One game that nearly flew under my radar, is Ghost 1.0. An Indie title from Unepic Fran who released the game on Steam 2 years ago to a very positive reception from fans. Now it’s the turn of console gamers to get their mitts on this stand out title. Is it really that good? Read on.
Side scrolling platform games are a dime a dozen, so why should anyone actually care, right? Well, Ghost 1.0 does things a little bit differently. First off, you are not just a generic character, you have a fleshed out idea, game world and two associates that interact with you on a regular basis throughout. You are an agent that’s capable of becoming a digital ghost that’s clad in an eco-suit, and therefore unable to truly die, and should you lose all of your energy, then you just head back to the last save point which is a 3D printer which reprints a new suit for you to inhabit once more. A cool little feature, and quite unique.
The game is a Metroidvania inspired adventure game, full to the brim with action and loot to collect. The premise is that a pair of hackers have employed the services of our mysterious agent to infiltrate the Nakamura Space Station to swipe their secrets. Fully voice acted, this allows the characters to come to life and it just feels so much better this way than having to read speech bubbles or lines of text. All is not as it seems though, as Ghost hasn’t been totally open with the nerdy hackers, and all will unravel soon enough.
Controls and combat are smooth, fluid and the game as a whole is a joy to play, with superb graphics and voice acting to accompany the visuals. There’s pretty much no down points to mark the game down for. Pre-release, there was an issue with some freezing of the game when achievements were unlocking which has since been patched allowing for a smoother ride. Speaking of achievements, there’s nearly 100 of the suckers to unlock, so any achievement hunter will have their work cut out for themselves.
There’s over 300 rooms to discover, and with a plethora of secrets to find that can change the game in some way or another means exploration is key to success. But it’s not just as simple of running from one to another, as you can have Ghost leave her exo-suit and venture on to possess robots around the room you’re in to cause destruction with other robots and therefore make your life a whole lot easier. Secret rooms hide shops that you can purchase upgrades and weapons.
With two game modes available, Ghost 1.0 offers plenty of replay value for gamers, with Classic mode and Survival mode, you can either go for the full experience with the former, or a One deaths and game over run for the latter. You won’t be rushing through either game mode, as the boss fights are a steep challenge, forcing you to learnt their attack patterns and this was a hurdle for me.
Verdict
A fantastic game at an unbelievable price, and what’s the ice on the cake, is that Ghost 1.0 is a damn fine game and any fans of the Metroidvania influenced games available will be certain to enjoy this. Well worth a look.
Developer: Unepic Fran
Publisher: Unepic Fran
Release Date: 11th July 2018
Price: £7.99
File Size: 422MB
Xbox One copy provided for review purpose.
Available on Xbox One, PlayStation 4 & Steam
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