E for All 2007: Ghost Squad Impressions

By Rob Galbreath / Saturday, 20 October 2007

Rob Galbreath, Editor-in-Chief Ghost Squad proved to be a pretty exciting experience. While there are typical arcade issues that plague the game (like seeing an enemy looking straight at you, you turn, and they never shoot at you again), there are a few impressive features. For those unaware, Ghost Squad was originally released by Sega in 2004 as an arcade game. The counter-terrorism game featured rifle-like peripherals and a two-player cooperative mode. The most important feature found in the demo is the rail-based cooperation with a second player and several AI characters. Players won't get to see the character models of their own characters, but they will have to watch out for team mates, hostages, and other on-screen allies. Ghost Squad allows players to select their path through each level. Whether going upstairs or down, throwing a grenade or taking another route, the branching paths should increase the game's replay value. The levels are nicely colored, so there's no worries of going through any bland areas. The visuals for enemies, however, still need work. They're decently detailed, but some of them seem stretched and out of proportion. Maybe the widescreen support wasn't tweaked properly, but it could use fine tuning. Some environment factors could have also used a bit of work, too. Otherwise, it's coming along quite well. The Wii Zapper is ideal for this game. The controls felt solid and reaction times kept the game moving along nicely. While a good portion of all enemies die within a press of the trigger, life bars are adjusted to be as difficult to stay alive. While the difficult level appeared to have been fixed in the demonstration, I must have used three continues to get through a stage with a friend, but died at the boss for not having finished the battle on time. Four-player mode seems to be on track for the game but was not available for demonstration. It's important to also remember that the game is a port. It's a fun game, sure, but let's hope for the promised unlockable items to increase the game's replay value tenfold.