Ghost in the Shell: First Assault Impressions

I honestly don't have any clue what the Ghost in the Shell is other then reading up briefly about it. It's apparently a critically acclaimed animated film about a futuristic police force and that aspect largely translates into gameplay. Despite not knowing too much about the history of the title, I am extremely well versed in first person shooters and games in general so let's dive into this. The game takes place in a futuristic society with high technology integration and that can be seen throughout the set of currently available levels along with the characters themselves. It really is quite a basic shooter in terms of style, the levels and the objective modes at this time of playing. I actually waited until an update to write this since it would probably be best to give a more up to date account of my adventures thus far. The combat has a medium pace to it not being quite as quick in comparison to shooters like the Call of Duty or Halo, but still a decent speed. This actually matches the shooting style well as players kill each other very quickly and the game also handles explosives well as the synthetic characters blast into pieces.





The movement is mostly good yet it does feel stiff at times when moving through the environments or vaulting over obstacles. Aside from that it actually feels painfully generic at times for a shooter as I've just seen so many that this one really doesn't do much to make it standout. The game attempts to distance itself by having some minor cybernetic abilities that teammates can share, but so far that really just makes troops either fast or invisible for a period of time. There are also weird robot AI that look like crabs that roam around and can be hacked to remove. The robot really doesn't make sense in the scheme of combat and is largely weird. The maps work well for the shooting aspects of the game though they really don't have anything too wild going on in them and are basic laned maps. Some feature higher areas, but those are usually just small portions meant for a single player to shoot from. The environments on the maps are also nothing special with some plain city structures and clearly flat backdrops. Considering the futuristic base they have to build from I was expecting some more colorful environments.



When I recently played they also added in some new game modes which actually have decent variety to them though again nothing shooter players have never seen. There's your domination with flags, demolition where players plant or defend the bombs and regular team deathmatch. These are of course just my initial impressions for the title and I'm certain it'll change over time while on Steam early access. At this moment it's a solid shooter with a healthy community, but with some more unique features I think this game could really be a great shooter for people to enjoy. I look forward to watching it as things change and will definitely have impressions later on in the future, I encourage you to check it out on Steam as there are some fairly decent options to check the game with.

Impressions Made on Ghost in the Shell: First Assault on Steam Early Access
Review Code Provided by Wonacott Communications PR