Geist

"Ethereal Adventure (single player review)"

When Nintendo first announced Geist my initial reaction was something along the lines of: "oh great, here we go again, not another run of the mill FPS on a console". Later I heard that the game was heavily based on possession and I was curious about the game. Of course then we all found out it was being developed by the same studio that has cranked out Mary Kate and Ashley, Rugrats, and Duke Nukem games and we all wrote the game off entirely. The early builds looked like an N64 game, the game kept hitting numerous delays, and the future was sure looking grim for Geist. However, I'm happy to report that the final product is surprisingly good.

Story: 8/10
You are John Raimi, a chemical/biological weapons specialist. Your mission is to infiltrate Volks Corporation and retrieve a sample proving the wrong doings of the corporation, and also to extract your friend who's working undercover in the process. Something then goes terribly wrong and your soul is removed from your body and you are left to roam Volks Corporation as a poltergeist in hopes of finding your body. The story is definately dark, and takes quite the demonic twist further into the game. However, it's really not in-your-face disturbing, and I don't even see how Christian gamers could be offended; unless the presence of demon's alone is enough to offend you.

Controls: 7/10
Many people complain that the C-stick is very poor for aiming, but that's why N-Space has allowed you to swap stick functions. Back in the days of Goldeneye we all played FPS's on a console using our left thumb's for analog aiming, and it still works just as good today. There is also an auto-aim feature, and for the most part it works fine; however I do recall one boss fight where it was a hindrance. The controls work flawlessly while you're in geist form, but are only average during the gunplay scenes as they feel a bit clunky at first.

Gameplay: 9/10
It might be better to divide this segment into 2 parts: first person shooter gunplay, and then possession gameplay. The former is more or less average, but the latter is exceptionally good. A very large portion of the game consists of possession where you need to swap hosts or possess items to solve puzzles and further advance. But let's get the bad out of the way before we delve deeper: standard enemy AI is quite mediocre. Later in the game the enemies will start strafing and such to avoid you, but for over the first half of the game standard enemies are complete push overs. However, I feel the possession gameplay is so good, and some of the boss fights are incredible and make up for this. The game is more level based than objective based. At the end of the chapter you can expect a big nasty boss fight to send you off into the next chapter, not just some lame objective that gives you no sense of accomplishment like a lot first person shooters. As far as boss fights are concerned, they are pretty decent for most of the game, with the last few being absolutely outstanding.

Sound: 9/10
As far as music, what's here is good, I just wish there were more of it. The music does a good job to fit the mood of what events are transpiring at the time, and/or fit the mood of the environment. The sound effects are all well placed. Every weapon sounded like I would imagine it to, and I can't recall hearing anything that sounded out of place, or bad. The voice acting is pretty good, and there are very few lines where you'll think it's bad. However, when talking to NPC's the small lines they will say will get old really fast. They will usually have a whole line of text that is accompanied by a: "Sir!", or something to that effect. Overall the voice acting is definately above average for a video game though.

Graphics: 9/10
Geist feature's some decent graphics. Don't believe what's being said, the framerate in Geist is completely tolerable. Geist's framerate absolutely smokes Goldeneye and Perfect Dark's. I did not experience even a single spot in the game where the framerate hindered my gameplay(like I did on both of those aforementioned games). Geist features sharper textures than most ames, and it really does look very beautiful in some areas of the game. From the open heli-pad stage, to the final stage and final string of boss fights; Geist has some moments that graphically rival some of the best looking games this eneration. Yes, the texture's are sharper than Resident Evil 4's, and yes, I played Resident Evil 4 after trudging through the final area and boss fights of Geist, and they looked comparable. However, Geist is pretty varied on graphics, and there are quite a few areas that look very bland/uninteresting with some rooms having very low polygon counts, and this is how Geist has gotten a reputation for bad graphics. So in essence, when it's at it's best, Geist rivals even Resident Evil 4 in graphics, but when it's at it's worst it's almost Dreamcast level. There are also some nice fogging effects in some portions of the game, and while there is some good looking shading, it seems most of the environmental shadows are static(but then again, there aren't really any moving light sources, so dynamic shadows aren't in the game).

Fun Factor: 10/10
There's just something cool about having to possess a dog, and then bark to scare a bunch of rats, and then possess the rat to crawl through a hole to get past a bunch of guards. The puzzles were entertaining, and the possession gameplay really worked out well. A few of the boss fights were also quite outstanding. I loved it all.

Overall: 9/10
Let's delve into some negative aspects..... I've heard of some people running into glitches in the game that forced them to restart a level, but I have not personally experienced any. I was briefly stuck in the floor in one part though where there was a raised platform and after shooting toward it with a missile that I had possessed, after the explosion my geist form was released into the center of the platform. After about 30 seconds of jolting the controls I was released though. And now your thinking..... "Darren, now why on earth are you giving this portion a 9/10 if all you're doing is making negative comments?" Well peeps, the pacing of the game, mixed with the story, and the final string of boss fights puts the wraps on this game in such a way that left me so impressed that I can't help but rave about Geist. I personally believe it's technical flaws to be rather minimal, and N-Space and Nintendo really pulled off creating a fresh experience in what I ultimately consider to be more of a first person adventure game. Simply put: The heart and soul of Geist is in the possession gameplay.

Story................8/10
Controls...........7/10
Gameplay........9/10
Sound..............9/10
Graphics..........9/10
Fun Factor.....10/10
Overall............ 9/10

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 08/23/05