to understand what a gem ghost trick is, you should take a moment to sit back and try to come up with a gameplay mechanic thats like nothing anyones ever seen before while also being fun.
if you were to try and compare the gameplay in ghost trick to another game you would eventually liken it to a point and click adventure in the sense that the puzzle comes from the player having to discern the relationship between various objects in the world. people whove played this game though know that thats where the comparison ends. in ghost trick, you are a ghost thats physically bound to the object youre currently possessing, meaning that simply moving from one location to another becomes the puzzle itself.
theres a law in game design that says new mechanics should be introduced to the player in a safe environment in order to acclimate them to the idea of it without them getting frustrated and i was consistently impressed with how ghost trick follows up on this idea.
ghost trick is all about context sensitivity. theres only one real action button in the game, and its effect is determined by the object the players ghost is currently possessing. this means that for every single new object the player encounters, a new effect of the action button is introduced to the player. this might seem daunting at first, but ghost trick handles this brilliantly. a single word hint is always given on the secondary screen about what might happen when the object is interacted with, but even more importantly this is when the law i mentioned earlier comes into play.
the puzzles in ghost trick where its possible to reach a fail state are always about preventing the death of another character in the story. before entering the puzzle, the player is always shown a little movie of how the events leading up to that characters death play out, which often clearly display the nature of objects they will soon be interacting with. furthermore, before even that, the player is usually tasked with traversing the area the puzzle will take place in. this puts them in a situation where they cant fail and are given the space to freely interact and experiment with the objects in the area.
the gameplay is executed so well that theres no hiccups in it at all that would get in the way of enjoying the even more impressive aspect of ghost trick, the story.
ghost trick starts out with one of the most compelling introductions ive ever seen in a game and keeps that interest going all the way to the very end. theres 18 chapters and every single one introduces some kind of new twist or mystery that had me unable to put the game down until i was physically too tired to keep playing. ghost trick stacks so many mysteries on top of each other for 80% of the game that i thought there was no way they could all be resolved in time. the final few chapters however wrapped everything up so much more neatly than i couldve ever thought was possible.
the only unresolved mystery in ghost trick to me is that such a great game could somehow fly this far under the radar.
if you were to try and compare the gameplay in ghost trick to another game you would eventually liken it to a point and click adventure in the sense that the puzzle comes from the player having to discern the relationship between various objects in the world. people whove played this game though know that thats where the comparison ends. in ghost trick, you are a ghost thats physically bound to the object youre currently possessing, meaning that simply moving from one location to another becomes the puzzle itself.
theres a law in game design that says new mechanics should be introduced to the player in a safe environment in order to acclimate them to the idea of it without them getting frustrated and i was consistently impressed with how ghost trick follows up on this idea.
ghost trick is all about context sensitivity. theres only one real action button in the game, and its effect is determined by the object the players ghost is currently possessing. this means that for every single new object the player encounters, a new effect of the action button is introduced to the player. this might seem daunting at first, but ghost trick handles this brilliantly. a single word hint is always given on the secondary screen about what might happen when the object is interacted with, but even more importantly this is when the law i mentioned earlier comes into play.
the puzzles in ghost trick where its possible to reach a fail state are always about preventing the death of another character in the story. before entering the puzzle, the player is always shown a little movie of how the events leading up to that characters death play out, which often clearly display the nature of objects they will soon be interacting with. furthermore, before even that, the player is usually tasked with traversing the area the puzzle will take place in. this puts them in a situation where they cant fail and are given the space to freely interact and experiment with the objects in the area.
the gameplay is executed so well that theres no hiccups in it at all that would get in the way of enjoying the even more impressive aspect of ghost trick, the story.
ghost trick starts out with one of the most compelling introductions ive ever seen in a game and keeps that interest going all the way to the very end. theres 18 chapters and every single one introduces some kind of new twist or mystery that had me unable to put the game down until i was physically too tired to keep playing. ghost trick stacks so many mysteries on top of each other for 80% of the game that i thought there was no way they could all be resolved in time. the final few chapters however wrapped everything up so much more neatly than i couldve ever thought was possible.
the only unresolved mystery in ghost trick to me is that such a great game could somehow fly this far under the radar.