A simple yet key factor why this game holds up is that shooting stuff with a mech is still fun.
The Ghost In The Shell franchise has been around a while it doesn't show up that often in a video game format. While this was likely made thanks to the movie the animations within favor the manga art style more. But they did manage to get all the voice actors to reprise their roles for this game. From my eyes these days it comes off more like a prototype of the Stand Alone Complex anime. Which was fun to see but let's get into what the game is about.
The game begins with a quick runthrough of some members of Section 9 and that their latest operation is to take down a rogue group named the Human Liberation Front. They have taken over a harbor and it’s up to S9 to take down their leader before more chaos spreads. Instead of playing one of the named characters the player ends up being a rookie who just joined the squad. In combat a robot spider tank named a Fujicoma is used to blast through any enemy.
Gameplay wise the main gimmick this game employs is the fact your tank can scale walls. Being able to glide on a roof to take down a enemy from below is fun. The only real downfall is no real way to lock on to enemies. Other than a auto lock on within a certain range. Once they are in range the main offensive ability is to rittle them with machine gun bullets or grenades. Dodging attacks from the enemy consists of jumping or side dashing past incoming bullets.
At first the gameplay appears like it would get old fast. Yet they do a good job of changing the environment around to keep it interesting. Add on a time crunch for some levels and some auto scrolling sections hat mix things up just enough. It doesn’t overstay its welcome either because it can be beaten in a few hours. Plus it even has a pretty cool moment for the final battle that you don’t see that often in the PS1 era.
Surprisingly for a game from this era it still holds up graphicly fairly well. Mostly thanks to all the different robot designs that lend themselves well to the blocky textures. Plus other than some repeated indoor areas each zone feels distinct visually. Doesn’t hurt that the short animated scenes that show up occasionally are very well animated too. Overall the presentation still works although the plot does seem rather onenote and forgettable.
In the end this is a good little action game that is still fun to play through once. Not very replayable although it does have a nice training mode that got me ready for playing through the main missions. At the time I’m sure the short length was a big issue without any reason to replay it. Not as big of a issue these days, so if your a fan of Ghost In Shell then this is a game worth playing.