Ghost Rider review

It's another superhero movie tie-in that isn't that good. Alright? Yes, Gamestyle knows it should really go through and examine every part of the game before giving you the conclusion, but you knew where this was going when you started reading it, didn't you? Expectations were hardly high, considering Ghost Rider is among Marvel's B-List heroes. Still, the film was quite enjoyable, certainly one of the better B-roster movies of recent times, so it'd be nice to think the tie-in video game would fare as well.Unfortunately, Climax haven't put a whole lot of effort into Ghost Rider; they've simply lifted elements of God of War, Devil May Cry and Road Rash, and mixed them all together in the hope that something good comes out of it. The result is a hit and miss affair; though it can sometimes be fun, it will mostly have gamers wondering why they aren't playing one of those games instead... well maybe not Road Rash.Ghost Rider takes up where the film left off (almost immediately afterwards, in fact), and has the devil Mephisto task Blaze with halting the resurrection of his son, Blackheart. The game kicks off with Ghost Rider in Hell, using his chain weapon (which he borrowed from his mate Kratos) to battle demons. And battling demons is a running theme; no matter what area you're in - Hell, desert, ransacked military base combining sharks with bombs (well they trained dolphins to place mines, so why not?) - you'll be fighting demons, demons and more demons and doing nothing else.This is where the game's problems begin. Throughout its entirety, you'll either be hitting demons with your chain whilst on foot, or hitting demons with your chain whilst on a motorbike. What's worse is that it doesn't do it particularly well; the games it apes perform these tasks far better and break up the action with puzzles, etc. The fighting can be fun, but there's little weight behind Ghost Rider's attacks and there's little reaction from the enemies apart from an identical "oh Stan, that hurt" animation until they dissolve into a collection of orbs. That's right, orbs ("souls"), just like in Devil May Cry.Another item inspired by (read: stolen from) Capcom's demonic button-basher is the combo system. With every continuous hit on an enemy, Ghost Rider gets gradually more and more powerful, going up through ranks until the 'Vengeance' rating is reached, giving our flame-skulled friend his maximum strength. However, being hit by an enemy stops the combo, so careful blocking is needed. It's a good system, and was so when Devil May Cry first used it all those years ago. In fact, so was the Devil Trigger, another feature that has somehow worked its way into the game in the form of 'Retribution'. In this mode, Ghost Rider is faster, stronger and able to kill powerful enemies with a simple press of the circle button to use his 'Penance Stare' ability, which releases even more orbs for Ghosty to gobble up.So what do these orbs actually do? Green ones power-up your 'Link Attack' meter, which releases a massive one-hit-frags-all attack on all enemies in the area; and red ones build up your Devil Tri... sorry 'Retribution' meter / Shotgun ammo (which you'll barely use). The yellow ones are the most important, since they allow you to upgrade your health, power, and buy new combos. The game throws yellow orbs at you at every opportunity, allowing Gamestyle to access the game's upgrade system, itself a direct rip-off of God of War's system (including the same sound effect), and boost Ghost Rider's health and power to full before the second level had finished - and buy every single combo by the fifth. Simply put, the game gives you too much power early on and hopes you'll be content with the idea theft from other, better-made games while beating seven levels of Hell out of its enemies.However, Gamestyle found it was having fun. Sure, the game steals ideas from the best of the genre, has quite bland graphics and a main character who desperately needs an ice pack and a throat sweet, but it's quite fun for how long it lasts, which isn't very long as the game can be defeated in a matter of hours. This is probably a good thing considering how shallow it is. The motorcycle sections inject some much needed variety, with massive jumps and homing missiles to dispatch oncoming enemies with, but they get also get very repetitive very quickly, as it's just a straight rush from A to B while shooting or chaining enemies. Ghost Rider is a solid game from which some enjoyment can be gleaned, but it's enjoyment found in better-made games that are now half its price.