This is definitely PSVR done right, or close to right.
Ghost Giant, developed by Zoink out of Sweden, is an adorable game that puts you in the place of a faceless ghost giant that helps out a young boy solve his day-to-day tasks. By the way, if you’re not familiar with Zoink’s efforts, then you should go check out Fe, published under EA Originals’, and will show you how much talent the indie developer has when creating good games. Much like Fe, Ghost Giant is nothing if not endearing about its message of fun and playfulness, with a tad bit of melancholy to boot.
Ghost Giant starts with your ghost appearing out of nowhere and spotlighting a crying little boy. You’re not sure what his issue is, but you’re willing to help him out — after he stops panicking that a ghost giant is standing right in front of him. As you progress through the story, you find out a bit more about the boy, about what he is doing, and some minor backstory on his family. The story felt really endearing and thought through. That’s not shocking considering that Fe was an amazing tale without ever really needing words. Zoink does a helluva job with the storytelling portion fo the narrative design, as Ghost Giant works on simplicity and innocence as its driving point. It doesn’t try to be ‘out there’ with what its doing, but rather wants you to focus on who you’re trying to help out and what fun there is to have with the world created for you. Whomever (or whatever group of people) put together this tale, it contains a lot of heart without trying. That’s a group of good writers if you ask me.
On the gameplay design side of the tracks, and through a clever amount of tutorials that don’t present themselves as such, the game introduces you to how it’s going to be for the next 10+ stages via the first stage. You can poke at things, grab things, and move things around. The controls aren’t complicated, rather they’re easy to pick up and go. And you might think that’s not a big deal, but Zoink seemed to really think through what it actually needed to make this title work, and it found that simplicity in controls, and requiring the gamer to use their brain, is all that the gameplay design needed to function. For example, the second stage of the game begins with the kid needing to pull up dead flowers from his farmland. These flowers are HUGE, so visually you think to yourself ‘I’m huge’, so I need to pluck those things. The dialogue doesn’t ask you to do it, as there are no visual indicators, but the invisible path to the task is designed to intentionally bring your eyes and thoughts to the task. It’s a great design that based on ‘yeah, duh’, which immediately tells you that the developer did some due diligence in its gameplay design construction. This is essentially how the entire game works, which makes for a fun and easy experience, with some exploration on the side (but not too much).
In terms of difficulty of the puzzles, or tasks that you are presented, you’re not going into this thing with a Witness mentality. The game wants to do two things:
1. Tell a story
2. Get you to experience something wonderful in VR
It’s not trying to trap you or stump you because being in VR beyond an hour can be a bit of a mental drag. Rather, it wants to entertain you and give you something to enjoy. In those two above categories, it accomplishes those feats. Ghost Giant does a superb job of mildly challenging your intellect with easy to medium size puzzles. It doesn’t do anything out of the ordinary, but it fits what it can within the story it built for you. Anything beyond that and you’re getting a questionable game. Thankfully, this is not a questionable game. It’s visually playful in what you’re doing and how you’re doing it. For example, the first stage of the game, during the introduction between the ghost and the kid, you get to accidentally ‘convince’ him to retreat from his treehouse by bending it downward (accidentally). Once bent, the kid panics, which makes you, the gamer, panic, and forces you to immediately bend it back the way it was prior to the initial bend. You want to do this because the kid is genuinely yelling for help. When my wife played this part, she was horrified that she might have potentially hurt this already alarmed individual. It was neat to see someone immediately connect to the character and verbally yell, “OH NO!!!”, as she panicked to put the treehouse back. When you get to that point where you emotionally panic that you might hurt the imaginary kid inside the imaginary treehouse, that’s when you know that your design is effective. More importantly, it also shows and establishes that your puzzles are part of the story, and seamless, if not common sense driven, which makes it all part of a solid experience.
Speaking of experiences, the VR portion of this game is masterfully woven together to put you in the world of Ghost Giant. The landscapes and people are almost construction paper design that adds some visual playfulness. The world seems like something a younger gamer would enjoy experiencing and it all has a rather innocent feel to it, if not downright adorable. The scope of the VR is impressive, as the draw distance really feels like you’re in a large sprawling land that goes on forever. The game does keep you in check with boundaries marked by a ripple in the air when you get too close to the edge of the VR’s range. Visually, this is a very enjoyable VR environment that you could probably be in for multiple hours, which is a tough thing to say for VR experiences.
As stated earlier, the game does give you some simplicity in its controls, while at the same time engaging with VR gameplay design. For example, on stage three you will need to remove some rocks in the road that block your new friend’s path. As you grab these rocks, you will notice a basketball near them, which matches perfectly with a very inviting/enticing hoop in the middle of the background. Spoiler alert, you can pick up the bball and shoot it. Being from Kentucky, where basketball is injected into our veins at a very young age, I might have spent an enormous amount of time stuck on level three shooting said basketball. Things you should know, it works very well and the physics aren’t too far off from where they should be. This is but one great example of how well the VR experience works in this game. Thank you, Zoink.
The only knock I can see against this game is that with its simplicity firmly merged in its story, the experience may not be enough for those looking for a long-term gaming adventure. The price tag does help that a bit ($29.99), but I can see people breaking this out once in a while to show their friends, and returning to it much later down the road. Personally, I felt some good connection with the characters, the world, and the short adventure. It is a fun VR experience, one of the best so far on the PSVR, and you shouldn’t short change it. There’s a lot more to it, and you can spend some time doing nothing particular within the environment. Or you can shoot basketball. Whatever.
Overall, Ghost Giant has been a fun experience for the PSVR. The characters are endearing as the story, the VR is very engaging and engulfing, and the simplicity of the controls helps to keep focus on the fun and side-experiences you happen upon. There’s a lot to love about this title.
Ghost Giant is available at North American retailers including Amazon, GameStop and Best Buy for $29.99
