4 January 2007, 2:03 PM
I've finished Stand Alone Complex for PS2 and I was so impressed that I wrote a review about it. Read away or don't, put this review on the main site if you like it, I just wanted to get the word out. Enjoy!
Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex
Platform: PlayStation 2
Year: 2004
Back when I was watching Stand Alone Complex fansubbed straight from Japan, I heard that the series would be turned into an action game that unfortunately only released for the PS2. Me not being a console gamer, I was still curious about it since GITS and especially SAC is one of my favourites, and I was quite hyped after seeing the first game trailer. "I want to play this no matter what" was my initial thought although I didn't even have a PS2, nor could I read Japanese. I actually found the game on an Internet filesharing service and I could have used my best friend's console to play it on; however this failed because installing a modchip for this one game proved to be too great a risk. So I kind of forgot the game for a while and with SAC through and away, I thought it would be best to wait for an international version of the game at the least.
Fast forward to Christmas 2006 which I get my girlfriend a PS2 for, one of the "final big sale" Slimline models for laughable prices, as the PS3 is around the corner. Along with it I get her a few good games and of course I remember the SAC game, find out it has been localized, and get a copy off eBay which is in mint condition. Me still not being a console gamer, I wonder how I'm going to handle a shooter with analog thumbstick controls. Since my girlfriend presents me with the SAC "Complete 1st GIG Boxset" imported from the UK, I start rewatching the series, for the first time on DVD and trying out the English dub, and find this is the perfect time to pop the game into the PS2. So even though it might have taken me a while to get my hands on this game, the surprise is all the greater when I find that all the "average" to "bad" review scores I've seen don't exactly match with me.
Launching
After entering the menu, the first thing into my head is "looks cool". I set up some options and choose the training, which has me control Motoko from a third-person view in bland rooms to learn all the things she can do, how to run, jump and climb, shoot, evade attacks and so on. The training shows off her beautiful, and I mean really appealing, body animation and impresses me with lots of stuff the character can do while keeping the controls simple and never forcing you to leave the joysticks. Most impressive are the tall attack evasion jumps and the wall jumping, which puts a kind of GITS trademark into the game.
After the training is done, I start a new game on medium skill level and the story begins. A computer animated cutscene is played back and shows Section 9's tiltrotor arriving at Newport Pier 3 from the water. The team members have a short conversation and we see Batou and Motoko modelled and animated in CG, featuring not a very anime-styled but convincing look. When I saw Motoko in the game trailers years ago, I was a little disturbed by how "real" she looked without any facial features that are typical for anime, but you get used to it when playing the game, and the character's face is still recognizable especially by the animation. Batou doesn't look all that different from the anime since he has no visible eyes to begin with, and he's not much more than a big tough guy, now is he? ;-)
Story
The cutscene and the first minutes of the game explain that a weapons deal is going down at the pier, and this deal is conducted by a wanted man if I remember correctly, with cargo containers and snipers atop giving this deal a suspicious look. A few events later the actual plot starts and leads the characters into a place called the Tohoku Autonomous Region, a military installation which looks like an abandoned city. It becomes the central focus of the plot and the game since you'll be spending most of the time there, from the top to the bottom. It makes for some interesting architecture and captures the spirit of a GITS-typical location very well. As the story unfolds in some more cutscenes and lots of cyberbrain dialogue between the team members, it becomes increasingly mixed up with names that are a bit hard to keep track of, although it remains clear that what happens could qualify as good material for an SAC episode or even a movie. Fortunately there are communication logs stored for every level that you play, so you can re-read any conversations you didn't catch the first time.
Gameplay
Now this is the part that many reviews didn't like and I don't understand why. I didn't have the highest expectations when I started the game, but I was impressed to say the least. While running around containers and jumping on them with Motoko was a tough job for a newbie consoler like me, I got the hang of the movement controls after a while, only aiming at enemies remained difficult. To me it's a little awkward to push a joystick in one direction and wait for the character to turn to the right point, often turning too far and requiring fine adjustment to aim at targets, especially vertically. Mouse control on a computer lets me move my hand as far as I need my character to turn, so I have a fixed point to move to just like I know where to turn my head in reality. Plus, stick control means slower aiming no matter how good you are at it; mouse aiming is simply faster. When I finally developed a slight skill of stick aiming - which often meant positioning the recticle vertically, then strafing left and right to aim horizontally at all enemies on the same floor - the controls got pretty fluent and I also started evading attacks with Motoko's cool moves as well as going for hand-to-hand combat, which is pretty cool. It might be a one-button-mashing thing, but the timing, a little randomness and even combinations of joystick movement and button pushing result in different moves and hand or foot attacks. You will know for sure that your enemy is defeated when you see a short slow-motion sequence showing your character giving a deadly blow to the poor chump. Kicks can also be supercharged with a stun add-on that must be found first and unloads an instant electrical blast upon contact with the enemy.
A great thing about this game is that almost every feature that has been implemented will work more or less effectively, so you will make use of all the game has to offer. While weapons are the focus in later levels because of the number of enemies and their greater strength, the hand-to-hand combat is vital whenever you run out of ammo or you're standing close to an enemy. Grenades which can easily be thrown at a specific target do some serious destruction, useful against groups of soldiers or guard robots, and all of the available evasion and jumping moves can and will be utilized to keep out of danger. In fact, Motoko is forced to use her wall jump skills in most of her levels since they sometimes require you to reach inaccessible points on top of you. These jumping "puzzles" must have freaked some reviewers out since all I read about them was critique, and it sounded like the game was riddled with them. After beating the game tonight and seeing all the levels, I can assure you that this is not the case and all of the jumps you'll need to do can be done. Two or three of them do require multiple attempts but are never fatal if they go wrong, and in fact it's a good feeling when you've mastered them.
The shooter side of SAC comes through in Batou's levels. Motoko and Batou do things almost simultaneously, but you play them alternately, one level at a time. Starting off with Motoko at the pier and utilizing her jumping and climbing skills (which is really fun the first time you do it), Batou relies on his right fist and his trusty Seburo machine gun to take out enemy soldiers and guard robots which pop up a lot in his first level. Batou will also be using heavier weaponry like a rocket launcher and a missile pod later on to make up for his slower movement and lack of sidejumping ability. While it might seem as a kind of handicap, playing Batou's levels is immensely fun when you're looking for some good action movie gameplay.
Another interesting gameplay feature that's more related to GITS than anything else is ghost hacking. When you kill a soldier with a specific ID card and pick it up, all of the nearby enemies are marked with triangles on your HUD so you'll know where they are no matter how dark it might be. If you're lucky, this ID card will also give you a hacking code for one or several of the tagged enemies, and aiming at one you can start a hacking sequence to gain control over his body for a limited time, terminating other soldiers with his gun or pressing buttons for you. After you're done, you return to normal movement and the hacked character breaks down, meaning one less to kill.
To hack someone, you first have to aim at them and press the X button. This will bring up a minigame on your HUD while the action is frozen, and you are required to match two rotating circles (representing the SAC logo) by pushing X at the right moment. The hack can take up to three stages meaning up to three different circle pairs which move increasingly faster and are harder to match, and you have to time precisely to succeed. There's also a time limit in which the hack must be performed even though it can be retried anytime and brings up different circles with each new attempt.
A nice but short bonus in one map later in the game is a controllable Tachikoma. In essence, the mission requires you to shoot at everything that moves from Batou's minitank, and again the animation looks as if it was taken straight from the series. The Tachikoma can walk spider-like on four legs or extend the landing gear and roll in any direction including sideways to dodge missiles quickly. Jumps are high and provide enough time for a mini-air-attack, two gatling guns and an autolock rocket launcher provide the boom. I only wished there would have been another mission for the Tachikoma since it's lots of fun, but nevertheless, a total of three controllable characters in the same campaign is quite impressive for an action game, and each character has skills that can be put to good use in their levels.
Graphics & Design
Wow, that was quite extensive. There isn't so much to say about the graphics other than that they are beautiful. The game might look a little dry in videos or on screenies, but when you play and remember some other third-person games in comparison, you'll find the graphics intriguing. Stuff like HDR (I prefer to call it overbright lighting or bloom) and motion blur is displayed where it fits best and the colour palette of the whole game is decently blue-greenish just like the anime series. From level one you'll feel "at home" because the architecture, colours, enemy types, vehicles, menu graphics and conversations look GITS-inspired and draw you in; they certainly did with me. I had my doubts about how the game would capture the anime's atmosphere, but it does and there is no reason why I would argue about outdated graphics technology or bland level design when it serves the game's purpose like this. That is to say, SAC doesn't offer the cream on the pie, but it's a solid filling that tastes like it should. Especially the surface levels of the Autonomous Region look a lot like what we've seen in many animes and when you look up to the sky, lots of white skyscrapers will tower above you and drown in the sunlight. Outdoor areas are the more attractive part of the game, but some larger indoor complexes have nice staircases and windows, looking a little like an atrium.
Special effects like explosions look convincing and the big boss enemies in later maps (which I won't spoil) are big and metallic as you'd want them. There is one boss fight that's a lot of "explosive" fun, and the final battle is set in a location you would never have expected.
Audio
The Japanese version of the game had the original seiyuu from the series and the same goes for the English dub. The same people who acted the voiceovers for Bandai's US version of SAC appear in the game and do an equally good job. I had not seen many episodes in English before I started the game and I was still insecure because I've become very used to the Japanese voices from the fansubs. However, the game offers English audio only and while I played it through, I found myself liking the new voices more and more. In fact I think that the cast did a better job dubbing the game than the anime, but I guess this is just my current opinion since I haven't come far with the series yet. In any case, Batou's jokes and Motoko's cool-cold responses are easily recognizable. As I said before, the game could be an episode or movie the way it is played out, and this is true for the acting as well.
Sound effects are amazing on one hand and mediocre on the other. Jumps and explosions sound thumpy as you'd expect them, but footsteps and weapon sounds aren't all that exciting. In fact there are only two footstep sounds for each character and surface, so you will hear "tick-tack" all the time when you run down a sidewalk with Motoko. The machine guns sound too similar except for the Assault Rifle and the shotgun misses the punch a little. At least grenades and missiles have some of it.
The music in the game is great though. I had the soundtrack long before the game and I wondered how the songs would fit in with the levels. It's actually a simple formula for each level in which two tracks are played; an idle track that is medium or slow tempo and loops quickly, and an uptempo extension of this track which is played in combat. Most of the time the soundtrack is a kind of drum and bass beat with varying melodies on top; some are bright and crisp, others are darker and mysterious. It's very electronic and doesn't really compare to Yoko Kanno's work from the anime, but the music in the game would fit the anime nonetheless, so it fits the game well. Some of the tunes will stick in your head even after you've switched off the console.
Multiplayer
I haven't played multiplayer yet, but I know how it looks and I have taken a look at the setup. When you want multiplayer before finishing the single-player campaign, you'll be missing out on some valuable stuff that is unlocked upon completion of the last level. Most noteworthy are the multiplayer characters which consist merely of soldiers and robots initially, but Section 9 characters (Motoko, Batou, Tachikoma, powered armor etc.) are added when you complete the game, depending on the skill level you beat the boss on. You cannot play Tachikoma in multiplayer unless you beat the boss on "hard", but it's possible to replay each level individually after you've been through them, so simply doing the last level over on hard skill will unlock the other stuff. Also, a new map and coloured costumes for the characters are thrown into the mix. Multiplayer is played by up to four on the same screen and is either deathmatch or team deathmatch. It seems to be more of an add-on than something that you could play for hours, but the game is worth playing for the single-player story alone.
Conclusion
Stand Alone Complex for PlayStation 2 is not what many reviews made it out to be; it's better. Of course it helps to be a fan of the franchise to begin with, but out of all the available GITS games it is probably the best. Graphics are solid, level design is realistic and much better than some other third-person action games I've seen, character animation is beautiful, the missions offer enough variety and increasing skill level with the different character strengths and features, and some of the levels and plot points are simply cool. It's one of the rare games that have such good gameplay that I want to play again from the start the night I finish, and that's a good sign in my opinion. If you want more SAC than the anime can offer, or if you're looking for a nice anime-inspired game that's more than show, Stand Alone Complex for PS2 is the right choice for a nice price.
Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex
Platform: PlayStation 2
Year: 2004
Back when I was watching Stand Alone Complex fansubbed straight from Japan, I heard that the series would be turned into an action game that unfortunately only released for the PS2. Me not being a console gamer, I was still curious about it since GITS and especially SAC is one of my favourites, and I was quite hyped after seeing the first game trailer. "I want to play this no matter what" was my initial thought although I didn't even have a PS2, nor could I read Japanese. I actually found the game on an Internet filesharing service and I could have used my best friend's console to play it on; however this failed because installing a modchip for this one game proved to be too great a risk. So I kind of forgot the game for a while and with SAC through and away, I thought it would be best to wait for an international version of the game at the least.
Fast forward to Christmas 2006 which I get my girlfriend a PS2 for, one of the "final big sale" Slimline models for laughable prices, as the PS3 is around the corner. Along with it I get her a few good games and of course I remember the SAC game, find out it has been localized, and get a copy off eBay which is in mint condition. Me still not being a console gamer, I wonder how I'm going to handle a shooter with analog thumbstick controls. Since my girlfriend presents me with the SAC "Complete 1st GIG Boxset" imported from the UK, I start rewatching the series, for the first time on DVD and trying out the English dub, and find this is the perfect time to pop the game into the PS2. So even though it might have taken me a while to get my hands on this game, the surprise is all the greater when I find that all the "average" to "bad" review scores I've seen don't exactly match with me.
Launching
After entering the menu, the first thing into my head is "looks cool". I set up some options and choose the training, which has me control Motoko from a third-person view in bland rooms to learn all the things she can do, how to run, jump and climb, shoot, evade attacks and so on. The training shows off her beautiful, and I mean really appealing, body animation and impresses me with lots of stuff the character can do while keeping the controls simple and never forcing you to leave the joysticks. Most impressive are the tall attack evasion jumps and the wall jumping, which puts a kind of GITS trademark into the game.
After the training is done, I start a new game on medium skill level and the story begins. A computer animated cutscene is played back and shows Section 9's tiltrotor arriving at Newport Pier 3 from the water. The team members have a short conversation and we see Batou and Motoko modelled and animated in CG, featuring not a very anime-styled but convincing look. When I saw Motoko in the game trailers years ago, I was a little disturbed by how "real" she looked without any facial features that are typical for anime, but you get used to it when playing the game, and the character's face is still recognizable especially by the animation. Batou doesn't look all that different from the anime since he has no visible eyes to begin with, and he's not much more than a big tough guy, now is he? ;-)
Story
The cutscene and the first minutes of the game explain that a weapons deal is going down at the pier, and this deal is conducted by a wanted man if I remember correctly, with cargo containers and snipers atop giving this deal a suspicious look. A few events later the actual plot starts and leads the characters into a place called the Tohoku Autonomous Region, a military installation which looks like an abandoned city. It becomes the central focus of the plot and the game since you'll be spending most of the time there, from the top to the bottom. It makes for some interesting architecture and captures the spirit of a GITS-typical location very well. As the story unfolds in some more cutscenes and lots of cyberbrain dialogue between the team members, it becomes increasingly mixed up with names that are a bit hard to keep track of, although it remains clear that what happens could qualify as good material for an SAC episode or even a movie. Fortunately there are communication logs stored for every level that you play, so you can re-read any conversations you didn't catch the first time.
Gameplay
Now this is the part that many reviews didn't like and I don't understand why. I didn't have the highest expectations when I started the game, but I was impressed to say the least. While running around containers and jumping on them with Motoko was a tough job for a newbie consoler like me, I got the hang of the movement controls after a while, only aiming at enemies remained difficult. To me it's a little awkward to push a joystick in one direction and wait for the character to turn to the right point, often turning too far and requiring fine adjustment to aim at targets, especially vertically. Mouse control on a computer lets me move my hand as far as I need my character to turn, so I have a fixed point to move to just like I know where to turn my head in reality. Plus, stick control means slower aiming no matter how good you are at it; mouse aiming is simply faster. When I finally developed a slight skill of stick aiming - which often meant positioning the recticle vertically, then strafing left and right to aim horizontally at all enemies on the same floor - the controls got pretty fluent and I also started evading attacks with Motoko's cool moves as well as going for hand-to-hand combat, which is pretty cool. It might be a one-button-mashing thing, but the timing, a little randomness and even combinations of joystick movement and button pushing result in different moves and hand or foot attacks. You will know for sure that your enemy is defeated when you see a short slow-motion sequence showing your character giving a deadly blow to the poor chump. Kicks can also be supercharged with a stun add-on that must be found first and unloads an instant electrical blast upon contact with the enemy.
A great thing about this game is that almost every feature that has been implemented will work more or less effectively, so you will make use of all the game has to offer. While weapons are the focus in later levels because of the number of enemies and their greater strength, the hand-to-hand combat is vital whenever you run out of ammo or you're standing close to an enemy. Grenades which can easily be thrown at a specific target do some serious destruction, useful against groups of soldiers or guard robots, and all of the available evasion and jumping moves can and will be utilized to keep out of danger. In fact, Motoko is forced to use her wall jump skills in most of her levels since they sometimes require you to reach inaccessible points on top of you. These jumping "puzzles" must have freaked some reviewers out since all I read about them was critique, and it sounded like the game was riddled with them. After beating the game tonight and seeing all the levels, I can assure you that this is not the case and all of the jumps you'll need to do can be done. Two or three of them do require multiple attempts but are never fatal if they go wrong, and in fact it's a good feeling when you've mastered them.
The shooter side of SAC comes through in Batou's levels. Motoko and Batou do things almost simultaneously, but you play them alternately, one level at a time. Starting off with Motoko at the pier and utilizing her jumping and climbing skills (which is really fun the first time you do it), Batou relies on his right fist and his trusty Seburo machine gun to take out enemy soldiers and guard robots which pop up a lot in his first level. Batou will also be using heavier weaponry like a rocket launcher and a missile pod later on to make up for his slower movement and lack of sidejumping ability. While it might seem as a kind of handicap, playing Batou's levels is immensely fun when you're looking for some good action movie gameplay.
Another interesting gameplay feature that's more related to GITS than anything else is ghost hacking. When you kill a soldier with a specific ID card and pick it up, all of the nearby enemies are marked with triangles on your HUD so you'll know where they are no matter how dark it might be. If you're lucky, this ID card will also give you a hacking code for one or several of the tagged enemies, and aiming at one you can start a hacking sequence to gain control over his body for a limited time, terminating other soldiers with his gun or pressing buttons for you. After you're done, you return to normal movement and the hacked character breaks down, meaning one less to kill.
To hack someone, you first have to aim at them and press the X button. This will bring up a minigame on your HUD while the action is frozen, and you are required to match two rotating circles (representing the SAC logo) by pushing X at the right moment. The hack can take up to three stages meaning up to three different circle pairs which move increasingly faster and are harder to match, and you have to time precisely to succeed. There's also a time limit in which the hack must be performed even though it can be retried anytime and brings up different circles with each new attempt.
A nice but short bonus in one map later in the game is a controllable Tachikoma. In essence, the mission requires you to shoot at everything that moves from Batou's minitank, and again the animation looks as if it was taken straight from the series. The Tachikoma can walk spider-like on four legs or extend the landing gear and roll in any direction including sideways to dodge missiles quickly. Jumps are high and provide enough time for a mini-air-attack, two gatling guns and an autolock rocket launcher provide the boom. I only wished there would have been another mission for the Tachikoma since it's lots of fun, but nevertheless, a total of three controllable characters in the same campaign is quite impressive for an action game, and each character has skills that can be put to good use in their levels.
Graphics & Design
Wow, that was quite extensive. There isn't so much to say about the graphics other than that they are beautiful. The game might look a little dry in videos or on screenies, but when you play and remember some other third-person games in comparison, you'll find the graphics intriguing. Stuff like HDR (I prefer to call it overbright lighting or bloom) and motion blur is displayed where it fits best and the colour palette of the whole game is decently blue-greenish just like the anime series. From level one you'll feel "at home" because the architecture, colours, enemy types, vehicles, menu graphics and conversations look GITS-inspired and draw you in; they certainly did with me. I had my doubts about how the game would capture the anime's atmosphere, but it does and there is no reason why I would argue about outdated graphics technology or bland level design when it serves the game's purpose like this. That is to say, SAC doesn't offer the cream on the pie, but it's a solid filling that tastes like it should. Especially the surface levels of the Autonomous Region look a lot like what we've seen in many animes and when you look up to the sky, lots of white skyscrapers will tower above you and drown in the sunlight. Outdoor areas are the more attractive part of the game, but some larger indoor complexes have nice staircases and windows, looking a little like an atrium.
Special effects like explosions look convincing and the big boss enemies in later maps (which I won't spoil) are big and metallic as you'd want them. There is one boss fight that's a lot of "explosive" fun, and the final battle is set in a location you would never have expected.
Audio
The Japanese version of the game had the original seiyuu from the series and the same goes for the English dub. The same people who acted the voiceovers for Bandai's US version of SAC appear in the game and do an equally good job. I had not seen many episodes in English before I started the game and I was still insecure because I've become very used to the Japanese voices from the fansubs. However, the game offers English audio only and while I played it through, I found myself liking the new voices more and more. In fact I think that the cast did a better job dubbing the game than the anime, but I guess this is just my current opinion since I haven't come far with the series yet. In any case, Batou's jokes and Motoko's cool-cold responses are easily recognizable. As I said before, the game could be an episode or movie the way it is played out, and this is true for the acting as well.
Sound effects are amazing on one hand and mediocre on the other. Jumps and explosions sound thumpy as you'd expect them, but footsteps and weapon sounds aren't all that exciting. In fact there are only two footstep sounds for each character and surface, so you will hear "tick-tack" all the time when you run down a sidewalk with Motoko. The machine guns sound too similar except for the Assault Rifle and the shotgun misses the punch a little. At least grenades and missiles have some of it.
The music in the game is great though. I had the soundtrack long before the game and I wondered how the songs would fit in with the levels. It's actually a simple formula for each level in which two tracks are played; an idle track that is medium or slow tempo and loops quickly, and an uptempo extension of this track which is played in combat. Most of the time the soundtrack is a kind of drum and bass beat with varying melodies on top; some are bright and crisp, others are darker and mysterious. It's very electronic and doesn't really compare to Yoko Kanno's work from the anime, but the music in the game would fit the anime nonetheless, so it fits the game well. Some of the tunes will stick in your head even after you've switched off the console.
Multiplayer
I haven't played multiplayer yet, but I know how it looks and I have taken a look at the setup. When you want multiplayer before finishing the single-player campaign, you'll be missing out on some valuable stuff that is unlocked upon completion of the last level. Most noteworthy are the multiplayer characters which consist merely of soldiers and robots initially, but Section 9 characters (Motoko, Batou, Tachikoma, powered armor etc.) are added when you complete the game, depending on the skill level you beat the boss on. You cannot play Tachikoma in multiplayer unless you beat the boss on "hard", but it's possible to replay each level individually after you've been through them, so simply doing the last level over on hard skill will unlock the other stuff. Also, a new map and coloured costumes for the characters are thrown into the mix. Multiplayer is played by up to four on the same screen and is either deathmatch or team deathmatch. It seems to be more of an add-on than something that you could play for hours, but the game is worth playing for the single-player story alone.
Conclusion
Stand Alone Complex for PlayStation 2 is not what many reviews made it out to be; it's better. Of course it helps to be a fan of the franchise to begin with, but out of all the available GITS games it is probably the best. Graphics are solid, level design is realistic and much better than some other third-person action games I've seen, character animation is beautiful, the missions offer enough variety and increasing skill level with the different character strengths and features, and some of the levels and plot points are simply cool. It's one of the rare games that have such good gameplay that I want to play again from the start the night I finish, and that's a good sign in my opinion. If you want more SAC than the anime can offer, or if you're looking for a nice anime-inspired game that's more than show, Stand Alone Complex for PS2 is the right choice for a nice price.