Here is a detailed description of the E3 demo.
Beginning the demo, the player is given the following objectives to complete.
Objectives:
- Disable the spirit barrier to escape the cavern
- Neutralize enemies in the Supply Depot
- Scare and Possess the Chief Medical Officer
- Infiltrate failed OPS Holding Cell Block
- Release fellow agent Bryson from Cell Block area
Disable the spirit barrier to escape the cavern
Spirits can fit through small openings such as air vents or the crack of a closed door. The level begins with you, a geist, squeezing underneath the crack of a door and into a tunnel. Your character resembles a ghostly blue skeleton. Wings protrude from both arms connecting to a rib cage and leading up to your pasty-white skull. While in the form of a geist, your vision adds a soft blur effect to the background graphics (as pictured below).
The walls within this tunnel are covered in a growth of mossy-green vegetation. It appears to be an old abandoned subway tunnel. In addition, the tracks and walls are weathered, meaning it occurs sometime in the future.
As a ghost, players can target objects such as plants, chairs, books, and more. Press A to interact with such objects. Players must pay close attention to their gun's crosshairs. The crosshairs will give you clues as to what you can and cannot interact with.
In one example, the player can interact with a lonely weed growing in the subway tunnel. The geist has the ability to suck the life out of the plant into you. The weed withers away and turns brown as its energy transfers to the geist.
As you make your way down the old abandoned tunnel, you realize you're not alone. You see a man dressed in a futuristic soldier uniform walking towards you. Suddenly, an alien-like being with tentacles pops out from a grate in the ceiling and grabs the man. The shocked man flails in the creature's arms. Before you have a chance to react, a giant fanged mouth extends out of the hole and rips a piece out of the man's torso, devouring his flesh.
As a ghost you can shoot blue energy boosts to damage enemies. Pressing R will fire ethereal energy, which emits multiple particle bursts of energy. Press L to charge up a soul burst, a single large burst of energy. After a few shots, the creature recoils into the vent.
As you pass under the grate, blood drips ominously from the ceiling. The grotesque remains of the body lie next to you on the floor. Had the soldier lived the attack, it would have been your first opportunity to use your possession abilities. Unfortunately, Geists cannot possess dead people.
People in the world of Geist must realize the threat of geists because they have set up barriers that the spirits cannot pass through. As you follow the tunnel, you encounter a yellow spirit barrier that cannot be crossed as a ghost. You must possess an injured soldier nearby. He's wounded and can't walk but luckily his hands are still able to hold a gun. You must use his pistol to shoot out the spirit barrier's four different connections. After shooting out the four power sources for the spirit field, you can de-possess the guard and move forward.
Next you move into what first looks to be an underground coliseum, but upon closer inspection is an old abandoned subway. A stone table next to the tracks has 12A written on it, with a clock set meticulously into the wall above.
There were two different colored uniformed marines in the demo, blue and green. Additional uniforms have been seen in screen shots.
On this old subway platform are two guard marines. You can possess one of these guards, thus acquiring the ability to use a gun. Although beware, enemy geists - the one in the demo was red - can see other possessed hosts. Therefore, you've no choice but to kill the other solider. By possessing the body of a soldier, fellow soldiers think you're one of them. Had the other soldier not been possessed by an enemy geist, you could have casually walked past him and into the next room.
Next to this subway platform is an elevator. You must be in human form to use the elevator. In a cool animation, you see your possessed character lifting the industrial-like elevator control in his hands and pressing the up button.
Neutralize enemies in the Supply Depot
This section of the level takes place in a run-down underground research facility; filled precariously with crates, gas tanks and clutter.
After exiting the elevator and entering the underground compound, everything appears to be calm and quiet. It's quiet of course, until you begin unloading your machine gun on some of the items stored along the walls.
Depending on which gas tank you shoot, it will either blow up or it will take flight off its shelf and across the room - whatever the case, they both end in a fiery explosion. This action of course causes the three or four guards in the room to begin shooting at you.
If you run out of life as a human, first aid kits can occasionally be found hanging from the wall.
After disposing of these guards, you can de-possess your body (or keep the body, it's up to you). Hold down A to become a ghost.
Floating down an incline as a geist and into another room, you will find two soldiers standing casually. In this room there are many objects to interact with. You can restore life by sucking it out of a plant, or you can try to possess one of the two guards. You cannot possess someone in a relaxed state. Therefore, as a geist you must interact with the environment to create havoc and frighten the humans. To do this you can switch the TV on and off, aggressively shake a filing cabinet, and more.
If you possess one of the human bodies that knows the code for the door you just entered, you can close it. This is done to perhaps stop anyone from entering the room had you previously entered the complex quietly and resisted the urge to blow up gas tanks.
As you can see there are a variety of ways to play the game, and each one is up to the player. You can also exit a body at any time, grab another body, and walk back into a previously hazardous room only to find that the guards are no longer after you because you are not the same person causing trouble.
Within this room, there is an air vent you must enter, however you must be in a human body in order to pull the lever and open the vent. This vent will give you access to the Chief Medical Officer's room. Once opened, you must transition back into a ghost so that you can squeeze through the tiny grate. The gameplay in Geist really emphasizes the use of both your geist and human forms.
Scare and Possess the Chief Medical Officer
As said earlier, relaxed hosts cannot be possessed. To remove the Medical Officer from her relaxed state, you must interact with the environment. You can shut her laptop, knock down books, slam close the filing cabinet, open the hot air vent, make a book fly through the air, and more. If you decide to unscrew the air vent, she will get up to examine it. After frightening her three times, the doctor attempts to run frantically away before cowering in a corner. It's your chance to possess her body.
If you resist shooting the soldiers in the following rooms, they will believe everything is normal. If you decide to shoot one, be prepared to take them all out. Two shots with the woman's gun is sufficient to kill a single soldier.
Possessing the Chief Medical Officer is necessary for you to gain entrance to the holding area where your rescue target awaits. The reason you need the doctor is because to access the next room, you must pass through a retinal scanner. Since only the woman's eyes have access, you must utilize her body.
The room with the retinal scanner contains all sorts of computers and also a glass window that looks down into a room below.
Infiltrate failed OPS Holding Cell Block
After passing through the retinal scanner, you proceed into the holding area.
You are now inside the holding area. Be careful of the guards. The enemies in the game can be tricky, strafing and rolling to escape shots. You can continue using the doctor's body, however if she dies you must possess one of the guards.
Traveling down an incline, you find yourself in a wide and open room. Before you can take a step inside, you run into a red geist that has possessed a soldier. The enemy geist shoots red orbs if you are a ghost or unleashes a torrent of bullets if you are human. You can exterminate him (along with his body) with your blue energy bursts.
Release fellow agent Bryson from Cell Block area
There is a platform in the middle of the room adorned with various objects - a medical gurney and laboratory tools. It looks as though some grotesque experiments have been performed here. Within this experiment room are six cell blocks. One of the cell doors appears severely damaged and doesn't look to be caused by human hands.
If you explore the room, you will find you can open the small sliding windows on each cell and pass through each in your ghost form. You will eventually locate the correct cell and possess the inhabitant - fellow human officer Bryon - dressed in a tank-top and shorts warily sitting on the floor. A flash of light blinds the screen at which point the demo ends.