E3 Preview: Geist

E3 Preview: Geist
Article by Glen Bayer

I have to be honest; I'm not a big fan of the first-person shooter genre. Most first-person shooters have you running from one room to another blasting a bunch of baddies. I prefer games that are a little more laid-back and contain some essence of adventure and elements of exploration. So I guess that goes to say that if made right, I can actually enjoy a first-person shooter. Golden Eye 007 for the Nintendo 64 and Metroid Prime for the Nintendo GameCube have been two games that appeal to my style. Both of these games offered "something more." I think Geist fits into this category. It has that "something more" as well as intelligent gameplay and Nintendo feel.

Geists Current Control Scheme

If you're expecting Halo, you're only going to be disappointed. In Geist, there is thought involved in how you will traverse the distance from one room to another. Will you possess the scientist who may have access to the computer door unlocking mechanisms? Or might you slip through a hole in the wall and on the other side possess the guard who wields a gun that will enable you to take the room by force? The demo starts very linear and who you could possess and in what order was quite limited. Keep in mind however, this demo is the introduction to the game and more specifically it's a showcase of the first two levels. As you progressed, even through this small portion of the game, it became clear that your choices grow increasingly varied and expansive. I'm under the impression that the demo level I played at E3 2003 may take place directly after these two. If true, to give you a perspective of the flow, this was my impression of the third level.

The variety of ways to play the game is astounding. I played through the demo over ten times at E3, and each time -- whether I was in the form of a geist or human -- I was able to do something or handle a situation differently. In fact, while watching people play the demo, I noticed no one person played it the same. I think that is testament to the fact that you can play a single level and enjoy it over and over. Its refreshing and something I havent experienced in a game in quite some time.

Honestly, it is a refreshing feeling. There are very few games that really intrigue me enough to play more than once. And for a game that's also supposed to contain a meaty multiplayer mode, I'm excited. So lets delve into the latest build of Geist with a full break-down of the E3 2005 demo.

This is You: John Raimi

Single-Player Demo Breakdown

2330 Zulu: The demo begins under twilight in the skies of an undisclosed location. We see two choppers in flight. A determined mood fills the night sky. The camera zooms into one helicopter showing five men dressed in military gear and another man with a laptop resting on his lap. You play as John Raimi, a handsome 20-something operative who works in disease control. You receive a short briefing on your mission. Your friend and undercover agent Thomas Bryson has been sent undercover into the Volks compound. Bryson has alerted you that the Volks organization is developing a chemical or biological compound; however, contact was lost with him ten days ago. You're being sent in to recover this data. As you near the complex, you see its ominous presence come into view -- an enormous structure, eerily lighted in shades of brown and orange.

The helicopters fly directly over the large steel gates, penetrating the grounds. Ropes are dropped and the men from both helicopters bail out. You enter the complex and are reminded of your objective to retrieve viral data. You must meet up with Bryson and collect this data. You're then interrupted by another cut-scene that shows several scientists within a lab. One is standing at a table and dissecting what looks to be a large, green tentacle. The scientist pulls out his scalpel and slices the object while it's held between two clamps, still writhing with life. He then inserts a syringe...when suddenly there's a large explosion and your squadron bursts into the room. Several of the scientists run for cover. However, one of them walks right up to you and shakes your hand. You recognize this man as Bryson. He thanks you for coming and points you down the catwalk for the extraction point. You walk down the stairs, pull out your PDA and connect it to the computer. You focus your view through the microscope and see the organisms in clear view. You switch to a higher magnification to get a better look. This is it. You're in a hurry so you quickly download the data to your PDA. Just as you complete the download a deafening alarm sounds.

You've acquired what you came for and it's now time to leave. Your team quickly reorganizes. Your officer tells you to pull out your gun and follow him to the exit. You enter an experiment lab of sorts. There are large tanks of an undulating green substance. Suddenly glass shatters around you through a barrage of bullets. A door blows open. Enemy Volks combatants have seen you and you have to take cover. You can crouch down behind a small ledge and eliminate the enemy one by one. Using one of the first aid kits on the wall, you replenish your health. Depending upon how quickly you dispose of your enemy, some of your team members may still be alive. You must travel through several more labs and dispose of any enemies you come upon.

A Little Boss Action

Eventually you will enter a room with a catwalk and must walk cautiously to the other side. A cut-scene interrupts, showing one of your men following you across. Suddenly a crash is heard from the ceiling. A creature lunges its tentacles down, impaling the man and then gruesomely biting his head off. This is the first boss fight of the game. The creature spits blue-colored plasma from its mouth. Its only vulnerable spot is within its mouth. You must shoot its mouth as it opens in preparation to spit. After about five or so shots, the creature returns to the duct above. Breathing a sigh of relief, you backtrack over the catwalk and turn right to enter the next room. Two of your men are already there waiting. They wave for you to hurry up. You can hear the whir of a helicopter from an opening in the ceiling above. It's time for you to be extracted from the complex and finish the mission. A rope drops down from the helicopter and you run over to it.

But something isn't right... An evil presence is felt. One of your men begins to glow red (as you'll learn later, living beings glow red when they are afraid; this unfortunately leaves them vulnerable to being possessed). A geist enters him, jolting him to the ground. The other man runs over to see if he is alright. The possessed solider stands up and shoots his comrade point-blank. You see him take aim at you and then your world turns black...

The Separation Beam

A lengthy cut-scene is now shown with John Raimi (you) being connected to a large device. A bright orange beam of light is shot through his body, pushing his spirit out the other side. This is called 'separation.' Raimi's spirit is then shown being transported in a container. As the platform moves, two men walk alongside it discussing Raimi and Bryson. Apparently their other experiments were failures so they're now trying a different approach. They wish to turn Raimi into a combatant. The scene fades to darkness.

That Scar Screams Protagonist

The darkness is illuminated. A woman's calm voice enters your mind. "Everything is fine. In fact, everything is great." This is a training program -- a tutorial of sorts. You are now in control of your geist form and the computer is teaching you how to interact with the world. While in the form of a geist, you see the world in a sort of blurred vision. It really makes you feel as though you're some other-worldly being looking at life from a different perspective. Inanimate objects can be possessed without any prior interaction. In fact, they are usually the catalyst used to possess living beings. You can possess living beings only when their aura is red. You are unable to if it is green or yellow. Often, you will need to cause great stress or fear in order to ready your host. This training program places you in a beautiful environment. The trees and grass are vibrant with color and lush with life. The woman's voice tells you that you can consume plant life to rejuvenate your energy. You approach a plant and then watch as it withers away. You float around for a few more seconds until you happen upon a very cute bunny-rabbit. The computer tells you to possess it. Now you see the world through the eyes of a rabbit. Since rabbits are color-blind so too is your vision. You can hop around to your heart's desire.

A Little Girl Named Gigi

Suddenly the flow of the training program is interrupted. There is static and objects go out of focus. "Kill them all...", you're told, "Kill them." And then it completely malfunctions. You wake up back in reality to see a young girl appear. Without a word, she helps you escape from the containment cell. She approaches you and introduces herself. Her name is Gigi. You can float around the room for a few seconds and then you see her standing by the wall. There's some light coming through a hole behind her. She enters it and you follow.

You enter what appears to be a storage room. There are boxes along the wall, a broken mirror, a mop bucket and several other dusty items. You approach the mirror and for the first time Raimi sees what he has become. Gigi assures you everything will be okay but asks you to take a moment to practice possessing objects. There is an arcade game sitting in the corner. You can possess it and play the mini-game, using it to practice your shooting. The mop bucket can also be possessed. You can roll it around the room and squeeze the handle like a crazy maniac. Finally, there is a generator. You can crank the handle by pressing the A button quickly which will generate enough electricity to sustain a light bulb. Gigi points to a crate along the back wall and tells you to possess it. You possess it and it gives you the option to explode. *Boom* While you're in the form of a geist, time slows down dramatically. This makes explosions and other effects in the game particularly impressive. If there is an explosion, you can see the individual pieces of rock disintegrating and ricocheting off each other in the air. You and Gigi go through this newly formed opening and enter a room where a man is sitting on a crate.

Gigi comes up with a plan. She tells you to possess the phone. As you head over, she possesses the garbage can. Once you possess the phone, you can make it ring. The man gets up and comes over the answer it. Now's your chance to scare him! The man backs away from the phone with a surprised look on his face and then Gigi makes the garbage can shake furiously. He's vulnerable so now's your chance to possess him. Conveniently, a few seconds after possessing him, an announcement comes over the speakers: "All personnel report to section commanders for possession screening."

You enter a new room. One of the doors is locked and the character you are currently in does not have access. There's a solider in the room fortunately. Unfortunately he is not in a frightened state. One of the containment computers, similar to the one you escaped from, can be possessed and then blown up. This catches the guard's attention. He runs over to examine it. Possess the nearby garbage can and you'll frighten him into a state where he can be possessed very easily.

With your newfound body, you now enter a large room with a locked door and several computers. There are multiple scientists working at these computer stations. You can speak to one and he'll activate the computers for you. Now that you can access the computer, you can find out the code for the locked door: 9235.

You will now travel through several corridors. At one point there was a room I entered filled with dogs in kennels. I heard that you can possess the food bowl and then the dog, but I didn't get the chance to try it out. Although, I did find a secret room while in geist form. I also located a secret item that was apparently Gigi's teddy bear. However, I was unable to figure out what it does during the demo. Still, it was a gratifying feeling to find something that few others who played the demo did.

The Shielded Man

Eventually you will enter a room where three men are speaking to each other. They spot you and the one very gruff and intimidating looking man tells the other two to quickly leave. This man pulls out a gun and bullet-proof shield. You've no choice but to fight. You can't let your current host die and since your enemy sports a bullet-proof shield, you can't possibly use your host to dispose of him either. Furthermore, he starts throwing grenades at you. So what can you possibly do? Thanks to time slowing down when you're a geist, you can exit your body and possess the grenade, rolling yourself right underneath your enemy and exploding. Quickly possess your body again to remove him from the sight of your enemy's gun. A couple more of these rebel grenades and your enemy runs frantically out of the room.

There is a corridor that has a spirit sensing / scanning point. Dogs have a keen sense of smell and can sense when a person is possessed. If you try walking past, you'll find guns pointed in your face and bullets in your belly. Depending upon how you approach and overcome this situation, you'll find yourself running down several more corridors before entering a large cavernous hall. Your little friend Gigi returns. She mentions the underground and how it is a bad place. She says her brother once took her there and that Bryson is being taken there now. There is a platform you must activate to get to the other side of this hall. Suddenly a stream of men enters the door you just came from. You can take these guys out or quickly get to the other side. If your host happens to die, you are unable to activate the button and also unable to possess your attackers. However, this does not mean the game is over. If you return to the door you came from, you'll see a new host running in slow motion to join his comrades. Fortunately enough he's red, which makes him vulnerable to being possessed. Overall, this means that if a situation requires a host in order to progress in the game (ex. pressing the button to activate a platform), the game will provide you with another host such that you won't be completely stuck and have to resort to the reset button. Once you get to the other side, there's a large pipe running into the ground. You must twist the valve and then exit your host's body. Once in geist form, you can squeeze through the small hole...

The demo ends on that note. I feel the demo provided an enjoyable introduction to the gameplay, characters and story of Geist. What are the Volk Corporation's plans with Raimi and Bryson? How does Gigi fit into the story and why is she helping you? What sort of virus was Raimi sent to retrieve? These are just a few of the questions that the demo posed that we'll have to wait for the final game to answer.

Multiplayer Demo Impressions

Some Two-Player Action

The multiplayer was also playable at E3. I played the "Possession Deathmatch" on a map named "Raid." This particular level supported four human players and four bots. This made things quite hectic. Your goal in possession deathmatch is to possess a host and then rack up the most kills. There are hosts standing at several respawning points that you can possess. You acquire points by killing hosts while their body is possessed by your opponent. Killing unpossessed hosts does not give you points. Although, hosts are vulnerable for two seconds after you leave them. This can make for an easy kill. This particular map had two stories. There was an open center square with an elevated ledge around its perimeter. There were several blocks that could be used for cover. A reload station was available on the first floor. You also had at your disposal two weapons. The first was a gun while the secondary weapon was a grenade. There were several items that randomly appeared throughout the level: Hijack, as its name implies allows you to hijack a body that's been possessed by your opponent. Defense raises your defense. Jump Boost lets you jump really, really high.

It feels as though the multiplayer mode was trying to convey a Halo- and Golden Eye-like experience. Fortunately, the ability to possess offers something new to the genre and gives it a very Geist-like experience. Is it enough? Ultimately, I'll have to play more to decide. Geist is scheduled for release on August 15, 2005. It's not my most anticipated game (The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess holds that title), neither is it my second most anticipated game (King Kong is it); however, it is within my top five list. And with the undeniably large list of incredible games arriving this year, I think that's saying something. If anything, it's going to be a genuine sleeper hit. We're all familiar with the fact that the market for first-person shooters is crowded. I think at the very least, since Geist offers something unique and original, it's worth your while to check out.