Publisher: Nintendo
Ages: ten and up.
Parental
Advisory:
Violence
An engaging action experience for mature players, Nintendo's Geist delivers a refreshing twist. It's an innovative first-person shooter that offers an intriguing out-of-body experience.
In the game, players become John Raimi, a disease-control agent who is sent to investigate the shadowy Volks Corporation. When the operation goes wrong, Raimi is captured and subjected to an experiment that effectively rips his spirit from his physical body. Players, as Raimi, now roam the halls of the compound as spectral phantoms and use their powers to scare and possess any human or animal that crosses their path.
As a ghost, players are searching for their physical bodies, which are mysteriously being kept alive somewhere in the complex. As they explore, players have to collect the energies of indigenous spirits to accumulate power and eventually unravel the mystery, possessing more than a dozen character types and use weapons, equipment, skills, and even memories, to solve puzzles and complete objectives.
Possessing different characters allows players to view the world in different ways and even slip through cracks, infiltrate areas, move objects and more. Characters in the game range from soldiers with guns to dog- and mouse-like creatures that perform specific tasks. Players even have to posses everyday objects such as lights, fire extinguishers and computers to terrify humans and animals.
Multiplayer modes offer fun death matches that make use of the game's ghost and object mechanics. The game is violent and not appropriate for kids. But while it lasts, the game offers an intriguing ghostly twist that is compelling to play.
8/23/05 www.daytrum.com Editorial Staff
