Everybody could use an extra pair of hands sometimes. When times get rough and you have a feeling you’re alone in the world, it’s hard to face your problems. The same goes for little Louis, who’s struggling to get everything done. Lucky for him, he gets some unexpected help. Ghost Giant tells the heartwarming tale of the connection between Louis and his invisible Ghost Giant. It’s one of my most memorable Virtual Reality experiences, let me tell you why.
The start of an amazing friendship
Ghost Giant starts off on a rather sad note. We see our young friend Louis (a small anthropomorphic cat) crying in front of a lake. Everything is dark except Louis and the small piece of an island he’s sitting on. As gamer, you’re playing this through the eyes of the giant, both PlayStation Move controllers mimicking the hands of the giant. The way this giant is ‘summoned’ isn’t out of happiness, it’s the sadness of Louis that called in the help of this unexpected friend. This scene smartly combines touching music to tell you that this won’t be a happy tale.
And yet, having fun is the first thing you’ll do. The world of Ghost Giant is beautifully crafted and your interaction with it feels very natural and intuitive. The best part about being this Ghost Giant is the fact that Louis can’t believe what he’s seeing. Scared at first, he’ll slowly form a friendship so pure that you simply cannot resist falling in love with this cute little cat. The bond between you and Louis is incredible and by far the game’s biggest achievement. You really feel the connection and you want to take care of Louis, especially when you learn more about him. Behind all his happiness lies a world of pain and insecurities. It’s a tale of depression, a tale of conquering it while constantly falling back down. It’s your job as Ghost Giant to cheer up Louis and help him in any way possible.
Solve those puzzles
At its core, Ghost Giant is a puzzle game where you need to look for clues in your environment in order to solve a problem. Louis lives on a farm that has been neglected by his mother. For reason we won’t spoil, Louis is on his own but he still needs to take care of the farm. This leads him to several places such as a small village, harbor, and more. Everywhere he goes, he needs to solve a certain problem. Of course, he can’t do this on his own and he constantly asks you for help. As Ghost Giant, it’s important to listen to Louis in order to find a suiting solution for the problem. Most problems are solved by finding the right object and combining it in the right place.
Although it might sound easy and not really innovating, we’ve all seen and played games like this before. Ghost Giant truly offers a unique take at the genre. Due to the amazingly gorgeous graphics, the puzzle experience gets lifted to new heights. The entire world is created with cardboard, reminding me of the recently released Yoshi’s Crafted World. As Giant, you can easily interact with the world. By poking or grabbing objects, you easily reach your goal and find the solution to a puzzle. What I liked most about this is the fact that you can interact with this world in crazy ways. You can turn around houses to take a look inside them, pull of roofs to find hidden objects or pull special levers to activate special objects in the world. It always feels like you’re looking at a miniature world created out of cardboard where you need to find the missing object. Needless to say, the VR experience only makes this better. Although you can’t walk around freely, you can easily change your direction to see everything there is to see. This in combination with the PlayStation Move controllers results in an easy to learn but hard to stop PSVR game.
Hats off to the team
The fun doesn’t stop at finding the solution to a puzzle. Each chapter and thus each environment is filled with small secrets for you to discover. Ranging from a hidden basketball that you need to throw into the hoop to collectible hats, there’s something hidden in every level. Finding and collecting all the hats have become an inside joke of the developers but it’s a fun thing to do. Grabbing and pulling away an old hat just because you want to drop a cooler hat on top of Louis’s head sounds silly but it’s actually a welcomed addition to the ‘regular’ gameplay. Thanks to these small collectibles, you’ll scan your environment better and you’ll appreciate the level of details even more. Hats off to the team for creating such a beautiful and interactive virtual world.
Because this world is packed with secrets and interactive objects, you’ll run into a couple of bugs while playing. This still is a PSVR game so the physics of the objects might respond differently than intended. Grabbing and poking is fun but during my playthrough, I managed to throw away objects I needed later on. Luckily, most objects return if you lose them but sometimes, I needed to restart the level due to a small bug. It’s nothing game breaking and it never felt like a punishment to play a small section of the game again in order to solve the problem but it’s something you need to take into consideration. Of course, this is something a lot of PSVR games struggle with and it’s something I gladly forgive the developers for. Yes, there are some small bugs but they don’t measure up to the unique and touching VR story you get in return. Even due to these small ‘glitches’, Ghost Giant is by far one of my favorite PSVR games I’ve ever played.
Conclusion:
Ghost Giant combines happiness and sadness in one touching story. Being the Giant friend of Louis will bring you an incredible amount of joy while you’ll also feel his pain when he’s feeling down. The bond between you and Louis is strong and you’ll want to do everything that’s in your power to make him happy. The combination of humor and a more serious theme really works out well. It’s an experience unlike any other game and it’s by far one of the most memorable PSVR games I’ve played. Don’t be fooled by its cute looks, Ghost Giant will certainly leave its mark.
8,5/10
Tested on PlayStation 4 Pro with PSVR
