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An Interesting Concept

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 13 / 14
Date: October 07, 2005
Author: Amazon User

Geist is not your average game. In fact, it is much more of a first person adventure in the genre of Metroid Prime than a first person shooter. And beyond that, it's more of an extended puzzle than it is an exploration-based game like Metroid.

In it, you play a disembodied spirit. Yes, a ghost, just like the title would make you believe. You're trapped in a government facility, looking for your body and a way out, but to do that, you have to possess various items and people to gain access to further areas of the complex.

It sounds fairly simple. And it is. But the execution is what makes this game unique. In your travels, you'll possess the obvious soldiers and technitions, but you'll also possess strange things such as control panels, rats, or even a bowl of dog food.

You'll jump from host to host, existing in a dream-like, slowed-down world while in your ghost form. Being inside of a host is important, as you lose health the more time you're outside of a body.

The game itself doesn't perhaps look that great, but it reminds me a lot of Eternal Darkness, which while not the best was still a fairly good looking game. What the game does have, however, is good atmosphere and layout, which are much more important things.

It's a strange game, and it's slower than normal first-person games, and I know it won't be very popular, but it's different and innovative and pretty fun. It's worth at least checking out, if not buying outright. It's got a very old-school feel, and I do recommend it.

Puzzle Heavy F.P.S.

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 5 / 6
Date: April 23, 2006
Author: Amazon User

Geist is a first person shooter (FPS), with lots of puzzles for the Nintendo Gamecube. In Geist, you play a government agent named John Raimi. You get captured and subjected to a top secret experiment being perfomed by a terrorist faction. The experiment seperates your spiritual energy from your physical body. You roam around the the levels in a ghost-like form which people cannot see or hear. While in this ghost-like form, you can actually possess people, animals or even objects in a room. By possessing people you can gain access to closed off areas or make them kill one of their own team mates. By possessing animals you can gain their special abilities, for example if you possess a dog, you can run fast, jump and bark. If you possess a mouse you can go into tiny spaces and squeek like a mouse. By possessing objects you can get a unique view of the object and even make it move or explode. Before you possess people or animals you must have them in a state of fear; otherwise possession is not possible. You get people and animals scared by when you possess objects; for example you can make a control panel explode, drop a ladder or make a can of paint burst, it might scare people and then you can possess them. Though this game is a first person shooter, it is too heavy with the puzzle elements. Most of the time you have to figure out how to get into the next locked room, what techniques are better to scare people and which person to scare. If you don't figure these things out, you'll not gain access into the next area/levels.

The game starts you off with an action scene shoot-out as you try to escape the underground laboratory complex. Then they take you into a very good interactive tutorial of how to possess living creatures and objects while in the spiritual state. The graphics are very nice and the animation are average, but I do not see them getting any awards. There are several guns and different weaponry to use in the game, but they all sound cheap and lack that heavy BOOM. The controls are solid and feel just about right though it can be tricky to learn at first. The real problem with, Geist is lack of excitement. A lot of that excitement is killed off by the tough puzzles in the game. You'll do more puzzles than shooting within the game, so keep that in-mind when purchasing. For this same reason I cannot recommend it for younger players as the puzzles will frustrate or even bore them, but at the same time the game has mature themes which adults may like. The game is very linear and allows no room to roam very far. I think the game concept is very good but the execution and presentation within Geist is poor in contrast. There are much better FPS and puzzle games in the market. If you want FPS I recommend the game called, Black. If you want puzzle horror, I recommend the, Resident Evil series.

Geist is a great game

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 3 / 3
Date: August 18, 2005
Author: Amazon User

Geist is a great game when it comes down to story and concept, but has some flaws on the gameplay side. Though the puzzles are fun and challenging, the gunplay is a little off because of the controls. They don't feel quite right for a shooter and aiming is a little slow. That really isn't that big of a problem since the most of the game is more along the lines of puzzle solving, but it's still worth mentioning. Still I'd highly recommend Geist to anyone with a gamecube.

Not the best presentation, still a superb game

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 3 / 3
Date: November 14, 2005
Author: Amazon User

To the reviewer below: what game have you been playing? Sure as hell it wasn't Geist, as the controller complaints you mentioned are plain wrong. I almost didn't buy the game as I expected the sticks to be replaced where you'd have to walk and look around with the opposite controller layout which would suck indeed, but nah, it's the usual layout as found in every other 1st-Person shooter.

About GEIST: it's clear from the beginning that this game looks and feels a bit like a B-Movie. The graphics are very atmospheric but somehow lack a bit in breathtaking details and beauty. And the details are what might turn some people off while others are astonishing. The shooting portions are not that spectacular as enemies mostly react only if they see you, but their field of view seems not to go that far. You can get pretty close to enemies without being spottet, shoot one from this "distance" and the others are not gonna show any reactions at all unless they see you.

But then, this game obviously is not supposed to be another KILLZONE or Halo-clon. You don't exactly should want to play it because of the action. If you're a fan of the pace found in the DEUS EX-games you're in for the show. I love playing Adventures from the first-person-view where you need to talk to people, solve puzzles etc. with some action moments thrown in every now and then. So the pace is pretty relaxing and thrilling unless you decide to run throught the adventure.

Best Puzzle/ Most interesting game ever played

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 3 / 4
Date: September 06, 2005
Author: Amazon User

Very fun game. Travel through the volks laboratory as you seek bodies to posses so you can escape what seems like a never ending stucture. Although game controls are horrible for the fighting missions, it is the most creative game I've seen on the market. Definetly recommend this game to people who have time and the effort in there lives to finish the puzzles.

FIVE STAR *****

Geist is the bloody-exterior-with-a-sensitive-heart kinda game

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 6 / 21
Date: September 15, 2005
Author: Amazon User

This game is awesome!!!! where else can u shoot dogs that aren't even a danger? Where else can you become a rat and crawl up into some chick's cooch? Only in Geist, and only in America!!! God bless this game, and may God strike thee down, John Travolta!!!!

Hauntingly Good

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 2 / 4
Date: August 27, 2005
Author: Amazon User

This is a great game because of many reasons. First, this is a gamecube exclusive. PS2 and Xbox don't get it. Gamecube rarely gets exclusive mature games. Second, the idea is great. Play as a ghost, that sounds cool! You float, possese, and squeeze through small holes in walls. Third, the type is a good one. First person shooter and stealth. The controls are a little slow but that wasn't a big thing. I got past it quickly. This is seriously a great first person shooter, one of the best. I highly recommend this game.

Ethereal Makeover Needed.

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 2 / 4
Date: January 07, 2006
Author: Amazon User

I feel sad for Geist, I really do. It's not that it's a bad game, it's actually pretty good. But it could have been so much MORE. Maybe it needed more time in development, maybe it needed a better team. For whatever reason, Geist's potential is clear to see, and while it remains satisfying, it just doesn't live up to it.

STORY: Not horrible. You're John Raimi, and you're having a really bad day. First you get sent in to rescue a friend from an evil corporation and maybe help save the world from its supposed bioweapon. Things go wrong, and you find yourself strapped to a huge machine that splits your spirit from your body. Apparently making ghosts by driving your victims into a frenzy of hate and killing them has gone out of fashion. Guided by a VERY CREEPY little girl ghost named Gigi, you have to figure out what in the world's going on and maybe, you know, get your body back and escape at some point.
Volks, the evil corporation, is pretty much your stereotypical evil corporation meddling with powers that none of them are smart enough to fully comprehend. If I were running a corporation which dealt with ghosts, even only occasionally, I would arm my guards with spirit-detecting equipment and effective weapons. You know how they detect ghosts at Volks?
With dogs.
Dogs that can be possessed.

GAMEPLAY: All right! Where to start?
Geist kind of feels like a quirky mixture between various FPS's. You've got the dorky scientist protagonist (Half-Life) who's friends with a seemingly unkillable black guy (Halo 2) and sneaks around a giant research facility trying to remain undetected (Metal Gear Solid. Yes, I know that's not an FPS) and fights evil soldiers and demons (Doom.)
Naturally, one of the most outstanding features of the game is the fact that you're a disembodied spirit. This means that you can't directly interact with the physical world most of the time. Most people can't see you (though you appear a rather vivid electric blue to yourself) and you can walk (er, float) right through them. What you can do is possess things. Objects are free for possession, and you can make them do unnatural things. You don't get a lot of choice as to what you make the object do, but it's still fun. My favorite one is messing with the cells under a microscope so they spell out DIE. Freaks scientists out like nothing else. Once you've used these abilities to scare the living daylights out of a creature, you can possess that creature. There's something very entertaining about frightening these poor virtual saps who have no idea what's going on.
Animal hosts can typically go places humans can't, while humans have one weapon (if any) and a special action (like running or crouching) apiece. Some hosts are expendable, you can let them die and move on to another, others must be kept from dying (fortunately, health packs are plentiful.) While each host has only a single weapon (sometimes with a secondary feature,) there's a fair amount of variety among hosts. Some weapons are the best you can find (ratchet gun,) other are ordinary (assault rifle.) More exotic guns do eventually appear: spirit-hunter guns and weapons made from materials most.... unorthodox.
The game has a noteable horror overtone (made ironic by the fact that the most prominent ghost is you, but I mean besides hauntings caused by the player.). The creepy old house you wander through at one point is spooky in a very classical way.
While there is a lot of stuff you can possess, I think the game would have been vastly improved if it gave greater freedom over what is possessable and allowed you to improvise your own ways to scare things.
One point of major lameness: When fighting a boss monster, the life-bar at the top of the screen almost invariably reads "Creature" or "Boss" rather than giving it a name. When you do find out the names of creatures, they're always something trite like "imp" or "hydra," or worst of all "tentacle monster." The names don't even fit the monsters particularly well (Geist's hydras have only one head each.)

VIOLENCE: Mild
While you will end up wiping out a significant percentage of Volks Corps. Employees, the violence in this game is not particularly harsh or graphic (with one exception towards the beginning.) Enemies just die, sometimes with an amusing line like "Aw, crap!" There's a lot of focus on sneaking around and remaining undetected, either as an invisible ghost or making your host body act "natural". You CAN usually wipe out everybody you see, but it's generally not a good idea. It's still not a game I'd give to an eight-year-old.
The "partial nudity" mentioned on the box is deserved; you do sneak into the womens' shower at one point, though towels and convenient bubbles guard the occupants from ethereal voyeurism. Not that the women are especially attractive polygons, see below.

GRAPHICS: Eww! The graphics would have been impressive maybe two or three years ago. It's just sad that they couldn't do better than these flat-faced avatars whose mouths don't move except in cutscenes. The most impressive images in the game are likely the final boss (very pretty) and Raimi himself, who's really very blue for being invisible.

MUSIC: Eh. Whatever.

MULTIPLAYER: Weird. That can be good or bad. They're a bit slower paced than most other FPS multiplayer modes. You've got Host Deathmatch (where you swap bodies instead of getting new guns,) Capture the Host (steal a host and take it to base) and Sprit Hunting (Ghost Vs. Host, the host shoots the ghost with a special and extremely slow gun while the ghost tries to lead the host into a trap.) Some will like it, but I don't think most folks will.

VERDICT: Geist is all right. It could seriously use a makeover, touch up the graphics, better the music, focus the gameplay more on possession and doing strange things with objects (even if they're useless.) If you can find it fairly cheap and are willing to try something new, give it a shot. If you want another cookie-cutter style just-kill-everything shooter, look someplace else.

Wasted Potential (Spoiler Warning)

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 1 / 1
Date: February 12, 2006
Author: Amazon User

There were so many things that could have been done with this game but wasn't. As John Raimi you are part of a team sent in to retrieve Bryson, your friend and undercover operative at the Volks corporation. Unfortunately for you the team gets annihilated, Bryson is captured and you get your spirit seperated from your body. While your spirit is being brain washed to become an operative you are rescued by the spirit of a little girl, Gigi. You now have to rescue Bryson, bring down the Volks corporation, and get your body back.

There is both first person shooter action in this game and puzzle solving. You can possess people, animals, and inanimate objects. The whole possession capability is made into a puzzle solving strategy because in order to possess living things like a man, dog, or even a rat it has to be scared first. So for example, in order to possess the scientist you need to first possess the soda machine, shoot some cans out at him, possess the soda can and make it explode in his face, and then to really scare him make the water in the sink turn into blood. Some of these were funny but some were tedious.

Possession was also helpful in combat. For example, you could possess the explosive crate a enemy just happened to be standing next to and well you know.... Some of the boss fights utilized the possession capability very well making them interesting while others did not.

When you possess someone they each have a special capability. But there was nothing special about most of these capabilities. For example, the special capability for most chracters was that they could sprint. It would have been nice if say the doctor's special capability was that she could heal herself.The first person shooting capabilities were also annoying. Most soldiers can throw grenades but they can't crouch or jump!

There are parts in the game where you are in the brain washing chamber. You are being trained to be an operative who will possess hosts in order to carry out assasinations etc When I was playing the operative training levels I thought to myself "why isn't the whole game like this!"

The game's concept is original for the most part but when the strange creatures came pouring in through the whole to another dimension.....I thought I was playing Half-Life. Actually, the whole possession thing kinda made me think of the mind controlling in Second Sight...which was a rip off of Psi-Ops.....Anyway this game failed to live up to its potential.

Its a $20 game NOT A PENNY MORE, it probably won't take you long to beat it so do not spend alot of money on this game. But when you finish playing story mode you can play multiplayer modes. You unlock arenas for multiplayer by collecting host collectibles during story mode. If you really want to play something excellent then play Psi Ops.

Controller Layout 101

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 2 / 9
Date: October 14, 2005
Author: Amazon User

Ok, my first thought for this review was to write an essay on the history of controller layout. I decided that I spent way too much time on this game already and thought I should just do a quick sum up instead.

I've been a gamer for over 19 years now, and as far back as I can remember, you've always controlled directional movement from the left side of the controller (or at least your left hand), not counting left/right handed joy-sticks. After 19 years of "always" using the left side of the controller to move up, down, left, right, forward, back (whatever the case may be) I was left hopeless with Geist.

I spent a good hour trying to get used to the controlls... which you move forward with the C-Stick. I tried both of the controll layouts provided for 30 minute periods and just couldn't click with either of them. Sure, I love the idea of putting in the option for having movement on the right side of the controller, but at least make it an option, not mandatory. I would have loved to gone further in this game, but was sadly turning off my GCUBE to put in another game instead.

I would have loved to play the game futher, but it was giving me a headache(literally) from how horrid the movement was. Moving forward while trying to look up. Looking up while trying to move forward.

I'm sorry to say that this possible master piece was laid to shame by bad control setup. Another game to fall victim to this.

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