Ghostbusters The Video Game

"There's something weird, but it sure looks good"

I love the Ghostbusters. Have since I first saw the movie when I was about five years old. Unfortunately, if there's ever been a videogame franchise based on a licensed property with more awful, unplayable games, well, the only one I can think of is The Simpsons. Even bearing that in mind, I was psyched to hear about this. Here was a game that looked like it actually gave you the experience of being a Ghostbuster. While it's not exactly perfect, it's still the game I waited all these years to play.

Story-7/10
Good but nothing unexpected. You've just been hired as the newest Ghostbuster, and what at first seems like an ordinary night on the job soon explodes into the invasion of more demonic powers into the Big Apple. I get to save the world alongside the Ghostbusters! What more could an 80's kid ask for? Some people were sore that you didn't get to play as one of the established characters, but I'd rather imagine myself kicking ecto butt beside these cinematic heroes, not as one of them. Still, I do wish I could actually join a conversation with them...

Graphics-8/10
The game's world is extremely detailed, and better still, nearly all of it can be scorched, shattered or smashed by the various settings on your unlicensed nuclear accelerator. It does come at something of a price, though: with so much stuff lying around it can be hard to notice the details. This can be a bit of a hindrance when trying to find supernatural items.

Audio-7/10
The game's sound effects are great, with the familiar rippling noise from when you fire your proton pack to the various explosions and screams that you'd hear if you were actually a Ghostbuster. I have to say the voice acting isn't quite what it might've been. Thought nearly all of the major cast of the original movie returned for the game, the banter between them isn't quite as clever as before. There's a definite feeling that they're a little past their salad days. Murray's slow, awkward delivery when talking to angry concierge right after busting Slimer is a prime example.

Gameplay-8/10
This, of course, is what the game ultimately lives or dies by. I'm happy to say that this game delivers an experience that's almost exactly like what I imagined being a Ghostbuster to be like ever since I was little. You need to zap a ghost enough with your proton pack to weaken it then drag it into a trap for storage, but many times you also need to slam the ghost into the ceiling and walls to soften it up enough to daze it and then trap it before it recovers. I don't remember the slamming part from the movies, but I won't deny it's satisfying anyway. You can look happily at a room you just destroyed capturing a ghost and say to yourself, "I caused all that destruction."

As the game unfolds the other Ghostbusters will unveil other settings on your proton pack, which is good considering each ghost has a weakness to a certain weapon, and the options keep things fresh without there being so many that it gets overwhelming. In all there's the basic proton stream, the blue shotgun weapon, the slime sprayer, and the meson collider which shoots homing projectiles. Each has a straightforward attack setting and another which does something a little less conventional like a stasis ray or a rope of slime to link two things together. I thought they were cool but you can still only trap a ghost with the basic proton stream, and either there was something wrong with the controller or my game, as sometimes I had to press the stick up two times to switch to it and by then the ghost I was about to bust had recovered enough to fly away.

Also, the game's AI leaves something to be desired. A fair bit of the time ghosts don't even seem to know you're there, despite you (or even you and another Ghostbuster) blasting the bejeezus out of it for a good couple seconds. In addition, despite you being the new guy on the team expect to do most of the work even when the other Ghostbusters are around. Even when we were fighting one-hit monsters like flying books or skulls, I found myself being the only one actually hitting anything most of the time, and during boss battles having to constantly run around reviving the others.

As I said, though, this game does make you feel a lot like a real Ghostbuster, even when you're not actually ridding New York of ghosts and goblins. At times you'll need to strap on your para-goggles to spot a hidden ghost or door. If you can scan an attacking ghost, you'll get to read their page in Tobin's Spirit Guide which not only tells you their attacks and weaknesses but provides some interesting background too. There's also finding the six cursed items per level, which don't actually do anything but provide some extra money and a little more interesting reading. Collecting information on ghosts and items for study is totally stuff the Ghostbusters would do, though, and I felt like a real member of the team. I did think finding cursed items was a little too easy despite the jumble of your surroundings, however, as when you're near one not only will your PKE meter buzz but a display will actually appear on screen telling you to equip it.

As for money, this seemed to be of limited usefulness. You get it by catching ghosts, gathering information on ghosts, and finding cursed items, and then invest it in upgrades to your weapons. A little after the beginning of the fifth level, though, I had bought every single upgrade, so for about three whole levels there really wasn't much point in continuing to earn money. I've heard that if you cause too much destruction the game starts fining you for it, but that's also about when the game seems to stop caring about unnecessary property damage.

Replay value-3/10
Practically non-existent. While Ghostbusters is a load of fun for devoted fans, but you'll see everything the game has to offer by the first time you reach the end credits. You might try again if you want to unlock every achievement, but by the end of two play-throughs most of the ones I still haven't unlocked are the ones in multiplayer mode. And having found that mode of the game boring and a little annoying the couple times I did try it, I can't say I care if I unlock those or not.

Overall-8/10 (not averaged)
While it lasts, Ghostbusters is a romp for anyone who's a fan of the movie. No it's not perfect, and no you probably won't play and replay it like you might some sort of Knights of the Old Republic-type game, but think about it like this: the creators of the movie said this is basically the third installment in the trilogy. If you watch a favorite movie again, you may notice new things but you don't decide for the characters to do something different at a key decision. Having a hand in saving the world in the third Ghostbusters movie made up for some of the game's shortcomings in my mind, and I hope they will in yours too.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 09/28/09

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