The inevitable reality of gaming and the passage of time is that as technology improves and new ways and systems of gaming come to the forefront, the games we play today may not be readily accessible ten or twenty years from now. While there are probably going to be some titles which will continue receiving ports, remakes and remasters until the end of time, others may never get such a chance. One such game which has avoided that gate is the cult classic Ghost Master, originally developed by Sick Puppies for the PC, PlayStation 2 and original Xbox, a puzzle-strategy game with spooky elements, which has finally become available as a remastered release – Ghost Master: Resurrection. But was it worth the efforts of developer Mechano Story Studio and publisher Strategy First to unleash its ghoulies upon a new generation of gamers? Read on to find out!
For those who have not experienced Ghost Master before, Ghost Master: Resurrection casts you not as the haunted, but as the one pulling the strings. You take on the role of an unseen orchestrator, commanding a roster of ghosts and ghouls to terrorise the unsuspecting mortals of Gravenville. There is a story of sorts tying everything together, but really, it is best to view the overarching narrative as very loose and inconsequential, serving only to justify the different hauntings, with the experience being much more about the gameplay. The real personality here lies in its tone, which is far more cheeky than chilling. This is campy, tongue-in-cheek horror, more akin to something like Beetlejuice (or its musical adaptation) than an actual horror experience.
Ghost Master: Resurrection isn’t a direct port of its early 2000s origins, so it enjoys a few improvements across the board, including visual/design quality, improved lighting, sharper textures, and effects that carry far more weight and clarity than they once did. But it doesn’t feel entirely like a modern experience either, with a few quirks that honour rather than cover up its origins. The reimagined locations each carry their own distinct character and offer a good variety of locales, with even more expected to become available through its rather extensive post-launch DLC season pass schedule. The user interface has been sensibly modernised too, with cleaner menus and clearer tooltips that make managing your spectral squad far less of a chore. The control scheme on controllers is less successful, where the standard keyboard and mouse duo feels substantially superior.
Audiologically, Ghost Master: Resurrection leans into eerie ambience and playful cues rather than outright dread, a choice that sits comfortably alongside the game’s mischievous tone. Meanwhile, the game’s soundtrack does a solid job of balancing the spooky and the whimsical without ever drowning out the action. It is all perfectly functional, yet rarely the sort of thing that lingers in the memory, and a degree of repetition does creep in over longer sessions.
Ghost Master: Resurrection may see you controlling the denizens of the dead, but that doesn’t mean the gameplay deserves to be in the afterlife. The core gameplay loop remains fun, with each level functioning as a sandbox-style puzzle, populated by mortals going about their daily routines. Your task is to deploy ghosts, manipulate their surroundings and slowly escalate the fear until your victims crack and flee in terror. Crucially, this is a game about patience and pacing rather than brute force. Push too hard too early, and your targets will bolt before you have squeezed every last scare out of them. Your spectral roster is bound by fetters, tying each ghost to particular objects, locations or elements such as water, fire, electricity or raw emotion, while whatever combination of entities you use draws from a limited Plasm budget. The real joy comes from synergy, and being able to bring forth a domino effect of scares can be pure maniacal joy.
The game asks you to think before a single chain rattles, giving you a window to study each location’s layout and assemble a team suited to the job at hand, whether that calls for furniture-dwelling spirits indoors or elementals out in the open. There is a satisfying amount of variety to keep things from growing stale, with missions that swap objectives, named targets to unnerve, police investigations to work around and meddling ghostbusters capable of trapping your minions and removing them from play. It becomes clear that the levels aren’t just different set dressings, but rather the developers trying to diversify each area a bit. And if you find this works for you, there is potentially more to look forward to in the future, with a full 12-part DLC season pass planned to span until the end of the year.
It is not all smooth sailing, however, and Resurrection wears its age in ways that go beyond the visuals. The learning curve is steep, and the early hours can feel frustratingly opaque, with cryptic puzzles that can suddenly be hard to get past. Technical rough edges persist, too, including dodgy pathfinding, mortals getting stuck and the odd mission-breaking glitch that can force a restart. None of this sinks the experience, but to a small degree, it stops a genuinely charming revival from feeling like the definitive version is also the ‘polished version’ it could have been.
In an era where so many beloved titles risk fading into obscurity, simply being given a second chance at life is something worth celebrating, and Ghost Master: Resurrection makes a strong case that this particular cult classic was well worth resurrecting. It straddles the line between modern and authentic pretty well, aside from a few lingering cobwebs and offers a fun experience of haunting with a good dose of campy charm that refuses to take itself too seriously. For those willing to embrace its quirks, Mechano Story Studio has ensured that Gravenville’s ghoulies will be spooking a new generation of mortals for years to come, rather than being left to haunt the forgotten corners of gaming history.
Final Score for Ghost Master: Resurrection
A review code for Ghost Master: Resurrection was provided by Strategy First and Mechano Story Studio to facilitate this review. Playtesting was conducted on a PC version of the game.
Ghost Master: Resurrection is now available to purchase on PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S and Nintendo Switch.
