Back in the day, Ghost in the Shell was my most favorate anime of all time. I loved the characters, the individual plots, the art, the atmosphere, the sci-fi setting. Then came out the game.
Story/Concept
If you're wise to Ghost in the Shell (or at all) You'll understand that the story about hackers and hacking. You must hunt down an anonymous hacker and bring him to justice. There are a few moments in this game that takes a page from the television program.
Gameplay
Ghost in the Shell is your standard 3rd person shooter with platformer elements. You must complete objectives and shoot enemies. It's a kin to Tomb Raider or MDK or any pre-RE4 tps. You play as Major Motoko Kusanagi or Batou. Batou is fat but strong. Motoko is agile and cat like. However this game may be fun, it is held back by idiotic AI and stiff awkward controls. The game mixes it up quite a bit, you have powerful weapons, you can do hacking mini games, to kill other wandering soldiers, drive around in Spider Tanks called Tachikomas, and well that's pretty much it. Still addicting though.
The game is too short.
You can also play online or local and get skins. That's if it was the 2000's or early 10's at all.. : (
Graphics
Ghost in the Shell surprisingly enough has really good graphics for a PS2 cheapo game. It has the atmosphere of the the video game. Motoko is very detailed, right down to her sexy cyborg butt and flowing waving purple hair, the anime style however is lost. They look too realistic at times. Some levels in the game are beautiful and post modern while other levels are just straight up generic and bland.
Oh I forgot to mention, you can smear blood of enemies all over the wall. Yes the particle effects are quite a firework show. Just like in the anime.
Sound
In GITS SAC the soundtrack is filled with plenty of good techno tunes. Very pumping as you pump the pathetic cyborg bad guys full of realistically sounding bullets and bombs. The voice actors are the same from the show and that's a good sign.
Overall
It's game for diehard fans. Even in that it's pretty generic game at best. Frustrating to say the least. But still very cool.