possessing your real body. Absolute nightmare. Having to hammer the A button to get it to dispossess is a shocking idea because you can never get it done before he has you over the fans, meaning you take damage.

 

It is a very negative aspect but the game was good. As mentioned, the scaring was brilliant. Scaring a bunch of rats by attracting one to a mouse trap and killing it was cool and distressing at the same time.

[LazyBoy]

Good work Ganepark. For me Geist was a game I had high hopes for, but was ultimately disappointed with. It wasn't so much the mechanics that bugged me as it was the lack of different puzzles and ideas. There weren't enough ways to fail, since there was always only one option It's a game who's sequel, with just a little help from nintendo or Retro, could be a million times better.

[Ganepark32]

^ yeh I actually think a cooperation between n-Space and Retro Studios would be fantastic should they do a sequel. Retro know how to push graphics, do varied puzzles and big boss battles so they'd instantly bring a wealth of knowledge to a sequel if they got brought in to help.

 

There may be another one of these up later today. Haven't decided whether to do it or not. Although I would like to as the game is criminally underrated and just so cutesy and fun to play.

[mr_bogus]

I did recently play this through and enjoyed it despite the flaws. Definitely a decent story that keeps the player's interest throughout.

 

There may be another one of these up later today. Haven't decided whether to do it or not. Although I would like to as the game is criminally underrated and just so cutesy and fun to play.

 

I hope you're talking about SMB Adventure, 'cos that's exactly when i thought when i was playing it

[Ganepark32]

^ not quite SMB Adventure. Haven't played that one, haven't been able to track it down. But it is similar to that, except you not in a ball but there is rolling involved.

[tapedeck]

n-Space are currently doing some amazing stuff on the DS (Call of Duty). Well worth checking out. Be nice to see them return to home consoles though!

[Ganepark32]

Well there are supposed to be working on several Wii titles as we speak. Will we see something in 2009? We'll have to wait and see.

[david.dakota]

I quite enjoyed Giest, and would love to see it reborn under the New Play Control brand. Its main critism was controls- easily sorted with the Wii Remote.

[darksnowman]

^ not quite SMB Adventure. Haven't played that one, haven't been able to track it down. But it is similar to that, except you not in a ball but there is rolling involved.

 

Kirby's Tilt n Tumble via the Gameboy Player? It is, isn't it!

[dazzybee]

Kirby's Tilt n Tumble via the Gameboy Player? It is, isn't it!

 

This game was phenomenal when it came out! I love it!

[mr_bogus]

How do you play tilt games using the gameboy player?