Ghost
Master, on
my radar since before its original Halloween
2002 release date, has unfortunately become a
classic
example of the good idea poorly implemented.
The first rule of game design should be do
no harm.
In this case, the developers have taken a great
idea and handicapped it with a clunky interface,
ambiguous
objectives, and contrived puzzles.
The isometric (yet fully
3D) perspective demands a less laborious camera than
what is available here. You'll find yourself constantly
zooming,
panning, tilting and rotating as you try to get an
angle on the action, but no matter how hard you try, the
view
is never quite right. When important events occur your
perspective is taken to the scene, but if you're not
perfectly still the view will be suspended. Touch any control
a moment
after the perspective changes - as you are likely to
do since there's no warning - and you've missed the show.
Worse yet, if multiple events happen simultaneously,
their
presentations don't queue. Instead, the original event
is pre-empted by the subsequent event. Oh well, lost
again.
There is an auto-camera view
that holds to the character you choose, and you can even
view the game world through the eyes of your victims (great
idea), but you cannot issue commands while using these
modes, making them essentially useless. Constant clipping
problems result in mortals passing through walls (and each
other) as often as the ghosts, and each level's beginning
fly-by is plagued by frequent stuttering - especially curious
since both the polygon count and texture detail are rather
low.
All of these annoyances are
secondary to the primary complaint you'll have while
playing this game, which is, essentially, "How do
I play this game?" Level objectives are presented
as cryptic riddles, the solutions to which often rely upon
contrived consequences
of your ghosts' powers. The result is more an exercise
in jumping through the right hoops than logically evaluating
your options. Fail and you'll have to start over at
the level's beginning because there is no save-anywhere
- not
unusual for a strategy game but still a major drain
on the fun factor.
The game's music and sound
top the short list of things done right. The music
is very well orchestrated and does a good job of both setting
the
horror theme and building a sense of drama as the scenarios
unfold. EAX positional audio works well and the voice
acting is entertaining. The retail version has no hint
of the
audio stuttering I experienced in the demo.
Without
doubt the camp-laden horror settings are a unique
joy. Nevertheless, much like another horror-themed
game - Clive Barker's Undying (in its case ruined
by frequent and time-consuming level loads) - Ghost
Master is
frightening for all the wrong reasons. Let's hope
there's a sequel capable of fulfilling the promise of
such
a great idea. -
Last Update 11/02/03
