Ghost Master

Ghost Master (released as Ghost Master: The Gravenville Chronicles on the Xbox and PlayStation 2) is a puzzle strategy game developed by British studio Sick Puppies for Windows. The game was later published on Mac OS X by Feral Interactive. The player assumes the role of a Ghost Master, a 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, the Ghost Master 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 their command.

Ghost Master
Developer(s)Sick Puppies
Empire Interactive (PS2, Xbox)
Publisher(s)Empire Interactive
Sega (Japan)
Feral Interactive (Mac)
Strategy First (Steam)
Director(s)Gregg Barnett
Producer(s)Andy Severn
Designer(s)Chris Bateman
Gregg Barnett
Neil Bundy
Nick Martinelli
Programmer(s)David Hunt
Neal Tringham
Artist(s)James Ellis
Mike Philbin
Nick Martinelli
Writer(s)Chris Bateman
Richard Boon
Composer(s)Paul Weir
Platform(s)Microsoft Windows
Mac OS
Mac OS X
PlayStation 2
Xbox
ReleaseWindows
  • EU: May 23, 2003
  • NA: August 26, 2003
  • JP: January 29, 2004
Mac OS & OS X
  • WW: 2003
PlayStation 2 & Xbox
  • EU: August 27, 2004
Steam
  • NA: December 21, 2006
Genre(s)Puzzle, strategy
Mode(s)Single-player

Gameplay

The game consists of 15 levels. In all but a few levels, the primary goal of the game is to scare away all the mortals (humans) and cause them to flee the area in fear or succumb to madness.

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 "fetters") it can be 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.

Once the objective(s) for a level has been completed, the game rates 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" given to the player, which is used to add more spells to ghost's arsenal.

The game ends with a cliffhanger, with the Ghostbreakers bringing in a bomb that would completely erase supernatural presence in the city where the game takes place. Because of the lack of a sequel, a bonus level was released for fans, which provided some closure. However, the bonus level is only available for the UK version of the game and was not released for the retail US version.

Bonus content

The bonus level is included in the Steam and Good Old Games release of the game. The bonus level "Class of Spook'em high" is the only downloadable content released for the game. In the level, the Ghostbreakers attack the HQ of ghost master, an old, abandoned mansion that the player has to defeat the Ghostbreakers in order to win the game. The bonus content was released in place of a sequel.

Restless spirits

Each level also has "Restless Spirits," haunters bound to a certain location in some levels, there are often "secret" locations of the haunters, requiring the player to use a move or complete an objective to reveal their location, usually having a back-story as to why they are there. The player can use haunters they already brought with them to free them using a certain move, or a combination, an example is in the first level, the restless spirit, "Weatherwitch" is bound to a vacuum cleaner the player has to use an electric fetter move to free her, causing the vacuum cleaner to malfunction, and release weather-witch.

Mortal defenses and abilities

All mortals have a belief level, which partially determines the effectiveness of a ghost's powers upon them. The belief bar is raised slightly with every scare, and particular powers are able to raise belief better than others. Every mortal also has conscious and subconscious fears which are linked to certain ghost's powers. Scaring a mortal with a power that appeals to their fear is particularly effective on him or her. These are usually unknown at the beginning of each level, but some ghosts have the ability to expose these fears.

Mortals also have a terror level and a madness level, with certain limits to each. When a human's terror bar is raised to a certain level, he/she flees, this is the objective of most of the in-game levels. The madness bar is filled only by the use of certain powers. When a mortal's madness bar reaches a certain point, they go insane, which is visible in that they now just roam the area of the scenario in a frenzy and are unable to be scared or maddened any more. The fear bar reduces as time progresses in the game, but the belief and madness bars do not.

Somewhere between average humans and ghosts are priests, witches, and mediums. These humans have the ability to banish ghosts that are fielded. Banished ghosts are no longer usable during that level, but are returned after the mission is complete. Also, a large score penalty is levied on players who allow ghosts to be banished.

Ghostbreakers are the most dangerous mortals, from a supernatural perspective. They are able to detect and banish ghosts at a much faster speed than the other "special" mortals mentioned previously. They are also able to field special wards, which prevent the player from fielding, or benching, ghosts trapped underneath them. Only if the electrical generators are destroyed do the wards fail.

Reception
Reception
Review scores
PublicationScore
PCPS2Xbox
Edge6/10[1]N/AN/A
Eurogamer7/10[2]N/A7/10[3]
Game Informer7.25/10[4]N/AN/A
GamePro[5]N/AN/A
GameSpot8.8/10[6]N/AN/A
GameSpy[7]N/AN/A
GameZone9/10[8]N/AN/A
IGN7/10[9]N/AN/A
OPM (UK)N/A5/10[10]N/A
OXM (UK)N/AN/A7.5/10[11]
PC Gamer (US)90%[12]N/AN/A
Aggregate score
Metacritic81/100[13]75/100[14]59/100[15]

The PC and PlayStation 2 versions received "generally favorable reviews", while the Xbox version received "mixed" reviews, according to the review aggregation website Metacritic.[13][14][15]

The staff of X-Play nominated Ghost Master for their 2003 "Best Strategy Game" award,[16] which ultimately went to Rise of Nations.[17]

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See also
  • Dungeon Keeper and Dungeon Keeper 2, video games in which the player controls hellish creatures.
  • Evil Genius, a video game where the player controls an evil genius who is bent on world domination.
  • Haunting Starring Polterguy, a similar 1993 comedy-horror video game.

References
  1. Edge staff (August 2003). "Ghost Master". Edge (126).
  2. Taylor, Martin (June 13, 2003). "Ghost Master (PC)". Eurogamer. Retrieved October 23, 2016.
  3. Reed, Kristan (September 17, 2004). "Ghost Master [The Gravenville Chronicles] (Xbox)". Eurogamer. Retrieved October 23, 2016.
  4. Mason, Lisa (November 2003). "Ghostmaster [sic]". Game Informer (127): 174. Archived from the original on May 23, 2004. Retrieved October 23, 2016.
  5. Jango Fatt (September 25, 2003). "Ghost Master Review for PC on GamePro.com". GamePro. Archived from the original on February 14, 2005. Retrieved October 23, 2016.
  6. Todd, Brett (August 26, 2003). "Ghost Master Review". GameSpot. Retrieved October 23, 2016.
  7. Harker, Carla (September 15, 2003). "GameSpy: Ghost Master". GameSpy. Retrieved October 23, 2016.
  8. Tha Wiz (September 11, 2003). "Ghost Master - PC - Review". GameZone. Archived from the original on January 20, 2009. Retrieved October 23, 2016.
  9. Adams, David (September 11, 2003). "Ghost Master Review". IGN. Retrieved October 23, 2016.
  10. "Ghost Master: The Gravenville Chronicles". Official UK PlayStation 2 Magazine. November 2004.
  11. "Ghost Master: The Gravenville Chronicles". Official Xbox Magazine UK. November 2004.
  12. Chan, Norman (December 2003). "Ghost Master". PC Gamer: 96. Archived from the original on March 15, 2006. Retrieved October 23, 2016.
  13. "Ghost Master for PC Reviews". Metacritic. Retrieved October 23, 2016.
  14. "Ghost Master: The Gravenville Chronicles (ps2: 2004): Reviews". Metacritic. Archived from the original on September 13, 2008. Retrieved October 23, 2016.
  15. "Ghost Master: The Gravenville Chronicles (xbx: 2004): Reviews". Metacritic. Archived from the original on September 13, 2008. Retrieved October 23, 2016.
  16. Staff (December 24, 2003). "X-Play Best of 2003 Awards". X-Play. Archived from the original on August 31, 2004.
  17. X-Play Staff (December 24, 2003). "X-Play's Best of 2003 Award Winners". X-Play. Archived from the original on August 31, 2004.
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