Geist, billed as the thinking man’s first person shooter, is the first game of its type to be exclusive for the Gamecube in a long time. While typically a straightforward FPS under the hood, Geist manages to introduce some interesting concepts at the same time making it an experience that combines some intricate puzzle solving elements, a little bit of stealth, and enough running and gunning to satisfy anyone’s bloodlust.
Geist opens with a bang as you’re put into the shoes of a scientist named John Raimi who is part of a Special Forces unit who are on a mission to get a hold of some incriminating data on the Volks Corporation. During the imminent and expected firefight, Raimi gets shot and goes unconscious only to wake up on a giant machine that separates his spirit from his body. Raimi’s spirit is then thrust into a simulator which is designed to brainwash him into doing Volks’ bidding which is a plan to kill off or influence key world leaders at a world summit. Luckily for Raimi, the simulation breaks before the brainwashing begins and he sets out to get revenge - geist style.
One of the perks of being a spirit separated from your material body is the ability to possess people as well as inanimate objects, which is where the most interesting concepts of Geist come in. While in your spirit form time slows to a crawl and you’re able to wander around virtually undetected, with a couple of catches. Dogs know when a person is possessed and there are possession check points scattered throughout the early parts of the game. Looking at various objects will let you know if they’re able to be possessed which is distinguished by a red aura and will pop up a possession icon when you look at them again. While in spirit form, your spiritual life meter will constantly deplete until you either possess another host or get energy from plants that are scattered around the compound. Some later levels are completely spent in your spirit form and you’ll have to try to solve puzzles, explore, and keep yourself alive. While it may sound a little annoying, these turn out to be some of the best parts of the game.
You can possess explosive crates and blow them up at opportune moments, possess robotic arms that will flail and scare everyone in the room, engines on cars, etc. The possibilities are endless, as long as it’s scripted into 
the game that is. You’ll find yourself having to possess host bodies of the Volks staff and even a few animals in order to move on. This isn’t quite as easy as it sounds, however, since you’ll have to lower their mental resistance by scaring them. Scaring your prospective hosts can be both disturbing and yield some pretty humorous results at the same time. Once a host is scared enough, they’ll be covered with a red aura which lets you know they’re ripe for the picking. While this is a great concept at first, once you invest a little bit of time into the game, it starts to become blatantly obvious as to what to do. You’ll always have to possess something that the host is looking at (or standing next to) and scare them, they’ll then run in fear next to another object that you can possess, scare, and finally take them over. Possession really gets fun in later portions of the game where you’ll find yourself strategically possessing gun turrets and taking down soldiers that are guarding some anti-aircraft missile launchers that you need to take out, then possessing the explosive crates below to get rid of the turrets and clear the way for your human host to blow the launcher.
The gameplay varies on the type of host you possess. Engineers are usually unarmed until they get into a situation that requires a hazmat suit. At that point, they’ll be armed with a pretty powerful, yet slow firing rivet gun. Certain types of guards carry certain types of weapons which range from assault rifles and grenades, to shotguns, and machine guns. While scientists are used early on to get access to certain areas via retina scanners, they’ll be equipped with some outlandish types of firepower later on and become pretty fun to play. You usually know how a section of a level will play out depending on your host. Engineers will always have to fix things or restore power, soldiers usually usher a section where you kill everything in your path, and scientists (save for the later levels) will get you to another section where you’ll possess any of the above. There are some exceptions to the rule, but these are the basics.
When it comes to shootouts, controls are a tad flighty when it comes to aiming, meaning they tend to either go too far to the left or right when you’re trying to be precise. You can also easily get through some of the tougher shootouts by creeping around corners just far enough to make your crosshairs turn red and proceed to open fire
without any kind of retaliation, which tends to speak volumes for the AI or lack thereof. Enemy soldiers will seek out cover once in a while, but not too often, opting instead to stand in one place and shoot until you send a grenade or shot to the face in their direction. Another issue is that some portions of the game just seem unfinished and you’ll find characters that you can’t talk to that just stand in one place and staring blankly at a closed door or monsters that are hiding behind crates, but don’t seem to even notice your presence and don’t take damage when shot. While there are some interactive environments, they seem like more of an afterthought. It’s a tad strange that you can go into a bathroom and turn on a sink that looks like it’s sprinkling a few drops of water at a time without any kind of water running noise.
Bosses show a little more intelligence and some can be pretty difficult to beat when you’re not sure what strategy to use on them. Some bosses will fire missiles or throw grenades that you’ll have to possess and send hurling back to them, while others like a giant creature that rolls around a large maze-like room and goes faster and faster as you do more damage requires a little more strategy since taking it head on will prove to be deadly.
The multiplayer portion of Geist brings some unique features to the table since its focus is also on possessing hosts and duking it out with friends. The modes featured are hunt, possession deathmatch, and capture the host. Hunt pits humans against ghosts where the ghosts will possess the humans and attempt to move them towards hazards to cause damage to them or send them falling into a bottomless pit. The humans will try to gun down the spirits with special rifles in the meantime. Possession deathmatch is your standard deathmatch where your weapons are based off of the host you possess. Everyone will be jockeying for the scientist with the high-powered beam weapon, that’s for sure. Capture the host, much like capture the flag, concentrates on possessing a host and getting them back to a location without getting killed. You can play up to four player split-screen and even add up to four more bots for some extra target practice. You can also unlock additional levels 
and characters by finding hidden icons during the story mode which is a nice touch.
Environments are the centerpiece of the visuals, as they’re more detailed and varied than the characters themselves. You’ll go everywhere from dank caves to high tech laboratories to an abandoned house. While these all seem like they’re total opposite ends of the spectrum, the game manages to seamlessly connect them together into a perfect fit.
The game’s characters look average at best and really don’t do a great job of expressing any kind of emotion, save for the Volks character who seems to have gotten the most time in terms of modeling and design.
Geist really falters when it comes to sound. Gunfire seems to take a back seat to the soundtrack and really lacks any real punch making you feel like you’re shooting a paintball gun as opposed to a high powered rifle.
Voice acting takes the Nintendo staple of giving each character a word to speak or noise of acknowledgement and following it up with their dialog being displayed in text. Key parts of the story will feature spoken dialog which is acted out well and makes you wish the whole game could be that way instead of hearing the same sound bytes out of soldiers every time you talk to them. 
There are some additional issues with the sound that go beyond sinks that don’t make noise. Music will cut for apparently no reason, though it usually happens after a grenade explodes. There are also some issues with the music stuttering during cutscenes as well.
While Geist doesn’t offer a technical achievement by any means, it does put a different spin on an already saturated market of first person shooters. Sure the levels are linear and the story mode can be cleared in a weekend, but the prospect of unlocking the multiplayer goodies may be enticing to some especially given the unique premise of the multiplayer game. Geist is equal portions innovation and average, but it definitely has its moments.
- Brad Hicks (Dr. Swank), SwankWorld Media
