Riding in on top of the fiery success of the box office title (no puns intended), Ghost Rider leaps off the pages of Marvel’s comic book series and is raring to go on the Playstation 2. The superhero has a number of powers and weapons at his disposal, but is his first solo video game effort a blaze of glory or does it go down in flames?
Carrying on from the storyline presented in the recent motion picture, Ghost Rider travels to hell to learn he now has to appease Mephisto, the being who now owns Johnny Blaze’s soul in return for his powers, or else lose his girlfriend to the blazing depths of the netherworld. After Blackheart and denizens of hell escape and look to make the apocalypse arrive early, Rider is now forced to take on a hoard of demons with his chains, shotgun, retribution powers and motorcycle.
Just looking at the title, players will get exactly what they will expect from Ghost Rider – an attempted marriage at successful action titles such as God of War and Devil May Cry, and unfortunately for the title, it’s a comparison that just can’t be avoided. While mashing up two of the Playstation 2’s all-time greatest action titles sounds great on paper, with unoriginal execution and an extreme exercise in repetition, Rider may work only as a rental to appease hardcore fans of the anti-hero and the slash ‘em up genre.
The core premise of the title revolves around Ghost Rider and his encounters with huge groups of enemies of which to battle throughout a number of diverse stages. Climax did well implementing powers and abilities into the game as not only does Rider take a page from Kratos and rip up enemies using brutal attacks from his chains, but damage increases meters that allow him to also fire off the hell shotgun, use proximity blasts and enter retribution. While in retribution mode, Johnny pumps up and not only do his speed and attack greatly increase, but with a press of a button, the penance stare can be unleashed which either obliterates a minor enemy or greatly damages bigger foes.
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