It took me years and a good bit of growing up to first start appreciating Ghost in the Shell but ever since then I've poured over every bit of content related to it. At its core is a question about what happens with humanity and our self identity when everyone can chose and change their body at will. So naturally when you have a topic this complex and thought provoking you make a first person shooter about it!

However, Ghost in the Shell: First Assault - Stand Alone Complex Online (also known by its catchy abbreviation GitS: FA - SACO) besides its absolutely insane name turned out to be a fairly solid game, if numerous beta reports are to be believed. And at some point in December we'll be able to see for ourselves as the game will be launching both on Steam and the Nexon launcher as a f2p title.

The big thing that worries me here is that one single word, Nexon. To say that they've had complaints about their free 2 play systems in the past would be putting it lightly and now they seem to be bringing another game to the west, as a f2p title. I won't judge First Assault before I try it, that would be stupid, but I'm just saying all of this as a warning for others to not get hyped about its release only to find out it has microtransactions coming out of its ears.

That aside First Assault looks interesting enough to warrant me giving it a shot, I am after all a sucker for highly customizable FPS games and the idea of being able to share your abilities with your allies sounds like it could make some pretty damn awesome combinations.

The beta phases had some heavy NDAs going on so finding actual information about First Assault is hard but as of right now we know the following:

-There will be PvE and PvP content

-Each character will be able equip various attributes which govern skills such as invisibility, thermal vision, drone control, turrets and so on.

-The main feature is the ability to share your skills with allies which should in theory add a lot of depth to the combat

-You will be able to customize your cyborg with 5000 different loadouts though I'm assuming they've counted every single permutation in order to boost the number

-The gunplay according to the various beta accounts is currently most similar to Blacklight: Retribution, another futuristic F2P FPS.

And that is pretty much it, not a lot of information all things considered. I guess we'll just have to wait and try ourselves when it launches this December. 

But I still find it questionable why they even attached this game to the Ghost in the Shell universe, it doesn't seem to embody any of its actual qualities, only the visuals. That aside I'm cautiously optimistic about this one, it looks like something that I would enjoy as long as Nexon doesn't mess up like they've done in the past.