Geist, if nothing else, tells an intriguing story which attempts to propel the gameplay to new heights. You control John Raimi, a disease-control agent who teams up with a counterterrorism unit to infiltrate the Volks Corporation. The scientists in this lab are working on some top-secret projects that most likely violate federal laws. After playing the game for a bit, the enemy captures John and his spirit is ripped from his body. He encounters another spirit that helps him escape his prison. As a spectral phantom, John is able to float around the Volks Corporation and possess objects, humans, and animals. To take control of other people you must first scare them. An early example of this has John possessing a nearby phone. He makes it ring and the guard comes over and hears a scary sound coming from it and his “frighten level” goes up. Messing around with trash and moving objects will really wig the characters out and when they become frightened enough John can enter the characters’ bodies to take control of them. This becomes necessary to gain access to locked rooms and to do battle with other enemies.

Geist is a first-person shooter at its heart with standard controls like those in Halo and countless other shooters. The numerous puzzles are what set this game apart from any other game out there. At first the game holds much potential with many unique puzzles and situations to figure out. However, the game quickly settles into mediocrity with confusing objectives and less than stellar gameplay. Many times an object that can be possessed isn’t illustrated as well as it should be and is easily overlooked. This can cause needless backtracking and is very frustrating to first time players. There’s a difference between being stumped because of a clever puzzle and being stuck due to shoddy guidance by the programmers.

The graphics don’t help sell the game either. To say they are sub par is an understatement. When games like Resident Evil 4 and Metroid Prime set the bar for excellent graphics gamers come to expect a reasonable amount of effort devoted to the visuals. Geist has terrible textures, an unsteady frame rate, and ugly character models. The game is in progressive scan for those with 480p televisions, but there are still jaggies in many of the scenes and the game is more along the lines of something we’d expect from Acclaim (rest in peace). The game really does look like a slightly enhanced N64 port. At least the music is good and that’s the one bright spot in the overall package. The music is appropriately moody and creepy when it needs to be and when the action heats up the tempo does as well. Throw in some average voice acting and the audio department isn’t too bad.

Geist is built around the spirit factor. Without the ability to jump into other bodies to gain items, weapons, and information, this would just be another shooter with bad graphics and average play mechanics. Thankfully the poltergeist aspect is somewhat enjoyable and there are some nice puzzle elements to the game. Unfortunately the developers forgot to make the game fun. There are too many instances where the objective isn’t clear and the game comes to a screeching halt. One spot, early in the game, I decided to kill all the enemies instead of try and possess anyone. I successfully killed all the bad guys, who by the way have awful A.I. and just stand there and take bullets until they die, and made it to a force field. I couldn’t deactivate it and there was no way through it physically or spiritually, so the game was over right there. I could leave the room and explore around, but no matter what, I had to start the mission over because it wasn’t completed in the way the designers had intended. It seems a bit harsh to have to reset the game because one section wasn’t completed in a preset fashion, especially in a game like this where it’s not always clear what you’re supposed to do in a given situation.

Geist lacks in so many areas that it’s simply below average. To make matters worse, Nintendo published the game and, although it may seem unfair, gamers expect more from the Big N. I think there are some solid game ideas in Geist, but they weren’t implemented in the best ways. If you’re aching for a FPS that’s different from everything else out there, Geist might fit your bill. I would much prefer to spend my time playing games like TimeSplitters 2 & 3, Metroid Prime, or even Bond. At least Geist is better than the awful Turok Evolution (which I see we gave a C+; if I had reviewed that game it would have earned a D). There are some clever puzzles and cool moments throughout the game, but it just isn’t enough. Geist is worthy of a rental if you’re really curious, but I think most gamers will come away disappointed. Disappointed because the concept was really cool, but the implementation blew. And disappointed that even Nintendo couldn’t turn this one around.