Ghostbusters The Video Game

"When it’s all said and done Ghostbusters: The Video Game has it where it counts."

It's been a long time coming, and there have been quite a few questionable moments over whether it would see the light of day or not, but Ghostbusters: The Video Game has finally been released. Taking place in 1991, after the second film, you'll find yourself thrust into the Ghostbusters crew as a new recruit. It's up to you to assist the other Ghostbusters in all their supernatural shenanigans. A burden your character bears with complete silence, at least in all the in-game cut-scenes, though you will most certainly be audibly laughing throughout the game.

The charm of Ghostbusters comes from its distinct humor: the series is filled with absurd supernatural techno-babble and casual reactions of characters in the face of what would certainly be described by the normal person as “overwhelming terror,” and this game is no exception. The writing is highly entertaining and the jokes are downright clever. You can really tell that it has been in the hands of both Dan Akyroyd and Harold Ramis, two of the writers of the original Ghostbusters films. In addition to the original writers crafting the story, we also have almost every member of the original cast back for voice work. Yes, fans of the movies can rejoice in the fact that all the Ghostbusters are back: Bill Murray as Venkman, Dan Akyroyd as Ray, Harold Ramis as Egon and Ernie Hudson as Winston. A good chunk of the supporting cast has returned, too. Throughout the game you'll find yourself revisiting old movie locations and battling fan-favourite monsters from the movies. Undoubtedly this is a movie franchise game of the highest caliber possible in terms of cast, dialog and fan service.

But none of that really matters if the gameplay isn't good. How Ghostbusters plays has been inspired by Gears of War, minus the cover system, and frankly it works very well: you dash, shoot and help comrades in much the same fashion as Epic's offering. The third-person camera is situated in an over-the-shoulder view which allows for a full view of your character and his Proton Pack, which is delightfully adorned with many lights, gadgets and doo-dads. For the uninitiated, it is essentially a nuclear powered backpack that fuels all your weapons. In the game it also functions as an indicator of your character's current health and how long you can fire your weapon before you need to cool down your pack to prevent it from overheating. Throughout the game you'll acquire four different types of weaponry, each with a primary and secondary fire. You have the standard Proton Stream which you'll know from the movies, a slime based gun, a shotgun-type weapon and a makeshift machine-gun. Since different ghosts and creatures are more vulnerable to a specific type of weapon, you'll find yourself using them all.

Of course, how could a Ghostbusters game be complete without the ability to trap the ghosts? Just like the movies you need to trap them inside… well, traps. Before you can do that you need to shoot a ghost enough to lower its health so that it can be trapped. This adds an additional element from the standard “shoot the enemy until it dies” (though the non-ghost enemies can be killed simply by shooting them). Trapping ghosts isn't a quick process and does require effort and skill as you'll be shooting and trapping multiple ghosts while you're also under attack by others. Once you get used to it, though, it becomes incredibly rewarding to quickly take down a ghost's health then slam it into a trap within a few seconds.

In addition to your weapons you have a PKE meter and Para-goggles which allow you to detect electromagnetic energy (i.e. they help you find ghosts). This actually leads to some genuine scares because in order to use the meter you have to put down your weapons and the game shifts from a third person view to first person. As you slowly move your way closer to a ghost, the meter chirps noticeably faster until finally a ghost flies out through a wall, ceiling or floor with a hauntingly pitched scream. No matter how many times you find ghosts in this fashion, you'll still be given a good fright each time. The PKE meter also allows you to scan your enemies and objects placed throughout levels in the game. Scanning ghosts reveals their weaknesses and attacks, scanning objects gives you neat information about them and both ghosts and objects reward you with cash.

All your gear can be upgraded in some fashion by using money accumulated throughout the game. Upgrades vary from upping the damage from your weapons and raising the amount of time you can fire your weapon before cooling to buying improvements to your trap and PKE meter. Since you get paid for trapping ghosts, destroying creatures and scanning different objects you will earn lots of cash. Honestly, by the time the game finishes you'll have plenty of money left over so you never really have to worry about making a bad purchase.

You'll rarely find yourself alone, as Ghostbusting is a all about teamwork, and for the majority of the game you'll find yourself working with all the original Ghostbusters. This is great because not only do they help you, they also toss out hilarious dialog. Your team will assist you with trapping ghosts and offer some tips on what you need to do next to complete a mission. If your character or any of your allies lose too much health, he will collapse on the ground until someone comes over to him and restarts his Proton Pack. Thankfully, your teammates' AI considers raising a fallen comrade to be a priority. If you or someone else falls in combat, someone will come to their partner's aide; your AI controlled teammates will even raise one another if you don't.

The graphics and sound in the game are both quite impressive. The memorable musical score of Ghostbusters is used throughout the game which really adds to ambiance. All the levels, from the streets of New York to unholy steam punk labs, are richly detailed. The Ghostbusters fire hall has been painstakingly recreated, all the characters are instantly recognizable and the ghosts in the game look like they were taken straight out of the movies. In fact, some of them are. The Proton Streams look and sound just like the movies as they light up the area around them, blasting and burning through items with real-time physics that truly allow players to experience the monetary damage ghostbusting causes.

If you have the 360 or PS3 version of the game then you'll be in for another treat: online multiplayer. There are plenty of different gameplay modes allowing for tons of replay value. You can either play ranked or unranked games, with ranked earning you career cash that unlocks ranks and different costumes. There are many different gaming modes including survivor, which puts you against increasingly strong waves of ghosts; protection, where you need to defend PKE meters from ghost attack; containment, where you capture as many ghosts as you can within a time limit; and others. The core gameplay remains the same: capture ghosts, raise your buddies when they drop and they'll raise you; however the modes are different enough to add a fresh experience.

Sadly, one has to admit that this isn't a flawless game. Ghostbusters has pre-recorded cut scenes which have highly noticeable audio-sync issues, something that is quite distracting and would presumably be a very easy fix. When playing on any difficulty level above Casual you'll find your teammates dropping quite a bit so you spend a good portion of your time running around raising them instead of busting ghosts. Online multiplayer has the glaring flaw of being unable to begin a ranked match with friends or a party; you can only do that in unranked play. This can be worked around as you can have a friend start a ranked game then you look for his game in the list of ranked games and join it. However, it's still a frustrating design flaw that could have been easily remedied.

When it's all said and done Ghostbusters: The Video Game has it where it counts. The humour that has made the franchise so enjoyable is here, the original cast is back, it looks great and the gameplay is terrific fun. Sure it has its faults but considering all Ghostbusters: The Video Game did right, it's easy to overlook what it did wrong.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 08/12/09, Updated 08/19/09

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