In addition to the PS2 game that was released last year a new Ghost in the Shell a PSP version of the game has been produced by Sony Computer Entertainment. They have also put the animé movie onto a UMD Video disc. Mamoru Oshi’s epic anime film is based on Shirow  Masamune’s classic manga series. It is about futuristic cops in a time when humanity is becoming increasingly cybernetic.

First Impressions:

Major Kusanagi and Section 9 officer Bateau are sent on a mission to stop the illegal arms trade of a terrorist conspiracy. Ghost in the Shell takes place in the year 2029 in Japan. By that time and the idea of a soul has changed with the advancement of cyborg technology. Humans can have their bodies replaced with new parts. The unfortunate ones have been hacked and are controlled by criminal over lords who have hijacked their brains. It gives a whole new meaning to trojan horses. The puppet masters can be other humans or even sentient AI that have expanded their control through the Net.

Ghost in the Shell explores metaphysical questions about the nature of consciousness and sentience of artificial intelligence. The movies and to a lesser extent the TV series are known for existential dialog and gravity defying martial arts moves. The lead character who you play as is called “The Major”. She is a nearly invincible and astonishingly flexible cyborg. Her selfhood or soul is the “ghost” inside the metal “shell” of a body that she wears.

The viewer goes on a journey with her as her soul or essence cheats death time and again throughout the series and the game. In Zen like fashion the viewer is lead along on a cosmic exploration that is thought provoking. While at the same time it is a superior action adventure and even eye candy.

Graphics:
The graphics are very good. The game does a fine job of transferring the animé to 3D. The landscapes have good water and light effects.  The background colors have the same sort of polarized chrome and blue look that the animé does. The environments are fairly well detailed but they are rarely interactive. Switches and computer screens are animated with quick cut scenes. So it looses some of the hands on feel that would make it more immersive. Over all it does look great and I thought that it represented the art-style that I was used to in Ghost in the Shell that I had seen before and liked.

Sound/Music:
The woman that does the voice for The Major has one of the richest quality sounding voices in animé. She and the other cast members from the series delightfully voice over the game. The weapons make realistic sounding noises and the clanging of empty shells falling onto metal crates or concrete floors are a good touch. The effects themselves are nothing special. The musical chorus from the show “Areia Gloris” is just amazing. It’s fast techno percussion is contrasted sharply by the angelic choral singing of a haunting soprano. Unfortunately the song entitled titled: Inner Universe performed by: Origa  doesn’t seem to be in the game. The tracks in the game do loop rather monotonously. It is possible that a better job could have been done with adding more of the great cuts from the show.

Game-play:
As much of a fan of this show as I am it was hard to justify it as a buy. Fans of the Movies will notice that there is less philosophical content in the game. The movies both focus on the brain / mind of humans and machines. Major Motoko Kusanagi and Bateau. Both of them work for Section 9, a secret intelligence agency. There are 12 levels in the game, and there are 15 different kinds of weapons, including sniper rifles, sub-machine guns and missile launchers. The shooting is fun and varied. But the targeting is extremely hard.

The game control is tricky. It was difficult and linear in the bad way like tomb Raider can be. It was exasperating. When game-play is hard it can get disappointing. Hard and challenging are different things. When there is only one way to go, for instance over an impossible series of jumps on top of this one crane like device. There wasn’t enough room to stand up and then make the double jump across to the next set of crates. You could not save between jumps incrementally. If you didn’t time it just right you would have to repeat the whole thing over again. It is just pointless repetition. That doesn’t make the game last longer in the good way either.

The analog sticks and the shoulder buttons control movement and targeting. It is very irritating. There is no auto targeting either.  It should at least be optional. The left and right sticks are for movement and the camera. The L1 button is for the primary weapon and L2 is for the secondary weapon such as knives and grenades. R1 and R2 are for holding on to a ledge and jumping. The right hand buttons are for reloading, activating terminals, and swapping weapons.

There is a constant need for running and moving the camera and shooting all at the same time.  Once again like Tomb Raider there are plenty of narrow ledges to hang from, big implausible jumps to make, and aerial acrobatics required. It is frustrating where in some areas a triple combo of jumps and wall jumps is needed to get to a new ledge. This unwieldiness detracts from the game where the strength should be in the combat.

This game  doesn’t really give the experience of being in an episode of Stand Alone Complex. The Major should be easier to control or more fluid. Her character in the series is known for her acrobatics so the game should have had a better engine like Drakan did. Using a FPS style engine for this game was a mistake. Shooting is important but not everything. I would like the R1 button for targeting and X for the trigger. Leaving the right analog stick for camera movement. There should have been ample control of her movement and targeting for it to be a convincing Major.

The strategy is very linear and straightforward. The Major has the ability to hack into the human guards. She takes out the commanders and steals the ID code from them. Then the rest of the men in the squads are tagged with yellow triangles which reveal if the area is filled with enemies.

Enjoyment:
This game would be so much more enjoyable if the controls matched the rest of the game. It followed the art-style and characters from the series very well. I enjoyed hearing the familiar voices of the english version voice actors. The Major’s famous combo moves and martial arts are all there but are next to impossible to evoke from the controller onto the screen when you need them to. It is hard to enjoy a game when you aren’t getting to see any of it after unfulfilling sessions of fruitless jumping up and down. Then, there are no cheat codes available. No incremental saves and no cheats make a game impossible to love.

Multiplayer:
As an extra bonus there is a multiplayer mode. Two to four people can do a death match or teams. The levels with two players is well-done. Death-match and co-op multiplayer modes allow up to 4 players to play in split-screen on 7 separate maps.

Closing Comments:
Completing the story mode will unlock a host of hidden features, and 10 levels of difficulty. It is a long game because of it is so hard. It should have good re-playability as ‘the one that you bring out when you have played through everything else because it’s the one that you can never finish’.

Marketing Efforts Towards Women:
It may be unintentional but Ghost in the Shell : Stand Alone Complex does well to support marketing efforts towards women. The Major is a very strong female leading character. She gives orders to men that are her subordinates. She is the favorite of her boss at section 9. In one episode she intuitively protects him. Meanwhile he attempts to second guess her moves for his rescue. It demonstrates a symbiotic working relationship. She has good relationships with the other guys that she works with too. They have no problem taking her directions. She is a heroic figure that repeatedly saves the lives of her teammates, hostages and children.  Her body is nearly indestructible and she never hesitates to put herself in harms way and get it blown up almost to its bytes, to selflessly save others.

The graphics were good the voce work was excellent. The game’s story is fine. It suffers in a ot of ways so I can’t give it as high of a score as I would have liked to. I give Ghost in the Shell : Stand Alone Complex a 7 out of 10.