Ghost Squad

"Sega's New Creation completed 2004, is it more than just a game? Is it a work of fine art?"

It seemed just like another visit to this arcade. However, this green-top machine intrigued me. I saw this player, holding up what looks like a UMP-45. He aimed away at the screen, performing his moves gracefully. The enemies with lit up their E-Markers, and prepared to aim. The player just swept them away with a burst of accurate fire from his XM-2119. At that time, it seemed that having the XM-2119 was like being Mr. Universe. After I purchased the memory card and played the game for a few times, I thought, “What the heck! Having an XM-2119 isn't everything! You can upgrade weapons too!”
Ghost Squad is a work of geniuses, and it seems to be an anachronism when compared to Time Crisis 3 and World Combat. This term “anachronism” is used to describe Ghost Squad as a game developed ahead of time. Sega pieced together all the shooting games into one.

Time Crisis's handgun was used as a modelling example for the handgun upgrades. The shotgun from the House of the Dead 3 has been imported into Ghost Squad as a choice of weapon as some players dislike the submachine gun. Sega held on to its long tradition of shooting games without the pedal, in the belief that the pedal is for cheaters who just like to hide cowardly. Perhaps a shooting game without a pedal tests the actual speed and agility of a player.

There are five types of weapons in Ghost Squad, namely the machine gun, the shotgun, the crossbow, the sniper rifle and the pistol. Each weapon has its own pros and cons, and will influence game play greatly. The only drawback with Ghost Squad is that it has introduced a new brand of gamers called “spammers”, and they are named so as they ignore accuracy and make use of high penetrating weapons to attack enemies even before they appear.
This has led to a certain level of debate on the forums.

All in all, I think this is a great game, but the player must take precautions not to get addicted to it. Its playing costs are somewhat expensive, though. And there are cases of games crashing (it happened to me), but they are very rare (about one in 550000).

The ultimate con of this game is that the missions seem to have no link to each other. In on moment you are infiltrating the Mansion, in the second mission you mysteriously board the hijacked Air Force One and raid it, and finally you find yourself dashing into a jungle! This game would be excellent if the storyline could fit. Nevertheless, this is a great game put together.

9/10.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 09/26/05