After reading through a few playtests it’s pretty clear Blizzard has taken the safe route and created another science fiction shooter. But why? After almost four years of development, no realistic release date in sight, and a completely new design, Ghost’s development cycle has curiously avoided the scorn of the gaming media next to PR disasters Duke Nukem Forever and Daikatana. I mean it’s Blizzard, right? They release games when they’re done and deliver an oustanding product. However this time I’m not so sure.

For one, the recent official trailer makes it seem more action-oriented, and reminded me way too much of the beginning of Dawn of War.Through the Gamespot playtest, the writer makes reference to an “infiltration sequence”, insinuating that this playing style isn’t carried through the entire game. Quoth Greg Kasavin: “This doesn’t feel like a stealth game–it feels like an action game in which stealth is an option.” Said in a positive tone, as if this were a good thing. While I can appreciate that the developers are allowing players to take multiple approaches to each mission, think about Ghost units for a second. They were good for infiltration, but direct combat? Unless you were using Kerrigan there is no way a squad of Ghosts – let alone one – could survive a firefight with Marines. And while there are probably some areas where stealth is clearly the option (ie. an objective is swarming with marines that clearly outnumber you), I hardly consider this flexibility.

Though you can’t actually jack any power suit, Nova’s “lockdown” technique can be applied to adversaries to incapacitate them. There are, however, specific locations within levels where you can take control of vehicles and marine power suits, implying a certain linearity. The cloaking ability looks and sounds as you would imagine having played the RTS game, but I’m curious about its limitations. Traditional stealth games such as Thief and Splinter Cell rely on their environment to remain undetected. Will Nova have some kind of scanner to see if there are sentry posts nearby that can detect invisible units (as in the RTS)? Or will the suit be on some kind of battery, where power is drained as long as the cloak is activated? I have similar questions about her weapon loadout. Ghosts were armed with rifles in the RTS game, but according to the playtests she has multiple weapons at her disposal. Splinter Cell was far from realistic allowing you to carry a briefcase-worth of equipment in the tiny pockets of your vest, but I’d have an even harder time accepting that a rocket launcher, sniper rifle and flamethrower are hidden in the folds of Nova’s skintight bodysuit.

Ghost will include an online multiplayer mode for the XBox and PS2, where you can be one of four character classes and partake in the typical deathmatching and capture the flag antics complete with pilotable vehicles that have become ever so popular on the console. The different character classes will make this interesting, creating mini-skirmishes right out of the RTS game.

It’s likely that Blizzard used the excuse of “early build” to explain the game’s visuals during E3, but they’re less than impressive when considering that the game has been built from scratch since Swingin’ Ape took over the project. It looks out of date already, and makes the gameplay Ghost is offering that more important.

Perhaps it was unreasonable to expect another Splinter Cell. As far as I’m concerned, Chaos Theory has fully established the series as leader of the genre. Metal Gear Solid doesn’t count, as the games are decent, but cleverly disguised movies with scraps of gameplay dispersed throughout. While having an action-oriented game based in the StarCraft universe isn’t a big deal in principle, the fact that the main character’s function is stealth should have a larger bearing as to how the game is played. Indeed, in both Splinter Cell and Pandora Tomorrow you could plow through a level and not get killed, as long as you stuck to the shadows. But where’s the challenge in that? If I wanted to do platforming while shooting a gun I’d play Ratchet and Clank; with Ghost I feel that Blizzard’s valuable property is somehow being sold short.

get a look at the accident