I hate to make snap judgments about a game, but sometimes it is hard not to - especially when it touches one of my three core PSP 'pet peeves' - controls, camera and load times. Spectral Souls: Resurrection of the Ethereal Empires intrigued me from the package and manual - cool looking turn-based strategy-RPG game with three armies and choices over which army to control at different points that supposedly alter the balance of power and ultimately the outcome of the game. It sounds like a great blend of tactical action and choices with consequences and I couldn't wait to get started.

However, something happened after the first battle - I started to get really annoyed with the game's constant loading from disc. It was more than just long load times - it was constant disc access, delays, slowdowns and more. It was the need for the game to 'go somewhere' in order to do ANYTHING. Imagine this - the game had to access the disc to load each and every text box in every single conversation. Sounds unbelievable, doesn't it? Unfortunately, not only is it true, it is the defining characteristic of this game, which is a real shame. This is not like Generation of Chaos, which was a mediocre strategy game mired in confusing nonsense - Spectral Souls actually has some worthwhile elements and could have been great, but the way in which they play out makes it impossible to recommend to anyone. At all. But I love strategy! No. But I really like turn-based combat! No. But I ... Just NO!

What ... you're still here? You're one of those people who sits through the credits of every movie just to see if there are added goodies at the end, aren't you? [Guilty! This is hardest in the cinema when all your friends won't stay with you and then give you dirty looks when you finally emerge. Ed]. Well there aren't - the game is nigh on unplayable due to the technical problems. I know, I must have hooked you by mentioning the decent strategy game at its core. Well, I suppose since we're here I'll give you a few more tidbits of information - I have heard a few people refer to this as a 'gem in a pit of quicksand', so perhaps you'll manage to be one of the few to survive your trek.

In terms of the technical presentation, the game is about as generic as you could possibly imagine. It looks and sounds very nice - the isometric presentation and character models are all well done, with solid visual effects and distinct appearances for everything shown on-screen. The music could be anything, as it really fails to impress across the board - but it isn't distracting or bad, it's just background. In fact, the whole technical side is all just background for the tile-based strategy game it contains.

There is also a story involved, but like in most strategy games it is fairly weak - more of a sketch than a deep story. In this story the world is under control of demons who want to gain absolute control of the planet - and some also believe they want to completely wipe out humanity. There are two sets of human factions - a human rebellion looking to organize themselves and battle the demons, and a more peaceful faction looking for diplomatic solutions wherever possible. That is really a great scenario and the set up makes it even more intriguing by allowing you to choose which faction to play at certain points in the game, possibly changing the tide of history. Whew - thinking of this possibility gets my heart rate going! But the details of the story are occasionally laughable - especially since the setting is Neverland, which makes me think that either the aerial forces will be called 'Wendy-birds' or that I'll finish a battle and rescue Macaulay Culkin from Michael Jackson's bed. Most of the other names and places are also poorly chosen, though the translations of text in the game are better.

So let's talk combat - that is all that really matters. Spectral Souls is a true turn-based small-squad strategy game with RPG elements, but with even more stuff added on. There are the usual turns with action points that can be used for moving around the grid or attacking enemies. But unlike many games of this type, the amounts of action points you leave unused in a round impacts the speed with which your turn comes around the next time - in other words, if you leave many points unused in a turn you can actually change your position in the turn order. This adds another layer to the strategy, as you need to carefully assess how to spend each action point in every round. Battles occur in a fairly usual way - you enter areas, have encounters and then engage in battles. The story is integrated fairly well through cut scenes, but occasionally there are major plot moments in the game - called historical points - that represent pivotal moments where your choices and actions can actually change the end of the game.

Battle armaments consist of the usual array of fantasy-genre elements - swords, bows, magic and so on. Gaining experience and rewards in battle allow you to better outfit your troops in order to be ready for bigger challenges. These challenges are where things get interesting for a few reasons - because you get experience with each of the three armies at the very beginning of the game, you will learn that each has its own strengths and weaknesses. This means that you need to manage each army very differently in order to succeed, but success will not come that easily during some battles, no matter how well you prepare - the difficulty is somewhat erratic and downright painful at times. However, the battles themselves are worth trying to conquer - when you lose you will wonder how you'll approach the battle the next time through in order to succeed.

But that forgets the primary issue I mentioned - you will hate this game before you get to the first historical point. One thing I didn't mention yet it the horrific save system - it asks you about available space and presents you with the option to delete save files every single time you save! Having a file manager option would be fine, but checking if I want to delete files when a save is around 800kB and I have almost 900MB available is silly - and worse still the default option puts you into the file delete mode! The incessant loading and long level loads are beyond frustrating - they are a perfect example of how poor technical elements can ruin what could have been a decent game. As I look back over the notes I took while playing the game, I find tons of things that make me upset at the terrible waste of potential. There are a lot of decent things that look great on paper, but the technical execution is terrible. Horrible. I found myself more than one time missing out on what was happening in the story because I simply couldn't believe how often the 'disc access' indicator would light up to show a character saying '...'

Ultimately, given the inherent technical flaws that will destroy the experience for all but those with Buddhist-like patience, that is all I have to say about Spectral Souls: Resurrection of the Ethereal Empires - '...'. Oh, and also 'don't buy it.'

Reviewed by Michael Anderson for AceGamez (All Rights Reserved).