Geist (video game)

Raaaaaaaimiiiiiiii...

A 2005 First-Person Shooter developed for the Nintendo Gamecube by n-Space. Geist is the story of John Raimi, a scientist hired by a counter-terrorism unit to help them investigate a biochemical corporation. They have good reason to be suspicious. The Volks Corporation has apparently been developing chemical weaponry, according to information gathered by the unit's inside man (and Raimi's mentor). But even this is far from the truth, as one of the soldiers seemingly kills the rest of the team against his will, and Raimi awakens to discover that he is now a ghost, and the only way to survive and discover the truth is to possess others...

This game is hardly your stereotypical FPS. While the gameplay never leaves the first-person perspective except for cutscenes, the gameplay varies widely from sequence to sequence. Some areas demand standard shooting and platforming skills, while others take the form of puzzles and resource management.

Critical reception was fair to good, as critics praised the concept but not the execution. The graphics were greatly outdated (resembling Nintendo 64 graphics more than anything else), the game didn't give the player any alternate solutions to its puzzles, and the like. A Let's Play of the game can be found here.

Not to be confused with MD Geist, which is a So Bad It's Good OVA from the 1980s. Also not to be confused with the New World of Darkness game, Geist: The Sin-Eaters.

This game provides examples of:


 * Air Vent Passageway: You're a dog that appears to be a boxer at the time, and you still have to crouch to get through. No one notices barking or claws clicking.
 * Bedsheet Ghost
 * Big Bad: Alexander Volks.
 * Body Surf: The central concept of the game.
 * Bullet Time: Being a bodiless ghost naturally slows time down; there are also battlesuits that can temporarily produce the same effect.
 * Creepy Child: Gigi.
 * Deadpan Snarker: Raimi is a Heroic Mime, but descriptions of his surroundings, archived here, reveal that he makes some snide observations. "This is where all of the important faxes come to the morgue", "This [gurney in a morgue] must have been difficult to get down the stairs. At least the passengers don't mind the bumpy ride", "Thanks for the pants" [to a dead guard whose pants he stole] are the most notable.
 * Dead to Begin With: Well, after one level...
 * Demonic Invaders
 * Escort Mission: A bizarre one; you help a friend escape by possessing any and all useful objects in the vicinity, including the escape vehicle. Before that happens there's a more standard escort mission, but fortunately the unarmed Bryson is too weak to run out ahead of you and the enemies don't really focus on him.
 * Evil-Detecting Dog Dogs can tell if you're possessing a soldier, and will bark. This sets off the alarm and causes every soldier nearby to start shooting at you immediately.
 * Faux Action Girl: Anna is an average nurse who only turns into a gun-toting Action Girl because you are possessing her at the time. After you leave her, she keeps the outfit and weapon, but not the competence.
 * Gender Bender: You possess several women.
 * Grand Theft Me: It reaches the point where ghosts try to kill you by inhabiting your body and killing yourself.
 * Heroic Mime: Raimi is completely silent throughout, even when possessing humans and trying to convince a friend it's really him. For that matter, so are all the other ghosts made at Volks except for Gigi. So this might be a Justified Trope as a side-effect of being separated from the body. Also, might be an unintentional Downer Ending in that even after.
 * Although for that matter, he says nothing in the beginning, and he speaks twice late in the game, as a parrot and an animal trainer. The separation process rendering ghosts mute makes a lot more sense, all things considered.
 * Hospital Hottie: Anna. Damn.
 * Infernal Paradise The antagonist's plans for Earth.
 * Informed Ability: Raimi's supposed to have knowledge on chemical and biological warfare. A scientist. But descriptions have him looking at control panels and thinking "Hmm... looks complicated", and finding equations incomprehensible.
 * Just Eat Him: One boss swallows one of your allies whole, but spits him back up later.
 * Justified Tutorial: A computer specifically designed to train new ghosts.
 * Last-Name Basis: No one but Bryson calls you John. Bryson and Rourke don't even get that.
 * Living Statue
 * The Mind Is a Plaything of the Body: Possessing some characters results in subconscious desires and aversions that the player doesn't share.
 * Mini Game: Among other examples, one area can only be passed after a literally riveting action sequence.
 * Or one could just kill all the workers in the area.
 * Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Trying to keep Bryson from being hit by the separation procedure and possibly driven mad, Raimi destroys the machinery that's keeping the rift stable. This does result in Bryson being taken down and sent to the medical wing, but it also means that a huge incorporeal demon can pass through and start making everything worse. Though it can't be solely blamed on Raimi - after the machinery was destroyed, one of the technicians insisted that the rift be closed down lest something escape, but Rourke orders it forced wide open, and when he gets argued with, he gives the engineer a present from his gun to the head to convince the other engineer to open it.
 * No Sidepaths, No Exploration, No Freedom : For a game with a fundamental point of scaring people to control random guards, there is only one direction you can ever go in any given situation whatsoever, going back is never an option, as the game will never let you reopen some doors, not that there's a thing to find anyways.
 * Playing Tennis With the Boss: In an odd variant, you possess his missiles and guide them back manually.
 * Railroading: One of the game's biggest faults is the limited amount of freedom given in progressing through the game.
 * Shout-Out: John Raimi.
 * Spirit Advisor: Gigi.
 * Unexpected Gameplay Change: Repeatedly, up to and including a space shooter.
 * Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?: Half of a level is spent setting up a situation where you can take advantage of The Dragon's fear of dogs.
 * Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?: Half of a level is spent setting up a situation where you can take advantage of The Dragon's fear of dogs.