Ghost Giant Review

Storytelling in gaming has definitely evolved since the introduction of VR, as it feels like you’re more part of the story and can interact with the characters and surroundings. If done right, the storyteller can really drive a point home and make a memorable experience for the player, otherwise, can be an exercise in frustration.

Luckily Zoink Games are already familiar with storytelling thanks to their work with the comedic Flipping Death and Stick it to the Man, however their first VR game – Ghost Giant – is something of a different beast. The comedic tones and characters are still there, however you feel like there is something more going in the life of your protagonists.

In Ghost Giant, players take the role of, well… a Giant Ghost, who appears at a lake in front of a sobbing Catboy named Louis. Of course, this scares the small child (as would anyone if a giant ghost just appeared out of the water) however after assisting him with some chores around his and his mother’s Sunflower farm, Louis becomes attached to you and you work with him to complete tasks around his town.

While following Louis we get to meet a lovable cast of characters, each generally concerned for Louis and his family, however you never get over the fact that you feel like Louis is hiding something. Which provides a sense of dread and sadness over the game’s generally light-hearted tone, making you fear the most for what Louis is hiding.

As the Ghost Giant, players are not able to directly affect other characters, players can be poked to gain their attention but it usually ends with them shrugging you off. The environment however is fair game. Players can poke and grab items around the environment to throw it out-of-the-way, or combine it to solve certain puzzles.

The puzzles overall are not overly difficult, with most of them usually involving throwing something, moving something, or cranking something, and like most good puzzle games, there are puzzles that will likely stump you even with the answers right under your nose.

If you played Stick it to the Man, Flipping Death or Zombie Vikings, you’d have an idea of what to expect from the game’s aesthetics. The levels are presented as an interactive puppet play, where everything in the world is crafted. For an interactive story like Ghost Giant, it feels like this design choice makes the most sense and allows you to easily navigate through what can be interacted with.

There is also plenty of side missions to attempt to complete, as some levels have hidden hats, Caterpillars, pin wheels to find, and basketballs hoops to shoot at. While the collectibles didn’t necessarily have any reason to find them aside from Trophies and Achievements, they were generally fun to find and gave me more of a reason to appreciate the level design.

Some of the more frustrating things I ran into was less of an issue with the game and more of a problem with VR in general, as the Playstation Move Wands had difficulty picking up items, and I found moving left to right was easier to do then the snap move that the game utilizes to turn your body in most cases.

To put it light, Ghost Giant is an adorable story-driven VR title that has plenty of charm and delivers a powerful message that doesn’t overreach but does enough to just punch you in the gut. While it’s not too difficult, it could be used to ease newbies into VR games with simple controls and easy on the eyes visuals.