Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex

In order to stop derailing another thread even further and to just plain talk about the game I'll start an official thread.

A brief view: Overall I really liked the game but I'm sure a good amount of that comes from liking the licensed property. The Kusanagi levels are often awesome and capture the feel of GitS just right, but Batou's levels are standard run-n-gun affairs that could be from any random 3D shooter. They work well for his style but comes across as just too typical to be very interesting, made all the more apparent by the contrast to Kusanagi brain-jacking people, leaping amongst buildings twenty stories up, dealing with therm-optics, etc. I also loved the final battle, it was perfect GitS.

Multiplayer is pretty fun so long as you limit the weapons accordingly, absolutely no attempt was made to balance them and the rocket/grenade launchers completely dominate. Kusanagi and the Tachikomas can be unlocked but if everyone doesn't stick them if one person picks either then it's all over. The Tachikomas especially because they have unlimited homing missiles, which IIRC just turns it into a who-sees-who-first deal. Decent diversion although it's made completely useless with the recent glut of good multiplayer games.

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Originally Posted by Ammadeau

Did you get the unlockable difficulty levels? They make the game so much harder, but much more satisfying. I'm up to 'Execution' and I'm getting slaughtered on the first level... and I think there are still three difficulty levels above that. More enemies, different enemy and item placement, and enemies are better armed. Common enemies often have shotguns and assault rifles. You also start with only 3/4th health.

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Ooo... I think I unlocked that but I don't think I ever messed around with it, I just dicked around with the multiple costumes. I'll do that once I beat the English version.

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Well, it wouldn't be fitting for a game like Ninja Gaiden, but it works for a 3rd person shooter.

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I think NG would be better with a locked camera, but whatever.

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SAC does use every button on the control, including the stick buttons, but it does it pretty well and doesn't feel like it's cramming functions together or anything.

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It all works out in the end so I'm not complaining but I found it humorous just how many functions were assigned to the controller.

I thought the game was pretty cool. Controls were a little complex (and backwards from most games so the default took some getting used to). Enemy AI is braindead. Their pathing is good, but a lot of the time, you'd bump right into a guy and he wouldn't shoot until you shot at him.

Last boss on VHard seems impossible. There's finite ammo around and he takes more shots than you have and can pick up.

Derailing threads is the only thing I'm good for. :p

The Batou levels were a little stale in comparison, but I still enjoyed him, especially when he gets to use the rocket launcher. He could also mind hack, but there were less chances for him to do it. I controlled one of those Arms Suits guys for a bit and ended up blowing myself up. What's really a crying shame is one Tachikoma level, though I suppose I can track down Ghost in the Shell for PSX for that, since I played it but never owned it.

I agree the multiplayer is only pretty good. I think it could have been much better, especially if it had been taken online and given more features, but obviously that wasn't the focus. I've still had some fun all sniper and all shotgun matches with a friend though. I like that even the AI Tanks and Arms Suits get different colors.

Definitely give the higher difficulties a try. At the level I'm on, any one enemy can kill you in seconds if you're not careful, so you can't play sloppy and just soak the damage, especially when the healing items are harder to come by.

Patrolling AI is really stupid, but the watcher AI (guys that are just standing still mostly), which you'll see more of in higher difficulties, can spot you from far away and ends up a little better, especially with three of them shooting you up at once. The AI Tanks are pretty smart though. Taking them on even on normal outside the Tachikoma is pretty tricky. The damn thing kept trying to circle behind me and I swear it was dodging my rocket fire. Even with the Tachikoma, they're wrecking me at my current difficulty.

Haven't faced the boss at any of the high difficulties yet. It was bad enough beating that monster on hard, but it was definitely a fitting and fun way to end the game. When I saw that monster in the bay on an earlier level I wanted to fight it, but never expected the game would go there.

I think it should have come out at $40, which would be the right price for fans of the series, while I think it would be worth it to non-fans at $30-20 range.

Quick story on playing at higher difficulty:

Playing the warehouse level. Go inside... and there's no guard robots. No enemies at all. Strange, wondering if I chose easy by mistake. Kill off a few guards with shock melee (which I love) and get some nice weapons as well as a hacking code. The next area has five hackable enemies! Something strange is going, so I duck in the room and nearly get my head shot off by mounted ceiling machine guns that definitely weren't there before. So I start possessing all the guards and have them shoot the heck out of those guns, only for them to die in seconds a piece (though at least I could hack them safely through doors). Managed to take out one, but the other is more than enough to kill me, but I need to get in there. But there's a little upraised wall near the door. Hiding behind that, it can't hit me or even see me, but the minute I poke my head out the damn thing opens fire.... but it shoots in bursts and seems to need to rest in between. So I stand up and quickly it ducks down, stand up again and shoot a few bursts myself while quickly ducking again when it starts firing. I nearly get killed in the process since the shots tear right through you, but destorying that bastard was very satisfying.

The very next section is a long tunnel with crates and such for cover. I take out a nearby guard with melee, only to see a tell-tale red line... yep, there's a sniper down the hall and unfortunately it's a long open stretch to him and my weapons don't have the punch to get him at this distance. However, there's a guard patrolling nearby. I shoot a burst to get his attention and he rushes over. Hiding behind some boxes, I just manage to spring out and melee him to death before the sniper locks onto me. Then I go out again to get his weapon... a power assault rifle. Sweet. Rushing forward while firing like crazy, I managed to get the sniper before he got me. Only there's one enemy left and he's not only a heavy but also armed with a grenade launcher. One hit and I'm pretty much dead. I tried hitting him with a grenade, but missed, so I decided to rush him when his back was turned and melee... only I forgot I was still on grenades. He freaks about the grenade instead of shooting me, I dive away from my own grenade, switch over to melee in the explosion, and kick that bastard to death.

For the final area, I'm on top of the three story warehouse with five knives, three shock grenades, and two clips for the default machine gun. At the bottom where I need to be are three grenade launching enemies, two shotun ones, and one assault rifle commander. After trying and failing a few times, I work out a rough plan. First I shoot one of the grenaders enough to get him to pause, then I hit him with knife after knife... it takes four before he goes down. With the grenades, I managed to soften up another, finishing him off with a knife and some gunfire. Dropping to the second level, I shoot the shit out of a shotgun enemy and he falls, then I try to take the commander out... click click click. No more ammo. No more nothing with three enemies left. But the grenade guy wanders pretty far from the others, so I drop down to the final level near the end and wait for him to come by, then start meleeing him to death, but he's a heavy with high endurance and the others are shooting at me in the process. Finally, he manages to die and I get a grenade launcher, but my health is almost gone. One hit and I'm dead. But thank you Cavia for the slow motion option that appears when you're near death. I use that and do my best Max Payne impression dodging bullets in slow motion as I manage to clean up the last two enemies, with their bodies flying up like flailing baloons from the explosion.

I love this game.