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Editorials   E3 2003 - First look at Geist
- By Neal Gittens [Contributing Editor]

As one of the previously unannounced games debuted at the Nintendo pre-E3 press conference, Geist entered the arena with no real buzz or expectations behind it. Of course, this is only the case because no one knew about it a mere three days ago, but having seen it in action, and played the demo level available at E3, I can safely say this game has the potential to be a very unique, very innovative game.

Geist, (German for "ghost". I owe the fact that I know that to Herr Goff back at LCHS. Danke.) is a first person perspective game, but I hesitate to call it a first person shooter. There is a good degree of shooty goodness to it, but it isn't a mindless, guns-blazing, shoot-em-all type game. Instead, you start out as a spirit, and you can possess the bodies of frightened people. For example, at the beginning of the demo level, you encounter a "spirit field", which blocks your ability to move forward. Fortunately, there is a badly wounded guard type guy nearby, (fortunate for you, not him) who you can possess. When you possess him, he cannot move, due to his injuries, but he can still look around, and fire his pistol. After shooting out the four power sources for the spirit field, you can de-possess the guard and move forward.

Moving on, you possess a fully functional guard, with a fully functional gun. You then proceed to clear out the area of other nasty guards who will suddenly desire to kill you. (Apparently you possess the guard everyone is annoyed with, right on the day they decide they've had enough of him.) Once you do that, you have to make your way to the head doctor on duty, which is done by moving through an opened air vent. (In this case, the vent is just in an opened position, as opposed to having the whole front grate removed from it.) You must transition back to ghost form, and then proceed thorugh the grate into the head doctor's office. It's a very believable touch, and adds to the feel of playing a wandering spirit, and not just another secret agent/super warrior, who you can't walk 8 feet without tripping over these days.

Once in the doctor's office, you first must find a way to scare her. You cannot possess a calm person, and the doctor is just sitting at her desk working, so why would she be scared? In another happy coincidence, there is a gas pipe with a valve on it sitting in the office. You can turn the valve handle until it comes off, at which point the doctor will come to put the valve handle back on. When she is trying to do so, you can then light the gas coming out of the pipe, leaving you with one scared doctor, and also a very willing host. So you then possess her, which is necessary to gain entrance to the holding area, where your rescue target awaits you.

You then proceed into the holding area by passing through a retinal scanner while in the doctor's body. (See why she was key to the whole thing now?) You then go into the holding area, blasting some guards here and there. You can then open the small sliding windows on each cell, and pass through those in your ghost form. You will eventually find the right cell, at which point the demo ends.

Geist is definitely a game I look forward to seeing progress from this early stage onward. It is an early build, so it definitely lacks polish, but it already has some decent particle effects in place, and for being early on, it does look quite good. Geist may end up being the biggest surprise from Nintendo at E3, and could be a nice entry from the company that is constantly criticized for not being "mature" enough. For those looking for an original, innovative shooter, Geist may end up being just the thing for you.