Ghost Giant is an adorable adventure of love, trust, friendship and family.
The Oculus Quest is gradually filling its library with adventure puzzle games in its first year. There are very few adventure games in this library that are worth your attention and Ghost Giant is another adventure game that has released onto the Oculus Quest that is just as worthy.
You play throughout the game as a blue giant ghost. With both Touch controllers resemble your blue ghostly hands you can interact with the world around you, from touching characters, turning keys, pulling leavings, to even lifting up building roofs to peep inside them.
The underlying story revolves around a young kitten called Louis, who you encounter at the beginning of the game. You soon become the best of friends, forming a trusting bond that gradually grows between you. Even learning a secret handshake. As the heart-warming tale unfolds you are encouraged to help Louis along the way as he tries to bring joy back to his sick mother.
As a tall giant blue ghost, the whole perspective during the game is mostly viewed from a towering high height, with Louis and friends playing out the game’s narrative below you. You are unable to move about in the world, instead, you’re asked to lean in and around whilst reaching out to interact with characters, buildings and objects. With the Oculus Quest’s room-scale tracking, you can lower your viewpoint by moving yourself closer to characters and buildings almost acting out as a cameraman whilst narratives carry out in front of you.
Most puzzles in the game ask you to pick up, turn, pull and generally interact with the world around you in order to carry out an objective that will help Louis out. Although some puzzles are pretty straight forward, there are some elements that are much less obvious, which results in some frustrating trial and error in order to progress through the game’s narrative. Poking Louis can also help tell you what you need to do, but even then he can still be a little cryptic.
To help with any situations where you maybe be stuck on what to do next, you soon learn that most interactable elements in the world are brass in their colour. Brass keys or handles may be hidden in the world, these can be picked up and used to manipulate objects. House roofs may also have brass knobs on them, meaning they can be picked up and removed to uncover objects inside that you can use or trigger more of the game’s narrative sequences.
The game’s overall presentation is very cute and genuinely adorable. The world, its buildings, objects and its characters have a scaled, cardboard, almost dollhouse feel to it. Animations connect with the game’s visuals very well, with Louis and friends being well animated, all of which help to keep you immersed in the world you’re in.
The game’s music, sounds and its voice acting talent are also very well done and accompany the game’s visuals very well. The voice talent of Louis is adorable, he comes across as fragile and innocent, which makes you in-turn feel protective of him and keen to help him out when possible.
With thirteen scenes to play through, each with varying lengths, Ghost Giant can be completed within five hours of poking around its world. For some, this may feel short, but the experience you encounter is a very heart-warming one throughout. If you are on the lookout for an adorable adventure of love, trust, friendship and family, be sure to give Ghost Giant a download.