Ghost in the shell: Stand Alone Complex review:3 stars (More Than I Expected) - This is yet another recent licensed game that makes proper use of the source material. Any fan of the series should give it a look. Like the series, this game is not for kids, though I fail to see what really warrants the Mature rating. Now, I haven't been all the way through the game, but what I've experienced thus far is a little bit of blood splatter from bullet wounds. Unlike what I would expect from an M rated game, there are no over-the-top spigots of blood, no gore. Also, the blood fades quickly, and the bodies disappear soon after being shot as well. While the game makes no apology for killing, neither does it revel in the act. Besides, much of the enemy is robots and prosthetic bodies (read: full conversion Cyborgs).

That said, the level design is not very expansive, with only the occaisonal branch, and very few if any alternate routes through a level. The designers somehow manage to camouflage this, and end up with some rather cohesive and fun environments, though. I suppose it's because the fun here isn't from exploration. The fun of the environment is the beautifully rendered futuristic world true to the anime. I love the glows on the monitors, and in general the lighting in this game, while nowhere near as pivotal or complex as in Splinter Cell, is dramatic nonetheless. Outdoor environments draw the player out from the dark interiors into near-blinding light and alabaster concrete. It's really a stunning game to look at.

While we're on visuals, the animation in game is quite extraordinary as well. No "Enter the Matrix"--style climbing here (wow, that was one of the most hilariously bad animation jobs I've seen in recent gaming), only fluid running, flipping, jumping, and rolling. Quite a joy to watch Batou or the Major deftly dodge incoming fire and strike with several swift martial-arts blows. My favorite powerup is the Stun Equipment, which allows Motoko to deliver a jolt with each successive melee hit. The bright flash and the incredible power-house punches are really rockin'.

What truly makes this game good is its expert placement of save points. These are all automatic, so there is no break in immersion, and they never leave you too far behind the point where you bit the big one. The load times also make up for a few spots of tedious difficulty that otherwise would be game-breaking. Because of the forgiving re-try rate, I can excuse the clunky wall jump controls and slightly unpredictable behavior in that regard.

The difficulty in the Normal game ramped up about as fast as I expected, and made no allowance for the inexperienced gamer. I suppose for you GITS-first fans, Easy would be perfect, but I expect once I beat the game, I will replay it on Hard mode.

Despite the lack of variation, which is compensated only by the change in player character every few levels, I think that this game could have some great replay value. The fast-paced action never really bogs the player down into having to wait for the game (think Splinter Cell, for a game that really bores me on subsequent playthroughs; I just end up waiting around to get to the good parts, and the tedious parts require the most waiting and precise timing). The whole game really rewards players for doing things at their own pace.

So, for a game that I expected to feel slow and clunky, I was surprised by a smooth, fluid game experience whose visuals and game mechanics are unexpectedly good. This is a game for gamers, and a game for GITS fans, though I would hesitate to reccomend it to just anyone. I based this review on two days of play, from a rental copy, though with a $20 price tag, I think it belongs in a permanent place in my collection.4 stars (About time.) - Waiting for a title like this since 1996 can create unreasonably high hopes. Fortunately for the U.S. gaming market, the second Ghost in the Shell franchise game allows players to control more than just the multi-legged sentient tanks known as Fuchikoma (or Tachikoma).

If that mouthful of words was too much for you, chances are you aren't a follower of Shirow Masamune's work. The lengthy dialogue and references to the Standalone Complex series can easily turn off casual buyers. That being said, the game is essentially a third person shooter, with gamepad controls similar to titles such as Halo or Medal of Honor.

The engine is superb. Collision detection is perfect, character animations successfully imitate real-world physics, textures are used in a way that they do not repeat often, and load times are minimal, often 3-10 seconds. This helped as the jumping levels caused me to plummet to my death repeatedly. I'm not a fan of tomb-raider style games.

Gameplay mechanics aside, (as I'm sure that every other review will attempt to cover them,) I found the game to be quite a relief. Most other playstation 2 titles I own are intolerably choppy and hard to control, with framerate problems. Not so with Standalone Complex--Sony had a hand in it's creation, and the game engine plays fluidly at all times, with some of the best lighting and particle effects I've seen in a PS2 title.

That being said, it's no Doom 3.

The game plays like a run and gun shooter on the easiest difficulty, and on the hardest, a stealth shooter. Accurate aiming skills are necessary as there is no 'auto-aim' as found in Halo. And while I'm referencing Bungie products, unlike Oni, Standalone complex's hand to hand combat is surprisingly easy to use. On one hand, it is quite minimal, but this simplicity keeps the game moving at a brisk pace, instead of forcing the user to continually reload.

The downsides to the game are probably enough to keep gamers unfamiliar with the analog joysticks of Dual Shock controllers frustrated to the point of wrecking their PS2. There are a number of jumping puzzles with the Kusanagi Motoko character, and ghost hacking enemy soldiers in later levels is just as difficult. The other 95% of the game, though, is pure action.

As an aside, I found that the developers took a few liberties such as the character's uniforms and referring to S9 as "the Ghost In The Shell" or "Shell Squad" -- a glaring error. in this futuristic world, people can undergo full cyborg conversion, including their vital organs such as their brain and spinal cord. "Ghost" refers to a human's digitized brain pattern, and "Shell" to the cyborg body. Nowhere in any of the literature, movies, or television shows is section nine referred to as "Ghost in the Shell."4 stars (A worthwhile game if you're a fan of the anime) - I don't get around to playing too many games, but I'm a big fan of the GITS movies, TV series, and (lest we forget what came first) the manga by Shirow Masamune. The premise of the game was intriguing enugh for me to pick it up, and I was not disappointed except for a few aspects of the game but I'll get to that momentarily.

In the game you switch playing the roles of Major Kusanagi and Bateau trying to piece clues together as to who's using mind-controlling micro-machines to stage a government coup. I won't ruin the plot for potential players, but I will say that, as is the usual with the GITS series and movies, it takes us through the same territory of man versus machine dominance and the different levels of conscienceness, etc. I applaud the game for this single nuance because it's not your usual overly-simplified Good vs. Evil plot.

There are a total of nine missions to be completed in order to finish the game, split into different stages accordingly, and about 2/3 of the game is played as Kusanagi, the rest is played as Bateau (though there is one stage where you get to pilot a tachikoma, an enjoyably mindless fun break from the rest of the game). As you will discover, the Major is lighter and more flexible than Bateau, so she spends more time jumping from rooftop to rooftop. Bateau, who is noticeably heavier, spends more time running and gunning, but he makes up for his immobility by getting the bigger guns to achieve his goals.

For more avid gamers than I, especially those who are in tune with the later Tomb Raider games and Prince of Persia games, gameplay here is probably nothing to write home about, which is where I feel the game falls short, literally. If I hadn't died a few times trying to figure out, "How do I get from here to there," without getting shot by a sniper or just generally falling from certain heights, the shortness of the game probably would have been more noticeable. A skilled player could probably finish this game in a few hours. It's a fun few hours, granted, but I don't know how much replay value this game has beyond the multi-player death-match portion that I have yet to have tried.

All in all, I recommend this game to the fans of the GITS series completionists who want a more in depth look into the universe. For the otherwise average gamer, this is probably a rental.
Ghost in the shell: Stand Alone Complex Features:
PS2 (PSX2)
Sony Playstation (Play station) 2
Playstation2 (Play station2)
Action
Adventure
Gamecube (Game Cube, Game-cube)
Video Games
The machine world is at your disposal here -- jack into security cameras to see enemy positions, control tiny robots to reach areas you can't enter and much more
Pay attention to your teammates transmissions -- they include valuable help and advance the web of deceit you'll be facing
Control huge cyborg Batou and the naive, hyper Tachikoma insect-tank robots in glorious side missions
Use the Major's incredible fighting skills and firepower against deadly cyborgs - multiple high-tech firearms, graceful fighting moves, wall-jumping techniques and even thermal camouflage
Navigate through maze-like levels as you collect enemy ID codes and complete mission objectives

Ghost in the shell- Stand Alone Complex is the CD-ROM version. The full version can be purchased by clicking on the "CLICK HERE TO ORDER" button below for around 18.95USD.