February 4th, 2008 by PCG

Game Review: Ghost in the Sheet

Ghost in the Sheet is not all that scary, in fact it's a light hearted look at the other side where you will learn how to use your paranormal powers to shift objects and perhaps scare the daylights out of a few living people.

If you have ever wondered if there is life after death, perhaps Ghost in the Sheet will answer your question. With puzzles to solve, new supernatural powers to learn and adventures that are "out of this world", this is a game that will be very popular...

When I was a little kid, I had some strange ideas. Much to my delight, I've recently discovered that at least one of them wasn't too misguided after all. Ghosts -- some of them, anyway -- actually do go around dressed in sheets.

Welcome to Ghost in the Sheet (GitS), an unconventional ghost story gift-wrapped in a deliciously wicked little game. It was put together in less than a year by just two people: Jan Kavan (Dark Fall 2 , Barrow Hill) and Lukas Medek, collectively known as Cardboard Box Entertainment (CBE).

I think they've done an amazing job. Among other things, they've actually managed to make death funny.

Interestingly, the game was originally shorter (a scant seven screens, in fact), there were no voiceovers, and it was to have been offered as downloadable freeware/shareware. But publishers started expressing interest, the game grew to 65 backgrounds, 20 cutscenes and 14,000 words; voice talent was added, and bam -- Bob's your uncle.

If GitS is any indication, you can toss out your ideas concerning a pleasant after-death existence. Playing as the title character ("Ghost"), we depart this mortal coil after having been run down by a truck ("My whole life appeared as a shortcut in my head..."). We soon discover that we must stay wrapped in a dirty sheet to keep our astral remains from flying apart.

Adding insult to mortal injury, we must also work for a nasty, self-proclaimed Boss who runs a "ghostcatching organization" -- sort of a reverse-ghostbusters. He demands that we call him "Sir," threatens to take away our sheet if we don't carry out his orders, and is aided in his nefariousness by an assistant quite fittingly named Oozy. So much for the Great Beyond, eh?

Our first assignment is to solve a mystery in an abandoned, curiously bucket-filled factory called Sector Omega. It seems that people have died here but their souls haven't made it "through the tunnel" where they can be drafted into the Boss's service, much as we were. It's up to us to discover what's causing the backup.

During this process, we meet and interact with other dead (or worse than dead) folks who have taken various forms, all of whom represent people who worked at the factory. One of them isn't even aware of being dead. And oddly, no one seems to know what was being made at Sector Omega .

We also encounter a live (but not for long) human and an honest-to-goodness monster. How could we have been so lucky to land here instead of Paradise?

Seeing as how Ghost has no corporeal self -- and thus, neither do we -- we must acquire various paranormal skills in order to interact with the game's environment. The Boss generously supplies us with telekinesis, with the stern caveat that we have to figure out how to use it ("This isn't a kindergarten!").

We learn other skills along the way, including the ability to command light and wind, make scary sounds, and impart electric shocks (my favorite). I found it refreshing and quite unique to encounter skill-building, traditionally a feature of RPGs, in an adventure game.

I adore black humor, and GitS has plenty of it. For instance, when Ghost sees a No Smoking sign, he voices the opinion that a Stop Bleeding sign would have been more appropriate. And after the game's hungry monster agrees not to eat us and Ghost expresses relief, the monster tells us he was only joking.

Subtle references to CBE as well as other assorted witticisms are scattered throughout the game. GitS never takes itself too seriously, and while it can be unsettling in spots, it definitely has more laughs than scares.

The game is presented in 1st-person slide-show format. It also offers two features that get my endorsement every time: unlimited save slots (or at least more than I was able to use), and non-linear gameplay.

Although the point-and-click interface is simple enough, a short tutorial is presented at the beginning of the game to insure that everyone understands what to do. I did find some aspects of the navigation initially confusing, however.

After moving to a new location, there were times my POV would show the spot I'd moved to as seen from afar (for instance, from across a room) rather than present a display of my new surroundings in 1st-person POV. And often, after moving forward through a door, I'd end up facing where I'd been rather than where I was going, as if I'd turned around...

While being dead doesn't sound like much fun, being a ghost has a lot of possibilities. Unless, of course, you're forced to wear a sheet to hold together the ghostly bits of yourself and facing an afterlife of civil service. In the aptly named Ghost in the Sheet, you play as just such a character. After being run over by a car, there is no light to be seen that will send you into the embrace of the eternal happiness of heaven. Instead, you seem to have gotten stuck in a bed sheet and working for a grumpy boss who wants you to investigate some strange occurrences at a factory called Sector Omega. A life of ghostly P.I. work appears to be your destiny.

The factory you are sent to snoop around seems to be abandoned. It also appears to be in terrible shape. Whether this is from neglect or purposeful destruction is not instantly apparent. You will need to do some exploring to get more information. Though starting from such a simple premise, the story starts to get a little confusing and murky with unanswered questions as it unfolds.

Like many adventures, particularly other first-person slideshow-style games such as this one, there is a fair amount of reading, starting with a factory worker’s journal. This account provides the player with most of the backstory for the game. However, the factory is also littered with papers, many of which will need to be examined in order to glean clues as to what happened to the factory and the people who worked there.

Unfortunately, this reading doesn’t really create the atmosphere of mystery and interest it should, because the story just isn’t that engrossing, and it doesn't answer all the questions it raises. Even by the end of the game there are huge holes in some of the logic. Like why Ghost in the Sheet, as he is referred to in the game, is sent to figure out what is happening at Sector Omega by his Afterlife Boss, though it seems to be the opposite of what he actually wants. Huh? The story is not helped by the dialogue, which is not good. It is full of cliches and jokes – wink, wink – that fall flat. And during conversations, the dialogue trees do not automatically update. So exhausted lines of questioning don’t disappear from the screen or indicate that they've been explored, causing confusion at points about what has or has not been discussed. This is really strange; I am totally confused by this design choice.

To plot a route through the game, you will use a node-based, point-and-click navigation system. The mouse will change shape to indicate where you can move and what objects you can inspect closer or use. Many times clicking on an object invokes Ghost in the Sheet to provide you with some information about it. Sometimes this information is helpful, revealing numbers or information about events in the factory; other times, not so much. For some reason, the factory seems to be full of empty buckets, all of which seem to be active hotspots, but often with little or no meaningful information attached to them. If there is a reason why they are scattered all over the place, it is never explained to the player...