Headshots, Wall Kicks and Weapons Galore – Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex brings Action to PlayStation 2
by Louis Bedigian 

“If you shoot the head you're going to see blood go all over the place.”

 The Ghost in the Shell onslaught continues! 

As the launch date for Stand Alone Complex inches closer, Bandai is feverishly preparing the game for release.  They’re also hard at work on the TV show of the same name (coming Nov. 6th to Cartoon Network).  Last month they gave moviegoers something to cheer about with the long-awaited sequel, Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence. 

But you knew that already, didn’t you?  Surely you’re up-to-date on the series’ latest developments.  If not, you haven’t been visiting GameZone Online nearly enough. 

This week GameZone Online got one last chance to talk with Bandai about their exciting action-shooter before it’s unleashed.

Overview: You're In Control 

Action is the name of this game, but stealth will also play a role.  Players might be surprised by the control scheme at first: all jump and attack moves are executed with the shoulder buttons.  It sounds strange, but it's actually quite brilliant.  With your right thumb free of the face button burden, the right analog stick can be maneuvered to change the camera at all times.  How many action games let you do that?  None.  You either can change the camera or make an attack.  Or sneak up behind an enemy.  Or open a door.  You can't do both at the same time unless you’re playing Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex. 

How Slow Can You Go? 

One of the features revealed in my chat with Bandai was slow motion.  It's not some cheesy bullet-time rip-off.  Instead, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex will slow down automatically after punching an enemy several times in a row.  The combo has to be completed before the slow motion effect is triggered.  When it is, just kick back, take your thumb off the joystick and watch as your hero pounds the enemy into the ground. 

Ain’t that a kick in the head. 

Standalone Features
 

• Loads of weapons: lasers, grenades, shotguns, machine guns, sniper rifles, rocket launchers, and more.

• Acrobatic moves – flip through the air and perform gravity-defying wall jumps to dodge enemy fire.

• Three playable characters: Motoko (a cyborg female), Batou (the muscle of the group) and Tachikoma (a think tank machine with childish characteristics).

• 12 different stages of vast Environments

• 4-player split-screen Multiplayer

• Several new Difficulty levels to unlock (in addition to Easy, Medium and Hard)

• Shoot special fans to unlock secret items!

Feet: not just for walking…anymore!

 In addition to the information provided, Bandai representatives John Soller and Roy Brewer took the time to answer our questions regarding Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex.

Can you shoot individual limbs with the sniper rifle? 

Bandai: The target zones aren't that big.  If you hit the midsection of the body, the person will bend over as they [get] hit in the midsection or the leg.  The limb won't fall off.  If you shoot the head you're going to see blood go all over the place. 

And then I assume it has corresponding animations?  For a headshot, the guy will fall over differently depending on where he's at. 

Bandai: Yeah.  He'll fall over the edge of a tower.  There's one level, the first level, you come to a bunch of snipers.  You have to take the snipers out in order to get through the level.  So you'll shoot one and he'll go limp and fall off the tower. 

How big of a role does sound play? 

Bandai: It has a big affect on alerting security guards.  They're alerted a lot by noise.  If you use your machine gun as compared to using your knife, they're gonna be alerted a lot quicker. 

Can you go through the game, or at least one particular level or mission, and not be heard by anyone? 

Bandai: For a good portion, yeah.  But there are so many guards there that eventually you're gonna bump into somebody.  Stealth does play a big portion of this game, but it's not the major part of Ghost in the Shell. 

How do you go about sneaking?  Are you able to crouch down, or do you press the analog stick very slightly to walk very lightly? 

Bandai: It's both.  The analog stick is pretty sensitive so you can walk and run.  Or you can press on the L3 button so you can crouch. 

Split-screen multiplayer action.

There's more than one playable character, correct? 

Bandai: For the story mode you have three separate characters that are pre-determined throughout the levels.  You have Motoko, Batou, and Tachikoma levels.  Once you play the multiplayer levels there are nine different characters. 

The controls are really, really good.  How did you go about achieving that?  I've played a lot of action games with terrible controls, but you guys managed to nail it and keep the game fast-paced all through the demo I played. 

Bandai: The idea is that the developers wanted to be able to use a full-range of controls at the same time.  Basically they made it so that you could jump, attack, shoot and look all at the same time by using different buttons. 

How much is involved in tweaking a game's controls?  How many hours does it actually take to change the coding or whatever it is that needs changing? 

Bandai: Probably a day.  I'm not so much connected to the programming team, but when we suggested that we wanted to change the controls, they weren't too happy.  It took them about a good day or two before they had something set for us.  And then when it finally came down to just changing the configurations for the top L and R buttons, there wasn't much of a problem with that.  All they did was reassign buttons for different actions in code. 

The people that made these changes, are they the same ones who actually developed the game, or do you have separate teams for this? 

Bandai: Same developers – Cavia in Japan. 

You had mentioned before that there are nine characters in the multiplayer mode... 

Bandai: Yes, that's correct.  The development team in Japan, Cavia, was allowed by the creators of Ghost in the Shell to create their own enemies for the video game.  They were really pleased with that.  When they did that they added those characters to the multiplayer mode.  You have three Section 9 characters: Motoko, Batou, and the think tank (Tachikoma).  And then you have six other enemy-type characters from snipers, to other think tanks, to giant artillery tanks, to enemies with exoskeleton skins.  Every one of these characters has four different costume changes.

That’s some tank.

Regarding the story mode, is there a different ending for each of the three characters? 

Bandai: The three characters are pre-determined.  When you play the story mode you will have played with the three different characters. 

Is it evenly dispersed? 

Bandai: About half the levels are Motoko.  The other half are Batou and then one half is Tachikoma. 

How do their stories intertwine?  What makes those two additional characters so significant, besides being there for gameplay value? 

Bandai: It just follows the storyline.  They go in to do some investigation, some weapons smuggling.  They work as a team but they split: Motoko goes one way and Batou goes the other.  They find clues and different things in different areas.  They communicate back and forth and meet up at the end. 

Thanks to everyone at Bandai and Kohnke Communications for having a wonderful conference call.