Ghost Master

             Demo downloaded from the Internet
                   at www.ghostmaster.com

                    Demo reviewed by Sue

Ghost Master's demo starts with a s‚ance ... but it's one with a
difference. YOU are the spirit invited to type its name into the
ouija board. In the demo of Ghost Master, Haunting 101, you have to
scare the living daylights out of six girls in a college sorority
house so they run out of the building and leave you and your team
of spooks in sole ownership.

The first thing you have to do is assemble your team of ghouls and
ghastlies. There is a recommended team made up of two sprites,
Clatterclaws and Cogjammer, a disturbance called Boo who is a
spook and a phantom called Shivers who comes into the
'Frighteners' category. There are six categories in all - sprites
use up the least of your haunting powers and horrors the most.

Each creature has its own 'fetter'. Like the word sounds, this is
a thing or place that binds the creature. Cogjammer, for example,
has electricity as his fetter so when you put him into the house,
you bind him to an item such as a light or a washing machine.

Having selected your team and pressed the Go Haunt button, you
arrive at the house.  This has three floors and the six girls are
either wandering about or, in the case of Dorothy Cohn, asleep.
Each girl has her own fears - one for instance is scared of
creatures with lots of legs. That sounds like a job for
Clatterclaws.  Position your spooks and let them do their worst.

The tutorial eases you into the game. You're told how to move
around using the mouse or arrow keys, left, right, forwards and
backwards, or up and down through the floors of the house.

Selecting any mortal shows their levels of terror, madness and
belief. You can select to View them, in which case you follow that
character round the house. You can also select their 'Point of
View' so you see through their eyes.

You can do the same with the spooks. Select Clatterclaws, for
example (Fetter: inside) and pick 'Bind'. Move the ghost icon over
the screen and when it pulses (eg in the middle of the lounge) you
can click and bind him. He spins a web across the room. You can
select him and pick 'View' or 'Go To' or 'POV' (point of view) as
for the mortals.

Want to learn about Clatterclaws or any of the other ghosts?  Read
his or her Epitaph. Each ghost also has a series of Powers.  These
are numbered according to their strength. This affects how much
power they use - as a Ghost Master you only have a certain amount
at your disposal, but as the mortals become more scared, this
rises. You can also give your haunters instructions, such as
picking on a particular mortal, but these are limited in the demo.

Though you only have four spirits at your command in the demo,
there is a bonus. A restless spirit, the Weatherwitch, is bound to
a hoover by a ghostly chain. If you can work out how to free her,
she'll join your team.

The effects as a ghost uses its powers are quite spectacular. And
though I felt very mean, there was a great sense of achievement as
one of the girls ran out of the house screaming in a melodramatic
manner. The music and sound effects are very good too.

When you win you get a score based on the number of screams,
faints, flees etc.

All in all, this is a great demo. I do know of some people who
have had techy problems running the full game but there is now a
patch that should fix this.






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