There's little new under the blue light of the video-game screen, so it's up to designers to find small twists of plot or gameplay to keep things fresh. They'll often mix genres, which is a gamble: Do fans of first-person blasters want to take the time to solve puzzles and recover ancient jewelry, or do they just want to shoot some shit? Will those looking for more story get bored with the old load-aim-fire routine? Geist, the GameCube-only first-person shooter/action-adventure that's been buzzed about for two years, bridges the gap with almost as much success as another breakthrough from this year, Resident Evil 4.
You're John Raimi, some sort of tough government agent—no surprise there. You're sent into some sort of nefarious corporation that happens to have a massive, amazing lair that no one knew about. Yawn. But after just a few short fights, your soul is separated from your body, and the fun begins. Solving the potential boredom that stems from playing one character with one skill set, Geist allows you the freedom to inhabit people and inanimate objects. In fact, it requires you to. In order to complete specific missions, you must puzzle out exactly who and what to use. But it's not as simple as jumping into a host. Living things must be frightened to be susceptible: In one early scene, you must possess a series of inanimate objects (including a ladder and a fire extinguisher) in order to scare an armed soldier into letting you in. And just before that, you've got to jump inside a dog and tour the compound.