There's a very fin-de-siecle air circulating around the PlayStation 2 now. It is, of course, at the end of its life, and therefore easy to gloss over, with the next-gen consoles (bar its successor, at least in Europe) now on sale, and precious few new games appearing for it. Yet there are over 100 million PS2s out there, and we all know that the end of a console's life-cycle invariably yields some absolute gems, as developers crack all the mysteries of programming for it, and push it to its limits. Cases in point: moderately recent games like
Shadow of the Colossus and
God of War.
Now 2K Games - anticipating a big year with titles like
The Darkness and
BioShock waiting in the wings - is readying some late-period PS2 action with
Ghost Rider. I visited developer Climax in Portsmouth (on a day when gales were blowing trees onto train lines across the country) and came away fairly impressed.
Ghost Rider is no
Shadow of the
Colossus or God of War - but neither is it a typically lacklustre game-of-the-film.
There is an accompanying film (starring Nicolas Cage), mind, which, like the game has arisen from a Marvel comic-book franchise. Game designer Mark Simmons explains the plot of the game/comic/film: "The main character, Johnny Blaze, has sold his soul to Mephisto and become a spirit avenger." He rides a chopper motorbike, so the game is split between driving and shooting sequences and beat-em-up play: "The bike is there to get from brawl to brawl. We wanted to create a first-person, responsive fighting system, in which you kill enemies and their souls are spent upgrade your stats or your bike. Plus you can use them to unlock comics and videos in the game."
Ghost Rider's fighting system is very much its centrepiece and while it sounds complex on paper, it works impressively well in practice. The basic fighting mechanic revolves around special moves, triggered by fairly typical beat-em-up style button combos (you get a light attack, a heavy attack, a kick, and circle is a general action button), and as you harvest souls, you can go to the shop and spend them on new special moves.
Plus, there is a Condemned bar, that builds up as you land varied attacks without being hit, which flashes with various legends as you build up: from Condemned, to Brutal, to Avenged to Vengeance. You will find some sub-bosses which are shielded, and you'll have to build your Condemned bar up to a certain level before you can harm them. The higher your Condemned bar, the more souls you get to suck up, so the quicker you can upgrade.
Some of the souls you harvest are green, and these fill up a separate part of the HUD. They can be spent on your shotgun (operated by hitting R2), which initially has a mere four shots (but, ultimately, can be upgraded to 16), or used, when fully charged to launch a Retribution move, which is a bit like
Quake's Quad Damage. Special moves are split into fire, light and heavy categories and there are 40 in total. You can also grab enemies when they are dazed, by hitting circle (you don't actually need to be next to them, as Johnny Blaze will grab them with his chain), which launches a kill move.
You frequently encounter bosses and sub-bosses, each of which requires a slightly different technique - the first sub-boss, for example, has to be unbalanced with an uppercut before he will start taking hits. Helpfully, you can save at any time - a good plan when you come up against a boss. While the fighting side of the game sounds unwieldy, it turns out to be fast, responsive and seriously hectic - almost constant button-jabbing is required. And you can choose your approach to an extent - if shooting appeals more than beat-em-up action, you can spend your upgrades on your shotgun. But the on-foot side of the game is much more heavily geared towards fighting than shooting.
Roughly half of the PS2 game involves Johnny Blaze taking to the streets on his motorbike. In its base state, the bike has a forward-shooting gun; this can be upgraded to triple-shot homing missiles. In the manner of Road Rash, Johnny can attack with his chain, as he is approached by enemies - separate buttons govern left and right attacks. There are also jumps that he has to make, and obstacles he must slide underneath by ramming the bike down on its side.
