Ghostbusters The Video Game

"Well we called... and we were answered!"

Ghostbusters 360

Pros:
- Incredibly faithful to source material
- Script is very well written, and exceptionally witty
- Overall gameplay is a blast
- There's a fun multiplayer component

Cons:
- Aggravating load times after deaths
- Single player is a little on the short side
- Not much use for all the cash you earn beating enemies
- Must have seen the films to fully appreciate the game


I admit, I was born a few years after the Ghostbusters originally hit the theaters. Whatever mania that surrounds fans of the Ghostbusters movie was never thrust upon me. I didn't grow up with it... I grew up with the cartoon show. While I loved the cartoon show dearly, I was not swept up the surge of anticipation that seemed to be following the announcement of this game. Having seen the movies years ago, I had ultimately forgotten what made the films great. So I recently watched them again, hoping to understand the mania that was surrounding this title. I'm glad I did. If I hadn't I might not have decided to purchase one of the finest licensed games ever produced.

Ghostbusters takes everything you know about the films and condenses that experience into an absolutely solid third person action title. Slapping on your proton pack, you'll be using high powered laser beams to exhaust and capture dangerous, ectoplasmic entities from a third person perspective. The game takes notes from titles like Dead Space and Gears of War, so if you enjoyed those you'll likely enjoy this. The experience is different enough that I only make these comparisons lightly as an example though. Ghostbusters is, for all intents and purposes, it's own brand of game.

Our game begins just a few years after the events of the second film. The Ghostbusters are now fully supported by the city of New York, and business for them is fairly typical. Following Gozer's defeat, and subsequent historical popularity thanks to the Ghostbusters, a local museum is opening a Gozer exhibit in their honor. Unfortunately for our proton powered heroes though, the world is once again thrown into peril as a mysterious shockwave emanates from inside the museum. So... Who you gonna call? Intended to be written as a third film, the game plays perfect homage to films before it, and it crackles with honest comedy. Written by Dan Akroyd and Harold Ramis, Ghostbusters plot develops at just the right pace. Admittedly though, you will need to have seen the films to entirely appreciate the game and its story. The videogame's story follows you, the Ghostbusters new Rookie recruit, as you follow along and help the Ghostbusters solve their latest world ending dilemma. This was the perfect design decision. It allows you to feel as if your part of your part of the team, but also allows you to watch the Ghostbusters hilarious interactions with each other from the outside. Overall, the story rarely disappoints. The conclusion comes a little predictably and there are some parts that feel a tad rushed, yet this is far from enough to detract from the fun of being part of it all... and that's especially true when were talking about playing the game itself.

Like I said earlier, Ghostbusters is a pure third person action game. What separates this one from the mold is the concept of weakening various phantoms until you're able to capture them with a ghost trap. As you progress you'll come across a large variety of different enemies to capture or destroy. You'll also gain multiple weapons types to fight with, all with various sets of upgrades to collect. There is more to do than shoot things however, as you'll be scanning a variety of objects with your PKE reader and searching for cursed artifacts to nab some nifty unlockables. Topping this off is the massive amount of destruction you'll cause while trying to save the citizens of New York. After all, the city does have insurance... right?

Starting the game, you'll be equipped with a basic Proton Pack. This baby is your key ghost busting weapon, and the biggest focus of the gameplay: Trapping ghosts. Ghosts will attack you in various forms, and their health meter will be displayed in a circle around your weapon sight. The idea is to zap the ghost until his health is low, upon which you lasso him and slam him all over the environment. The physics involved are actually a ton of fun, and it's thrilling to lasso a ghost and smash him into walls and destructible objects. Once he's sufficiently weakened, you can throw out your trap. You then have guide the ghost into the cone of light emanating from the trap, keeping him from breaking free so you don't have to repeat the process over again. Once he's caught, you collect your trap and it's on to whatever is next. You do have to be careful during this process though. Ghosts can assault you and your partners, which causes the main characters to fall to the ground. If everyone falls to the ground, it's game over. So it's usually a good idea to run over and help your friends up. They'll do the same you after all.

Capturing ghosts is a ton of fun, and there's plenty of things that make every experience slightly different. For example, you have to make sure to vent you Proton Pack every so often, or the weapon will explode in your face. Crossing streams actually IS a bad idea, and can get you into some very damaging trouble. Ghosts also have different weapon weakness you can exploit to capture them faster. You can also capture them using different methods involving slime tethers (which are basically grappling hooks), or a beam that turns ghosts into ice. Heck, not all ghosts need to be captured even, and some are dealt with by simple brute force. The best part of all this is how many varieties of enemies there are, and how differently each of them approach maiming your character. It's refreshing to see new enemies even late in the game, making sure you're never exhausted or bored with the capture process. Boss fights are a great addition to the game as well. Stay Puft alone was an epic battle, but there are equally fantastic experiences down the road. And for once you have a final boss that looks and acts like a climactic final boss should. Everything comes together nicely.

Between trapping you'll be using another major tool of the ghost hunting trade... the PKE meter and goggles. Using this switches the game to a first person view where you can wander around in search of fresh, other-dimensional readings. The PKE meter acts as the game's radar. It's fairly simple to read, and collecting information on your enemies and the environment is actually a lot of fun. Everything you scan is loaded into the PKE' database where you can read all sorts of useful and hilarious information on the things you've scanned. It's a little reminiscent of Metroid Prime, actually. What's great is that the PKE is always clipped to your belt in a easy to see fashion while you're outside of the first person view. So if anything nearby piques the PKE's interest, it'll start blinking and making noises short of yelling "Hey! Listen!" to you. I guarantee the collector in you will be searching frantically for lost artifacts whenever that blue light starts blinking.

As you defeat the game's various enemies, you accumulate two cash totals. One does nothing really and totals the amount of damage you've caused to the city (who will now have to pay for said damage.... whoops). The first is just a fun way of measuring how much destruction you've caused in the game, and there is a LOT of damage to be caused. Couches burst apart, hedges catch fire, windows shatter, pillars crumble and completely deteriorate... Smashing the environment just plain fun, and it looks great too. The other cash total is gained from defeating enemies or finding lost artifacts. You can exchange this cash for weapon upgrades. Upgrades are unique to each weapon, and all weapons work differently. From slime blowers to plasma based shotguns, the game keeps a small but interesting batch of weapons for you to utilize. There is one big draw back to this system though. By the time you've hit the halfway mark in the game, you'll probably have enough cash to purchase every upgrade available. From then on out cash becomes completely useless, which is somewhat dissatisfying... especially because it means you won't be coming across any new weapons.

At least the environments keep changing at a raid pace though, which keeps things moving. If anything, Ghosbusters nails it's presentation as well as it nails it's fun factor. Environments are gorgeous to look at, and the game pulls some really fantastic tricks at various parts of the game. There's one part in particular when your chasing a sea captain's ghost, and he floods an entire floor of the hotel with water and other sea effects. It's the little things like that that make the experience so engrossing. The voice acting is also excellent, but even more so thanks to every character being voiced by the original actor. It goes a huge way towards making the game so believable. The lip-syncing is admittedly kinda poor though. Another small, but unfortunate, disappointment is how horrible the quality of the CGI movies is. Likely this was done to keep the game on one DVD, but it still hurts when you watch. Controls are kept clean, and the game keeps all your important HUD information on your characters proton pack. Everything from your health, to you your heat level and PKE readings are easily readable. None of this matters as much as one critical part of the presentation as a whole though: Ghostbusters feels right. Each character is so carefully written, and the experience so faithful. It really makes all the difference in creating such an excellent game. The only major gripe I ever had were the unfortunately horrible loading times between deaths. Any time you die you can expect to wait a good 10-20 seconds while your level loads itself back up again. It's a real pain, but it doesn't do enough harm to pull a Poltergeist, having you throw objects around the room in frustration.

As an addition to everything I just went over, Ghostbusters also contains an amazingly fun multi-player component once you've done and completed the game. There are various modes you can play, involving everything from capturing "wanted" ghosts, to playing a sort of capture the flag against ghost opponents. You can also play campaign missions, which are basically extended games of online ghost capturing. These are typically all co-op based and are a blast to play. There's also an upgrade system for your online weapons, an addition that will likely have you addicted to improving yourself. These are all based around the whole ghost capturing process, which really is the funnest part of the game... So what is there to lose? The multi-player component is a fun and brilliant way to cap off the experience once you're finished with the awesome single player.

So, let's be honest: Licensed games don't often reach this level of entertainment. They're typically pathetic, transparent attempts at snapping up a quick buck. While some of this helps fund larger, better projects, it's still a shame that so many properties with amazing game potential get treated like garbage. Atari and Terminal Reality did right by going the extra mile with Ghostbusters. The story is executed with flair and hilarity, it's got all the original cast, and the game got the most important part of the experience right: The gameplay! Not only is it completely faithful to the movies, but it's solidly built, and a blast to play. You WILL feel like a Ghostbuster. A few minor problems don't detract from the whole of the game. And, best of all, when your done the main game there's a ridiculously fun multiplayer experience to keep you coming back for more.

Ghostbusters is an absolute treat. Anyone who enjoys videogames and has a love for the ghost wrangling foursome should pick this up immediately. This game joins a very exclusive pool of licensed titles that actually turned out to be more than your typical fodder. I would even go so far to say as it reaches beyond. Rarely does a licensed game ever receive this level of funding and careful attention. Do you experience feelings of dread when you're out of good games to play? Call Ghostbusters now!

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 06/24/09

Game Release: Ghostbusters The Video Game (US, 06/16/09)