Nexon’s Ghost in the Shell embodies everything good about 2007’s Shadowrun shooter

As a digital artist and game industry press goon, I won’t blame you if you peg me as a fan of anime and manga. Sometimes you can’t outrun stereotypes.

Speaking of, anime-based video games have their own terrible stereotypes to deal with. One in particular revolves around great mainstream anime receiving mediocre game releases. Ghost in the Shell hasn’t faired too bad in gaming, but I’ve faced enough quick cash-ins on similar properties to be gun-shy.

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Last week I got a chance to play a multiplayer demo of Neople’s and Nexon America‘s Ghost in the Shell: First Assault — Stand Alone Complex Online. I’ve also put in several hours in the Early Access version, which is available now through Steam for $5 (with additional price points up to $30 that will fast-track unlocking certain items). Although I’m not sure why we have to pay 5 bucks for a future free-to-play title.

Is this just a mediocre licensing exercise for an old, but respected, mainstream anime franchise? Well, it’s definitely held my attention for six hours worth of gameplay.

Near-future cybernetic warfare

The foundation of Ghost in the Shell: First Assault — Stand Alone Complex Online’s game design is built from the usual tropes of the modern first-person shooter. Narratively, it’s a showdown between the special cybernetics and tactical unit known as Section 9, versus … well … the other team from Section 9 (although the opposing team will always look like generic bad guys).

Where the play design gets interesting and spreads out from there is in the individual characters’ special abilities, which take advantage of the team’s many cybernetic implants and technical hacking abilities. Matoko, the most recognizable character from the Ghost in the Shell series, can go all Predator and activate stealth armor once her ability meter has reached tier 2.

Any friendly players standing near another that has activated their special ability can also download, activate, and use that ability for a short amount of time. This has the potential to create some interesting team strategies. Should three Matoko players coordinate, they could have only one person activate their invisible camo at any time, so the other two can then borrow that ability. Once the Matoko player that was running the invisibility ability loses it, one of the other two could then activate their invisibility, keeping all three players invisible for a long time.

This abilities-based first-person shooter design reminds me a lot of an improved Shadowrun. No, not the Shadowrun RPG releases from the last few years, but the first-person shooter that FASA Studios released on its death bed in 2007. Although that Shadowrun flopped, the comparison isn’t a bad thing. I really like the skills based design concept of that Shadowrun, and it’s cool to see a game like Ghost in the Shell: First Assault — Stand Alone Complex Online experiment with those types of ideas again.

Let’s buy some death

Ghost in the Shell: First Assault — Stand Alone Complex Online’s tech tree and in-game economy takes some of its motivation from games like Counter Strike: Global Offensive. Upon release, the game is going to be free-to-play, but use in-game currency to unlock weapons, characters equipment, outfits, and tech for the members of Section 9.

You can purchase these items with GP, an in-game currency that you slowly earn through repeated gameplay. I imagine that since this has free-to-play ambitions, the currency will be available for real-world money as well. The Early Access version, however, doesn’t really have that option in place.

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If I want to purchase more GP, I may be able to get away with rebuying one of the promotional levels of the Early Access on Steam … but that seems pretty desperate for getting fake currency for an unfinished game.

This leaves unlocking things through play progression, which isn’t a pain at all. It took about two hours of Ghost in the Shell: First Assault — Stand Alone Complex Online to reach level five, and I had earned enough GP to either purchase a new base weapon (I’m eyeing the AK-47), or buy enough upgrades to one of my existing guns to beef it up how I want. I went with pimping out my M4A1 assault rifle, which made the next two hours of earning GP go by much easier.

A small suggestion

Ghost in the Shell: First Assault — Stand Alone Complex Online is in Early Access, which means it is obviously still in development. Still, Neople is looking for suggestions from the people who leap in and play, and I can definitely oblige.

One of the major issues that Neople needs to smooth out before release is the level design. Specifically, the spawn points in team deathmatch on some of the maps require some serious retooling (or simply shouldn’t be team deathmatch maps).

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The level PSS9 in particular is pretty bad about how it handles spawn points. I often find myself reentering the battle on that map in a position where I can be easily taken out by a gun battle raging just a few feet away.

This isn’t a case of people spawn-killing, because I’ve also been on the opposite side of this situation, where I am gunning down an opponent and then suddenly two to three of his buddies suddenly appear out of thin air in the background. The flow of action is colliding with the spawn management of the game.

Is it worth diving into Early Access?

Is Ghost in the Shell: First Assault — Stand Alone Complex Online worth the $5 to gain Early Access right now? Well, how much of a fan of Ghost in the Shell are you?

I’m not a mega-fan, but I enjoy the series enough that I don’t mind dropping the 5 bucks to play along. Even if I am essentially being asked to be a tester at this point of the game’s last leg of development. There’s a lot of content here as far as unlockables and I think the skills premise has potential to evolve into a cool strategic element.

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But like all Early Access games, it’s unfinished.

If you have doubts or you can’t deal with the rough sketch nature of a game still in development, by all means, wait for Ghost in the Shell: First Assault — Stand Alone Complex Online to release and go free-to play. But by then I’m going to be buff as shit with a ton of unlocks. So you better look the hell out.