Ghost Master
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| Ghost Master | |
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| Developer(s) | Sick Puppies |
| Publisher(s) | Empire Interactive, Feral Interactive (Mac) |
| Designer(s) | Gregg Barnett, Chris Bateman |
| Release date(s) | May 23, 2003 December 21, 2006 (Steam) |
| Genre(s) | Puzzle, Strategy |
| Mode(s) | Singleplayer |
| Rating(s) | ELSPA: +7 ESRB: T |
| Platform(s) | Windows, Mac |
| Media | CD, Download (Steam) |
| System requirements | Pentium® III 450. Windows® 98,ME,XP,2000. NVIDIA® TNT2 3D card. 128MB of RAM. 750MB of HD space. DirectX® 8.1. |
| Input | Keyboard and Mouse |
Ghost Master is a puzzle/strategy game for the PC. It is among a small selection of games that pit the player in the role of the enemy (see also Dungeon Keeper). In this case, the player assumes the role of a Ghost Master, a seemingly bureaucratic spirit tasked to perform certain duties. While the bulk of a Ghost Master's duties consist of hauntings, a Ghost Master may also be 'called in' to increase belief in the supernatural, avenge deaths, and conscript renegade ghosts. Because a Ghost Master cannot directly interfere in the world of mortals, he is given a team of subordinate ghosts to do so. When not haunting, the Ghost Master is responsible for the training of the ghosts under his command, using rare gold plasm to purchase new abilities for his minions.
The game was published on Mac OS X by Feral Interactive.
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[edit] Basic Gameplay
Note: It is important to note that many of the game's characters are not ghosts in the technical sense. Regardless, this article will use the term 'ghosts' as a generality.
In all but a few levels of Ghost Master, the goal of the game is to cause all mortals to flee the area in fear and/or succumb to madness. Named after popular horror movies (Weird Seance, The Calamityville Horror, The Blair Wisp Project, etc.), Ghost Master plays similarly to a real time strategy game. The player first chooses the ghosts he wants to field in the level.
The player cannot field every ghost in every place. Each ghost has one or two types of objects (or fetter) it can be attached (or bound) to. For example, a ghost who died during a robbery could only be bound to a Murder Fetter, whereas a water spirit can only be bound to a bath, sink, or a simple puddle of water.
Another limiting factor is Plasm. This numerical resource dictates which abilities a ghost can use. As a human becomes frightened, Plasm is generated. With more plasm, stronger abilities (and more ghosts) can be fielded at any one time. This, in turn, creates more Plasm.
Once the objective(s) for a level has been completed, the game rate's the player's progress. Many factors are considered, including time, amount of impact on the mortals, and how many mortals fled. If the player is able to complete the mission fairly quickly, there is a multiplier added to the final score. This score determines the amount of Gold Plasm is given to the player, which is used to add more skills to their ghosts.
[edit] Mortal defenses and abilities
[edit] Inherent
Each human in the game is different in how easily it can be scared, and what can cause it to become scared in the first place. All mortals have a belief bar, which partially determines the efficacy of a ghost's powers upon them. Every human also has conscious and subconscious fears which are particularly effective on them. These are unknown at the beginning of each level, but some ghosts have the ability to expose these fears.
For example, a human with a low belief bar and a no special fear of spiders would not be particularly unnerved by the appearance of a spider in his vicinity. However, if that human's subconscious fear was Fire, seeing a room ignited in flame would be extremely effective.
[edit] Special
Somewhere between average humans and your ghosts are priests, witches, and Mediums. These humans have the ability to banish your ghosts that you have fielded. An alert is shown on screen when one of your ghosts is in danger of being banished, and the player must quickly release the ghost (or benching) the spirit before it is fully banished. Banished ghosts are no longer useable during that level, and are returned after the mission is complete. Also, a large score penalty is levied on the Ghost Master who allows one of his or her ghosts to be banished.
[edit] Ghostbreakers
Ghostbreakers (poking fun at Ghostbusters) are the most dangerous mortals, from a supernatural perspective. They are able to detect and banish ghosts at a much faster speed than the above humans. Having very good technology, they are able to field special wards, which prevent the player from fielding, or benching, ghosts trapped underneath them. Only if the electrical generators are destroyed will these wards fail.
The three main Ghostbreakers are named after Harold Ramis, Bill Murray, and Dan Aykroyd.
[edit] Reception
Ghost Master rated highly among critics, but was not a popular seller. ([1], search for Ghost Master), and there are no plans for a sequel.
Interestingly, the game ends with a cliffhanger, with the Ghostbreakers bringing in a bomb that would completely erase supernatural presence in the city the game takes place. Because of the lack of a sequel, a bonus level was released for fans, which provided some closure. Sadly, the bonus level is only available for the UK version of the game, and there are no plans to release the level for the US Version.
[edit] Trivia
- Several mission names and plots are humorous references to popular culture:
- "Weird Séance" - Weird Science.
- "The Calamityville Horror" - Amityville Horror.
- "Summoners Not Included" - the name is a parody of a well-known line on many electrical products ("Batteries Not Included"), while the plot closely mimics that of the movie Evil Dead.
- "The Unusual Suspects" - The Usual Suspects (loading screen shows several ghosts are standing in a lineup).
- "Deadfellas" - Goodfellas (takes place on a mobster's yacht, and several trapped ghosts have been "whacked" by him).
- "Poultrygeist" - Poltergeist.
- "Phantom of the Operating Room" - The Phantom of the Opera.
- "The Blair Wisp Project" - The Blair Witch Project.
- "Spooky Hollow" - Sleepy Hollow (the ghost Dragoon is an obvious reference to The Headless Horseman and the ghost Scarecrow bears a close likeness to the Tim Burton style Scarecrows seen in this film and The Nightmare Before Christmas).
- "Ghostbreakers" - Ghostbusters.
- "Full Mortal Jacket" - Full Metal Jacket (takes place on an army base).
- "Harriet" is a Rabbit-shaped Phooka, similar to Harvey.
- "What Lies Over the Cuckoo's Nest" - a combination of What Lies Beneath and One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (takes place in a mental hospital).
- "Magenta Quinn" Name forged from Rocky Horror Show character Magenta and the actress portraying her, Patricia Quinn.
- "Ursula Kadrow" is taken from the name Ursula Boffei and is played by Lisa Kudrow.
- "Leon Compowski", one of the patients in the asylum in the level "What Lies Over the Cuckoo's Nest," was a character in the first episode of the third season, of the Simpsons and was played by Michael Jackson. The bio tells us that the staff refer to Leon as "the big white guy who thinks he's the little black guy," exactly what is said about Leon in the Simpsons.
- Some Ghosts are based on Ancient Mythology
- "Wisakejak" is a Coyote Trickster Spirit, the name comes from a popular Native American Trickster, more commonly seen as "Wisakedjak"
- "Harriet" is a Phooka trickster a mischievous spirit from Celtic folklore
- "Brigit" is the Ghost of an insane Bride-to-be, left at the alter, and takes her name from the Celtic Goddess, most commonly known as Brigid or Brigit, but also known as Brìde, among other names, being the Goddess who represented the female spirit; Wives, Mothers etc. - among many other things.
- "Windwalker" is a Wendigo, a Malevolent spiritual being and devourer of human flech, seen in Algonquian mythology
- The two Fire Elementals "Firetail" and "Sparkle" are Salamanders, long believed to be magical Lizards born from fire, due to thier habit of sleeping in damp logs prepared for firewood.
