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StarCraft: Ghost 
Release date: 1 Feb 2005
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Silent But Deadly
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Starcraft: Ghost is one of those titles that has been pushed back so many times gamers lose interest because they figure it will never live up to its years of news updates, previews, and build up/hype. Well, publisher Blizzard has stuck with Ghost for so long that it’s clear they still believe in this project and are positive the game won’t succumb to the traps other often delayed games (like the once highly anticipated Advent Rising) have fallen prey to. News first broke out about Starcraft: Ghost in mid-2002 and at the time the game was being developed by Nihilistic (makers of Vampire: The Masquerade). Fast forward three and a half years to 2006, and the game is still in development, but instead of Nihilistic it is now Swingin’ Ape Studios (from Metal Arms: Glitch in the System) that is behind the making of the game. With Ghost currently scheduled for a late 2006 arrival, gamers still have quite a wait ahead.
The game takes place four years after the end of the Brood War Conflict in the world of Starcraft, which was made popular on the PC as a real-time strategy series. Starcraft: Ghost is a hybrid game if ever there was one. Freedom is the name of this tactical stealth action shooter, with players always having the choice to play in first or third person views, depending on which option suits the gamer’s taste in different situations. Where freedom plays a bigger role is in giving each person the skills and weaponry to play either stealth-like or in a mode of all out action. Play like Spinter Cell, Rambo, or somewhere in between like the Metal Gear Solid franchise. The freedom isn’t on the go-anywhere, do-anything level of Grand Theft Auto because this is a more focused freedom, so-to-speak. It all revolves around your missions and your own personal style in carrying out said missions. Your decisions and actions will directly affect the outcome of the game.
Veterans of the series may be able to recognize the Terran marines, Zerglings, Zerg ultralisks, Zerg hydrolisks, and Protoss who will be rendered in full 3D for the first time in the series. Before now the characters of Starcraft have only been in two-dimensional sprites, and they’ve only been seen in overhead camera angles. Vehicles such as vulture scout bikes and Halo-like Warthog jeeps were present in early demos and trailers for the game. The single player campaign is also planned to take place over familiar settings such as Vyctor 5, Mar Sara, and Ash ‘Arak.
In the game, you get to play as Nova, a “ghost” super soldier of sorts, with weapons and abilities that would make Sam Fisher and Solid Snake green with envy. As Nova you will be sent on highly dangerous and top secret tasks. To aid you in these missions are a wide variety of arms and moves. A list of her current weapons are the usual suspects like flamethrowers, grenades, rifles, machine guns, rocket launchers, and shotguns. In addition, more imaginative weapons are said to still be in the works. Other cool touches are the abilities to use stationary turrets and order nuclear strikes on enemies or specific targets in outdoor levels. What really shines about Nova though, is her high-tech gadgetry and psychic like powers. She can use thermal vision to see enemies behind doors and walls, execute daring acrobatics, track bugs and people’s footprints, perform lockdown on vehicles and machinery, cloak herself, and use super speed (bullet time). She can even search defeated enemies for ammunition and other items.
With these awesome skills comes the ability of stealth. Sneak past your enemies, snipe them from afar, or perform stealth kills. With cloaking, you can walk right up to your foes and do things like shoot them point blank in the face or snap their necks with a mini-game like button system (something along the lines of Prince of Persia or God of War). You can use your speed powers to slow time and kill everyone in a room before they even realized you were in the room. But the best stealth kill (that has been shown) is, by far, sneaking up to a guard from behind and shoving a grenade into his suit and watching him scramble to find it right before it explodes. You should know that once your done killing your enemies it would be wise to hide the bodies unless you are playing with a more run-n-gun attitude.
For the gamers with itchy trigger fingers, fear not. Swingin’ Ape has loads of intense scripted events planned like explosions, giant monsters wiping out entire groups of soldiers, and so much more. Since you can’t just go through the whole game cloaked and running past everyone, there will be a lot of action in Starcraft: Ghost no matter how you play. It will be harder to play with guns blazing though, seeing as alerted enemy soldiers don more armor, call for back up, and are clearly more hostile. While it seems like most missions will be individually tailored towards either stealth or action, Starcraft will not punish you for choosing to play a different way if you so desire. Common sense will tell you, though, that if you don’t sneak on a stealth oriented level or section, you will probably have a harder time with that objective.
As far as looks go, Starcraft: Ghost has basically looked the same over the years. It’s never really wowed anyone, but it’s always looked respectable. While character models look fine, they could use a touch up in detail. Fire effects could benefit from a facelift too. The backgrounds need more work than anything else. As it stands right now they seem very uninteresting and lifeless. Overall, the visual style seems extremely reminiscent of the earlier mentioned Advent Rising from Majesco. While it should be noted that some gamers loved the visuals in AR, most were quite disappointed by them (among many other issues). It must also be said that as far as one can tell, Starcraft: Ghost doesn’t seem to be falling into the same pits that overcame promising titles like Advent Rising. There did seem to be some frame rate problems and issues with the smoothness of the controls, but Blizzard and Swingin’ Ape Studios still have a lot of time left to make everything come together, assuming they stick to the October release date. Gamers new and old to the Starcraft franchise will eventually find out if all the hype and wait was worth it.
Starcraft: Ghost for the Xbox is slated for an October 2, 2006 release date and has not yet received an ESRB rating.
Preview by Travis Johnson on 15 Feb 2006
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