Geist

Geist Preview

In Geist, you're a civilian scientist named Raimi who's escorted by a heavily armed assault squad to the Volks research facility, in which some strange and apparently illegal experiments are going down. There's been a mole working at Volks for a while, so Raimi's mission is expected to be pretty routine. The squad gets in, the experimental data sample is retrieved, and the squad gets out. The situation escalates early on, though, as Volks' security forces retaliate. As Raimi, you're forced to fight for your life with a pistol in hand. It's here that Geist seems like a basic first-person shooter. You've got friendly and enemy forces fighting each other and you're caught in the middle, blasting foes in their heads and picking up conveniently placed health packs to keep yourself from dying. The action has a pretty standard feel to it, and though the enemies show some signs of intelligence, they're mostly just fodder. So, despite being armed with just a pistol, it shouldn't be much trouble to fight your way out of the frying pan...

Out of the frying pan and into the fire. In short, things go really wrong. You encounter the first of what's likely to be more scientific experiments gone awry, and it makes short work of one of your squaddies. Fortunately, it turns out to look a lot tougher than it actually is, so with some well-placed shots straight down its gullet, you can kill it and move on. Of course, Raimi's journey is only just beginning at this point. The extraction attempt fails and Raimi's captured. In turn, he becomes the next subject of Volks' bizarre experiments.

The adventure and puzzle-solving elements of Geist's gameplay soon become apparent. Since you can't do things like open doors or ride elevators while in ghost form, you need to make your possessed hosts do it for you. The thing is, you can't just possess anyone you please--you must first break down their mental barriers by scaring them a little. Objects in the environment can be possessed and rattled around, causing nearby foes to freak out. It usually takes a one-two punch to make people frightened enough so that you can possess them, though, so you'll need to be observant and maybe a little creative to get what you need. Early on in the game, these puzzles involving the possession of different objects and characters are quite interesting, but also rather linear. You discover all the stuff in the area that can be possessed and go through the motions in the relatively logical order. This gameplay model is definitely unique (what other game lets you possess some dog food to freak out a pit bull?), but we want to know if it's going to get any more complex or thought-provoking than what we've played thus far.

There gets to be a lot more shooting fairly early on. You're able to possess an assault rifle-wielding guard and have at it, taking vengeance on those who took your body from you. Alternatively, you can try to remain inconspicuous and enjoy one-sided conversations with the other denizens of the base, who seem decidedly freaked out by the threat of a ghost in their vicinity. It's only a matter of time before the bullets start flying, though, as security checkpoints are in place that won't let you proceed without a fight. A second boss fight has you battling against a foe with a powerful energy weapon, a riot shield, and grenades. He's nearly impervious to damage, but it's possible to use your ghostly powers to make this hotshot soldier's weapons work against him. We also discovered one of many hidden unlockables in this second boss' chamber, so it seems like Geist will be filled with spaces that reward cautious exploration.

We've enjoyed the time we've spent with Geist thus far, but some important questions will only be answered when we play through the full game for review: Namely, how long is this adventure, and how much more challenging does it get? And is the multiplayer any good? Geist has an unusual premise and a lot of promising qualities. We'll soon know how it all wraps up.