Ghost Master
August 17, 2010 by Gamer Guy
Filed under Game Systems
- Ghoulish Myteries With Multiple Solutions.
- Over 40 Spirit Types To Command.
- Up To 30 Separate Characters Per Level.
- 11 Ghostly Environments Based On Films Of Classic Horror.
Product Description
Instead of playing with one single character, you build up an entire ghostly team. There are around 50 ghosts in total and each haunter has its own personality, strengths, and weaknesses. Command many different spirit types, from horrible phantoms to hordes of spiders. As the game develops, the characters themselves will develop and grow. Each one has its own unique set of powers!… More >>
a good time. but progression brings complication and confusion.
a boat level has something like 30 characters and you are supposed to target one. Also there are a ton of ghosts given and to be freed, kinda hard to follow. i don’t like spending too much time in the games as the music and voiceovers are limited and don’t match the character depth (#)
Rating: 3 / 5
Vivendi/Universal did a really good job of pumping out new and interesting ideas in their games “back in the day”. Ghost Master is a blend of action and strategy and it’s premise is simple – scare the heck out of everyone!
You start off with a fairly well made tutorial that explains the basics, including how to move around, zoom in and out, and set up your different ghosts for haunting in a classic “scare the sorority girls” setting. You also learn certain individuals are more prone to being frightened by certain ghosts than others. For instance, some may be scared of spiders, while others have a fear of fire. The scares are more cartoonish than violent and most kids should be able to play without nightmares, but young kids might be disturbed.
As you progress in the game, you have a certain amount of “scare factor” known as plasm to use to scare people with. As people become more and more frightened, your plasm level goes up, allowing you to increase the number of powers your ghost can conjure up. In short, the more scared the people get, the scarier the effects you can subject them to. Once their terror level peaks they run screaming from the house. The sooner you complete your mission, the more points you rack up, allowing to “upgrade” your ghosts with additional powers for later missions.
The game isn’t just about scaring people, though. Some strategy is involved in figuring out secondary objectives such as luring or leading people to a certain area of the house or releasing ghosts so they can be used in later missions. Some of these puzzles are challenging, but most missions can be wrapped up in about half an hour.
The game itself ran fine at 1024×768 on a 1Ghz Athlon and a Geforce 2 so any computer made after 2004 should run fine. That said, I experienced choppiness and stuttering in the movie clips between missions. The game would have been a lot easier to play by simply explaining the mission, then allowing us to choose which ghosts we want to use. Instead, we pick ghosts basically at random and find we may have to start the mission over if we’re missing something vital. Not knowing the mission objectives upfront was kind of annoying. Finally, the voice acting is pretty bad. If you’re lucky (or unlucky) enough to complete two or more objectives at the same time, you’ll hear both announcements at once, which sounds like complete gibberish.
Aside from these annoyances, Ghost Master is a fun game. The music is cheerfully campy, providing the atmospheric creepiness typical of B-movies, and the graphics are bright and vibrant, with more than a passing resemblence to the movie Ghostbusters. If you’re looking to create your own haunted house, filled with things that go bump in the night, then this is the game for you.
Hope the review helped.
Rating: 3 / 5