Ghost Rider

"Vengance Flows Through My Body!!!"

Being a HUGE Marvel fan, and always keeping up to date with what games were upcoming, I was extremely excited to hear that Ghost Rider was finally getting his dues in gaming. Not only one of my favourite Marvel characters (I will try to withold biases :P), but also extremely cool in his own right (come on the guy has a flaming skull for a head!), you just know its going to be a good game. And it didn't dissapoint. Although a few minor flaws, overall this game is kick ass. Anyway into the review!

Story: 10/10

The story is an original one written up by Marvel's own team of writers, Garth Ennis (of Punisher and Preacher fame) and Jimmy Palmiotti (of Punisher and Daredevil fame). This of course means it is going to be one hell of a story. Finishing where the movie left off, Johnny Blaze wakes up in hell as Ghost Rider. Without killing to much of the storyline, basically Ghost Rider is sent on a mission by Mephisto to save the earth from Armageddon. Along the way Ghost Rider will find out that there's more to what's going on than Mephisto lets on, encounter some classic bosses, and with a slick twist at the end, keep you enthralled through out. All in all a very gripping and engrossing story

Gameplay: 9/10

Ahh the bulk of any game. Doing some searches through the Internet and various gameboards, it seems that most gamers have come to the consensus that the gameplay is similiar to a cross between God of War and Devil May Cry. While it is similiar in some elements, it is still quite a lot different to both as well. Confused? Let me elaborate. Basically this game is split up into two different parts. And before you ask, no you do not get to play as Johnny Blaze, the entire game you stay as Ghost Rider. As mentioned, there are two parts to the game. The first is on foot, and is where you will do all your fighting. The second is when you get to ride the mighty Hell Cycle! I'll explain each part

On foot:

While on foot, yes it does play similiar to God of War. Ghost Rider has two attacks, heavy and light. His light attacks make use of his chain, his heavy attacks tend to use his fists. Combine the two and you get some killer combo's going. Some of these do look similiar to Kratos's chain combos, but they are still completely separate in their actual delivery. Ghost Rider also has five other wicked additions which we will get to in a bit. Now as Ghost Rider you go around fighting the various demons and creatues that are spawned to try and stop you. As you kill these, through various moves and such, you gain what are known as "demon souls". These souls serve two purposes. One is to fill your Link Charge (get to that soon), and the other is to save the souls as "currency" to buy upgrades in the shop. In the shop you buy new moves, unlock comics, videos, and upgrades. Trust me, buy the moves and upgrades before you buy the extras, you will have enough souls to buy the rest after. Ghost Rider has two bars, a spirit gauge and his health. Health is healed by, not suprisingly, walking near fire. The spirit gauge fills up with every move you unleash on your opponent. Once you have one bar, you can fire off a shot of the hell shotgun. Fill up four and you can go into Vengance mode.

Now into the five cool additions. The first is his "hell shotgun". When you have one bar of your spirit gauge full, you can unleash the hell shotgun, which is not only cool in its delivery, but also satisfying. The second is the addition of what is called a Link Charge. Basically when this little circle is full, you unleash a devastating move that will kill every single enemy around you, bar the big ones (it will weaken them alot though). The third is Vengance mode. Once 4 bars have been filled, hitting L1 will send you into Vengance mode. Once in this mood, not only will you be a lot stronger, it weakens your enemies. While in this mode you can also do the almighty Penance stare, the fourth addition. While in Vengance mode, the circle button appears over each enemies head. Press circle while close to an enemy and Ghost Rider will grab them and deliver his Penance stare. What this does is completely drain your spirit bar. In return you gain a MASSIVE amount of souls, and it kills the enemy instantly. A very, very cool addition.

The final addition is the addition of a combo meter. As you attack the enemies that come at you without getting hit yourself, your combo meter goes up. This goes up through various levels such as Damned, Avenged, Spirited, and the final one, Vengance. As you go up levels of the combo meter, the flame on Ghost Rider's head changes colour, and your moves become more powerful. However be careful, one hit and your back to the beginning of your chain. During this gameplay it is pretty straightforward, kill swarm after swarm of enemies until the door unlocks, go through, fight more, rinse and repeat. The game is separated into chapters, each chapter having a final boss, who is a character from the Ghost Rider comics. You also have to fight mini bosses to unlock different elements, which aid your Hell Bike and unlock areas. Also, similiar to God of War, when you stun enemies, you will do a short execution on them, although not as gory as GOW :P

Now into the Hell Bike! I personally found this a bit more fun than the actual on foot gameplay. While most of the game is built around on foot, it is broken up nicely with the Hell Bike. The Hell Bike levels are simple: race from one end to the other, along the way killing minions, fighting off demonic bikers, and avoiding the pitfalls along the way. How do you fight? Easy. The Hell Bike can shoot out projectiles, which are homing and automatically target enemies. Say a demon biker is annoying you, you can whip your chain left or right to take them out. As you progress, you can upgrade the homing projectiles, and as you get each elemental you get additions to your bike. While the levels are similiar, they are also different. Actually as you play, you will find that the obstacles are harder than the enemies. You will have to navigate leaping gaps, taking corners right, and a very cool move called "powering down", where Ghost Rider slides the bike on its side under low obstacles. I highly doubt you will get through the level without falling off at least once, if you do, kudos to you. Another nice feature is that if you go over a large jump, the camera will pan to a wicked cutscene of the bike in slow mo going over the gap. Very satisfying. Hell Bike levels have no bosses, bar the first chapter, where you face Vengance.

Sound :10/10

The sound quality is perfect, the ambience in certain settings, such as the creak of timber and rush of wind in the ghost town stage, or the carnival lights and sounds are beautiful, really adding to the mood. Ghost Rider's voice sounds truly demonic, and each character has great dialogue. The enemies cackle and roar as you fight each one off, and the climatic music that builds during boss fights really enhances the mood. Superb job all round

Graphics: 10/10

The graphics are beautiful in this game. It's hard not to get distracted while you kill the swarms of demons around you. The backgrounds are richly detailed and everthing from cracks in the ground, to shadows off the walls, to the pulsating blood on the walls of hell are done incredibly well. During cutscenes, instead of the usual cinematic, it is done through comic pages, made to look VERY cool as it relays the story to you. Its very easy to get drawn into the game's plot. The moves Ghost Rider pulls off, the attacks, finishers, everything is done very, very well.

Secrets/Bonuses: 8/10

I was actually very impressed with the secrets in this game. After finishing the game on either easy, medium, or hard (given other names, can't remember off the top of my head :P), you not only unlock cheats to use during gameplay, but you also unlock characters, including Blade, Vengance, and Ghost Rider 2099. Also after you finish the game on this difficulty, you unlock an extreme mode. Finish this and you will get Ghost Rider original. Apart from Blade, the gameplay is the same. As Blade the only difference is that you cannot use fire to heal, you do not have any supernatural powers, only your katana, and to heal you need to suck the blood of demons. It provides a refreshing change and also each character's bike kicks ass. The videos are interesting and informative, if a bit short. The comics are wicked, you actually get to read the bulk of the comic, and it is very interesting some of them. Not a bad repertoire of bonuses

Replayability: 6/10

The only area the game slightly lets you down. The game itself is very easy to complete (I finished it in 3 and a half hours game time, about half a day normal time), but I guess going through as each character makes it a little more fun. Overall I guess it also depends on your mood, if you feel like just releasing some anger, this game is perfect. It is very easy to get lost in and just relax as you kill some demon scum

Rent or Buy?

If you are a comic fan, or even just a fan of this type of gameplay, then buy. If your just a casual gamer then a rent will suffice. However this game is cheaper than most (probably because of length), so if you can buy it, it is a choice you will not regret

Overall rating: 9/10

Nearly a 10, if only the game was a bit longer or had a few more bonuses it would be a 10. However solid effort all round, and for the first Ghost Rider game EVER, a very nice game made. Ghost Rider - Buy it!

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 02/27/07