Ghost In The Shell - Stand Alone Complex

“You have been reduced to puppets of the state. You cannot possibly betray that state, can you?”

Welcome to Ghost in the Shell – Stand Alone Complex, a PlayStation 2 title from Bandai slated for an early November release. GameZone.com was privileged to get a preview of this futuristic action title, and willingly dropped from the helicopter and into the thick of the action.

The plotline of this title is a little convoluted. It takes place in a futuristic setting wherein hacking and mind control, and thought sharing is commonplace. When those individuals step outside that system, they are hunted down. In many ways the whole aspect merely sets up a shooter from the third-person perspective. There are futuristic bad guys, but you essentially wade in, work through levels and try to solve minor puzzles while blitzkrieging the bad guys.

The game takes place in 2030. The world is virtually borderless but terrorism and cyber crime is still rampant. Into this scenario is thrust Section 9 and Major Motoko Kusanagi. She is part cyborg, although she does bleed like a human. But she has some unique skills (more on that in a moment) and a propensity to get into a lot of trouble. How much trouble really depends on the difficulty setting. There are three and each grades the damage output, and number of enemies you will face in each level.

The game starts with an innocuous little mission to capture someone suspected of peddling Black Market weapons. You are dropped onto the end of a pier. At the other end is the target. Between you and him are a host of bad guys, which are part of a crime organization that has taken over the pier. They don’t like you. You reciprocate that with hot lead, grenades, and flying feet.

Ok, hold on a moment … got to get this out – the martial arts melee in this game is very cool. When you attack and do combos, the action goes into slow motion, replete with movement blurs to let you appreciate the ballet of the combat. It is very nicely done and big kudos must be given.

The rest of the action is target, shoot, pick up ammo and weapon upgrades from the bad guys, and work from point-to-point to activate this console to operate the crane or elevator. All the while, your boss buzzes you with mission hints and updates. Time is a-wasting, so better let the lead fly and work fast. No, the mission is not really timed, and there are save points along the way.

While the game has the standing array of player feats, such as crouching, jumping, melee attacks, sniper, and the like, there is another aspect that give the game a unique touch – hacking. You can hack the ID of another unit. This is done by targeting the enemy with a blue inverted triangle over their head and then locking in the rings. You take over that NPC, and become them. Leaving their body returns you to where you were before.

The game features a training mode, and a multiplayer mode as well as the story game mode.

The sound of the game is average, and does a fair job of supporting the graphical content. It is the latter that really shines and carries the game. As most of the gameplay is somewhat standard, having a game that is visually compelling certainly helps, and Ghost in the Shell is exactly that.

The control elements take time to really get used to, but once you do, they seem to make sense and actually seem rather simple.

Ghost in the Shell teases with a plot that is over-involved. At its core, it is a shooter, with some wonderful special effects tossed into the mix. Evasion, and slow-motion martial arts certainly add to the look and the hacking identification adds the futuristic element. But while this game doesn’t really tread new ground in the genre, Ghost in the Shell – Stand Alone Complex is action packed and a real visual treat. This is one to keep an eye on.