I am looking for them, and I can not find them. They were not there at the start of the game, nor in the middle, and now in it’s completion I still can’t find them. These things, these items I was looking for, and was unable to find, are reasons to own this game.

Almost every aspect by which you can rate a game Ghost Rider manages to fail. This is curious in itself since the game unashamedly rips off two of the greatest games of the action genre on the PS2, that of God of War and Devil May Cry. I don’t mean “somewhat inspired”, I mean entire aspects of the game have been lifted directly from these triumphant games. From the analogue stick rolls that Kratos provides, to the skill system generously donated by Dante. They even stole some camera angles and panning techniques, I swear to God, camera angles!

Somehow they stole so much from these games and produced so little. Ghost Rider manages to lack both the elegance of Dante and the power of Kratos, he even feels impotent at first as all the entertaining moves are locked and must be earned by, that’s right, collecting souls! However unlike those other two great games I keep mentioning the upgrade system they utilise is a little too generous and you will quickly gain all the extra moves (which do make the game more entertaining), as well as their “bonus” goodies such as comics and making of videos.

Graphics and animation are, again, below par. Everything is muddied visually and lacks any real sense of character. To their credit, they did try to vary the appearance of the levels somewhat. They have a level in h** that looks strangely like Quake 3, a military base that looks like a set from Deep Blue Sea, and the obligatory “somewhat spooky but not really” circus stage.

Your enemies can be roughly divided into four types; Standard infantry, ranged infantry, who often attack off screen and interrupt the flow of combat which is immensely annoying, giant beasties which pose a slightly greater challenge if your not paying attention, and irritating small flying things. There’s a multitude of samey looking enemies but they can always be dropped down into these four simple categories and so you rarely have to adjust your attack pattern making long periods of fighting somewhat monotonous.

Even the few attempts at originality tend to fall flat on their face. For instance on some monsters they have placed a combo shield, this means that your unable to do them harm unless you’ve worked up a certain combo chain. This can prove extremely infuriating because a single glancing hit off an enemy that is hiding off screen will break your the bonus you’ve built up so far, and so you must start again.

In a move that was somewhat interesting they’ve dedicated a sizeable chunk of the game to motorcycle sections. These require you hop, slide and blast your way over a fair variety of landscapes. It must be said that this is a the most fun part of the game, I can’t help but wonder if they would of been better off ditching the main action part of the game and instead concentrate on developing the bike action. Unfortunately these sections are also tainted with problems. Controls are a little dodgy and not lining yourself up exactly for a jump can end up hurling you into oblivion.

Frankly the story of the game is not worth mentioning, so I won’t bother. Aside from that initial thing about me not mentioning it. Also the voice acting is so atrocious, it grates on the ears. That’s the last thing I’ll say about it. Really.

I’m not sure whether to define this next point of the game as mercy or flaw. You see Ghost Rider on top of everything is also extremely short. Easily completed in under four hours of play, and yet it still sports a standard price for a PS2 game. You have the option of running through the game again as different characters, but why would you? Why?

It’s not that Ghost Rider is so utterly atrocious, but it has nothing much to boast in any department. It’s all been done before and better by the very games it seeks to impersonate. You’re better off playing God of War, or Devil May Cry, or God Hand, or just about anything really. If you already own these games, then I humbly suggest you play them again. It will still be infinitely better and refined then this. This is a rip off done badly (if it’s rip off done well it’s generally known as “homage”) and is only really worth checking out if you’ve played everything else, repeatedly, and if you find it in a bargain bin, or a bin in someone else’s house.

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