I first encountered Bandai's PS2 title, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex at an industry party at a slick sushi place in San Francisco. The event was nice yet typical, with tons of gaming press crammed into a tiny room munching on free eats and trying their best to scream over the loud music. The event sticks out in my mind over the many that I've attended simply because I've never played a game at a party longer than I played Ghost in the Shell. Normally I walk up to the kiosk and record about 20, 25 minutes max depending on the situation, but after two plus hours of continuous play I started to ask myself, Am I just not having fun at the party, or is this game really that good? After FINALLY immersing myself in the retail version, I know that the latter is true.

Stand Alone Complex (which I'm going to refer to as SAC) is a third person action adventure based on the animated series of the same name because it runs in parallel alongside it. The characters from the series, including the sexy cyborg Motoko Kusunagi (who's also in the famous movies) are on a mission to stop these beings that are taking over the minds of people and using them as puppets, and the voice acting is great and the animated cut scenes from the series are a nice touch, and none of that really matters, because truth be told, the story, while I'm sure its great if you're a fan of the series, really isn't the central focus of this game. Instead, it's the gameplay that really shines. SAC's all about action, as there are tons of enemies to riddle with bullets and explosions to cause. The game's intensity rarely lets up and that's why I love it. You just run around with these cool machine guns blasting away, and part of the experienced satisfaction are the sounds that come from these weapons. In fact, if the machine guns sounded "typical" or weak I wouldn't like the game this much, which just goes to show how important sound effects truly are.

At times the game tries to be something else. You have the option of jacking into computers and the bodies of some of your enemies but it's not particularly thrilling. Entering the mind of a computer equals opening a door, and controlling a guard just goes as far as throwing him off high places or attacking his compatriots, stuff that's been done better in other games. Here, it disrupts the SAC's flow. I became frustrated when I had to stop shooting. It's like ripping an IV from my arm. You don't expect a game that revolves around cyberpunk fantasy to jack you out of its experience.

There are other times where you'll have to stop shooting but they're by no means annoying. At one point I had to control a tiny robot and travel places Motoko couldn't fit and that was an enjoyable experience only because it managed to keep me immersed in the game world, environments that certainly look better than most PS2 game locales. The gritty sci-fi graphics really personalize this game and give it a voice. It's an artist's canvas upon which you can paint destructive images that are as horrible as they are beautiful. But unfortunately the experience doesn't last long. SAC's not an epic quest like a Final Fantasy or even Resident Evil 4, but the time, just like in the aforementioned games, is well spent.

SAC's multiplayer mode is a rough extension of the single player campaign but it definitely prolongs the game's life. Up to four people can blast away at each other via a PS2 multi-tap and while it's nowhere near as intense as other shooters, it's certainly enjoyable to a point, though it's more like something you may try a few times and then never play again.

What we all need to realize is we play videogames for the experience. We live in the now. Whether the game will be collectible in thirty years or whether it stacks up to the other games on the market is at times just a bunch of crap. Stand Alone Complex is an excellent shooter just like many of the excellent shooters that came before it, and for what it is, it's a fabulous game. Not necessarily well thought out, but fun just the same. You're not jacked in for very long, but unlike other games on the market, you won't feel cheated when it ends.