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> Results: Ghost In The Shell: Standalone Complex
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Ghost in the Shell is a popular anime series, and the latest edition Stand Alone Complex has spawned games for the PS2 and PSP. Unfortunately, the PSP game is so full of annoyances and devoid of entertainment that it is difficult to recommend it even a fan of the anime.
Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex is another attempt to make a good first-person shooter for the PSP, and it fails in the same way every other attempt has failedﾗlousy controls. There are eight possible control setups available, so every player should be able to find one that works reasonably well for themﾗat least for some tasks. Because in order to move, look, aim and shoot you need to use all accessible controls and to do anything else, such as reloading or crouching or switching weapons, means to stop doing something. None of the control schemes gets around the basic fact that in frenetic action sequences it is extremely difficult to gain precise control of your character. Also, the game's auto-aim is erratic and generally requires you to get well within enemy firing range to lock-on. Even when you do lock onto an enemy, it is hard to tell whether you are hitting effectively until they die, so you can't develop effective weapons or attack strategies and are often left pumping bullets through the air hoping to kill enemies before you die.  The core of the game is a short and generic first-person shooter in which the player chooses one of four main characters and completes missions along with a perky and well-armed robotic companion called a tachikoma. There are a set of options to control the behavior of your tachikoma, and you can change the weapons allocation for yourself and tachikoma at the start of each mission. Each mission consists of linear running around completing a preset goal, either based on meeting a time requirement or killing everything in sight so that the next door opens. Repeat this until you get a new cutscene, and then it's on to the next one. You can replay any completed mission using different characters, and there is also an ad-hoc (local wireless) multiplayer mode. Unfortunately, neither is worth spending much time exploring. Replaying missions is tedious because other than occasional comments, the characters all play pretty much the same. Multiplayer is difficult to get excited about because the maps are dull and the control difficulty constantly gets in the way. PSP owners looking for quality first-person shooter multiplayer action should check out SOCOM U.S. Navy SEALs Fireteam Bravo instead.  The controls are not the only problem. In fact, there are things at the very core of the game design that make it frustrating to play. If you want to start a mission again, you select ﾑRestart' and if you want to restart with different characters or weapons you choose ﾑRetire', which brings you to the mission select screen. Nonsensically, if you want to change controls you need to go back to the main menu, which you can only do by quitting the game completely and restarting. While the load times are not terribly long, the game loads often, and the aggregate effect is that you feel like you're constantly watching a load screen. There is little difference in waiting through a long load screen to watch a full cutscene when compared to watching three sections of the cutscene intermixed with three load screens. The combination of bad design choices and uninspired gameplay on top of a shallow anime story that fails to captivate the player results in a mediocre experience that is over quickly and not too painful. If you buy this game, you'll be thankful for that. Butﾗunlike a filling at the dentist or an injection at the doctorﾗthere is no upside to playing this game. 
This game is based on anime aimed at a teen audience, and is a pretty generic first-person shooter that is solidly T-rated. There is very little that would challenge a teen in terms of the gameplay or story content. There also aren't any themes hidden within the game that would be questionable. It's a straightforward shallow government conspiracy story wrapped up in a generic and shallow shooter.
This review edited by Dave Long Comments? Chat about it in our forums! Format For Printing | Tell A Friend | Digg | Slashdot | del.icio.us | Buy This Game Browse Amazon.com's selection of "ghost in the shell" themed games Home > Review Archive > Video Games > Results: Ghost In The Shell: Standalone Complex |
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