Vivendi Universal occupies a sizable chunk of the LA Convention Center's south hall at the 2005 Electronic Entertainment Expo, and in turn, a large portion of its floor space is being used to showcase Starcraft: Ghost. Chances are you've heard of this game already, since it's been in development for a long time and hit some pretty big snags along the way. Specifically, Blizzard Entertainment originally commissioned Ghost from developer Nihilistic Software, but later switched developers to Swingin' Ape Studios, which earned critical acclaim for its quirky action title, Metal Arms: Glitch in the System. At E3 2005, Vivendi and Blizzard are showing off the newly redesigned Starcraft: Ghost for the first time. PlayStation 2, Xbox, and GameCube versions of the title are playable on the show floor, and both the single-player and multiplayer modes are being featured. We'll be back with a hands-on update soon, but we wanted to bring you our immediate impressions without delay.
Starcraft: Ghost is set in Blizzard's memorable Starcraft universe, in which the high-tech terrans are locked in a struggle against the fiendish zerg and the enigmatic protoss. As the name suggests, the game will let you play as a "ghost," one of the covert psychic-trained operatives of the terran military. Specifically, you'll play as Nova, who's sort of your shapely Sam Fisher. She's armed with a canister rifle, capable of dealing great damage to fleshy targets and sniping them from afar. She's also got a ton of other tricks up her sleeve, such as her cloaking ability and her ability to perform lockdown on machinery and vehicles.
We quickly surveyed what was being shown of the game, and noticed that all three of the versions were looking quite good. The Xbox version, with its richer colors and smoother lines and lighting, definitely stood out, though. Nova looked great regardless of platform, what with her high-tech formfitting suit, free-flowing ponytail, and graceful animations. We quickly noticed the game's over-the-shoulder targeting system, which reminded us of Resident Evil 4's system (apparently, the over-the-shoulder third-person perspective is quickly becoming a popular trend among action game designers). Like in RE4, the perspective here zooms in close when Nova readies her weapons.
Her canister gun isn't the only firearm she has on hand, either. We watched as she barbecued a zerg-infested terran followed by some zerglings, which came breaking through a colony that had been overrun by the malevolent creatures. We also got to see her battling against numerous thickheaded humanoid opponents--evidently, enemy terrans. In addition to all the shooting, Nova could search her enemies' bodies for ammo and other goods, and she could also take the battle to them from a first-person perspective. We also saw her attempting to bypass enemy defenses in a wide-open area by stealthily maneuvering toward the entrance while cloaked. The cloaking effect looks great, and we noticed another really cool-looking X-ray/thermal vision mode in multiplayer, in which you could see the character's heart beating inside of her body (kind of like the railgun scopes from the movie Eraser).
Ghost looks like it's got a pretty darn cool multiplayer mode, which supports up to eight players (presumably just on Xbox and PS2) and features different character classes and vehicles. It's somewhat reminiscent of Command & Conquer Renegade, a PC shooter from a couple of years ago, but mostly just in spirit. Like Ghost, Renegade is an action game inspired by a real-time strategy game, whose RTS elements worked their way into the multiplayer. We actually haven't seen too much RTS-style gameplay in Ghost yet, but in multiplayer, it was great to see a playable firebat (Starcraft's flame-spewing infantry) as well as a drivable vulture scout bike, among others. The authentic Starcraft-style visuals and characters are definitely what stood out about the multiplayer, which looked like it could be quite fun.
Blizzard recently announced that it had acquired Swingin' Ape Studios, which seems like Blizzard had a lot of confidence in its new developer with the creation of Starcraft: Ghost. Indeed, Ghost definitely looks like it's shaping up, and there's a whole lot of it on display here at E3. Stay tuned for additional information on this