Ghost Rider (PlayStation 2)

The game is a mix of on-foot combat; there are certain puzzles and puzzle-bosses to defeat. Some of the enemies require your combat guage (DMC etc) to be at a certain level before you can even land a damaging hit on them, and you can power Ghost Rider up with certain elemental abilities later on in the game.

If you can land several combos and get your meter to Vengeance level then Ghost Rider’s skull turns blue, he increases in power and as long as you don’t get hit you can rip through enemies without too much trouble. Even major bosses can be taken down in a few well timed hits.

The action switches in some levels to the Hellcycle, faithfully reproduced from the movie and pretty powerful. Ghost Rider can attack enemies with his chains ala Road Rash and fire bolts of screaming death. There are jumps to make and the courses are fairly inventive, the action never lets up and you are assaulted with numerous foes as you work your way through the levels. The camera often switches to a slow motion long shot as Ghost Rider makes a perilous leap across a ravine or chasm.

I actually enjoyed these sections more than the on-foot battles.

So the combat system is robust, the bike sections are actually fun and the AI is fairly rudimentary – we’re not expecting GoW (Gears not God, Ed.) AI standards here however so that’s Ok, there’s enough of a challenge at the harder difficulty levels to make it worthwhile too.

The graphics for a PS2 are actually really quite nice. I was expecting (after being spoilt on next-gen) something quite rudimentary but there’s a fair amount of detail been given to the various characters, Ghost Rider and his bike especially – it shows that there’s life in the PS2 yet and it doesn’t slow down FPS wise when a lot of effects kick off.

The voice acting, well, as expected it ranged from fairly decent to downright cheesy. But it’s the comic book nature of these games. I actually preferred Ghost Rider’s voice in the game to the one I’ve heard in the movie – it was easier to understand the Rider in the game especially since the demonic flaming skull guy growls like he’s swallowed seven hundred rusty nails.

The sound effects are fairly good, there’s some decent music and it keeps up with the action-pace. They even got the Hellcycles’ acceleration effect balanced nicely with that soul-screaming burnt rubber noise that made me chuckle the first time I heard it.

All in all I actually like Ghost Rider. It’s a fun game, not quite up to the standards of other titles. It has some unlocks and a few surprises, like a secret Marvel Character that turns up for you to play with when you finish the game.

Ghost Rider fans will probably get a kick out of this game, but people looking for innovation will be turned away from it. I’d recommend getting it if you’re waiting for God of War II to arrive on our not-so-sunny shores.

All in all, enough to make me want to go back and play it again: Let’s Ride!