Ghostbusters: The Video Game is the game that Ghostbusters fans have been waiting for ever since the movie came out in 1984. It has a great story, the original talent, awesome graphics, and an incredible ghost catching mechanic that sets it apart from other third person shooters. When most people look at a licensed game they see a quick cash in that needs to be rushed to be released with the movie, this game doesn’t have that problem. The last Ghostbusters movie came out 20 years ago and as of right now there is no GB 3 set in stone. So the game takes place in Thanksgiving of 1991 which is about 2 years after the events of Ghostbusters II. The Ghostbusters are now backed by the city and are loved not hated like they were at the beginning of the second movie. The mayor (played by Brian Doyle Murray) rode to election on an “anti-ghost” platform so the GB’s are now city contractors, this means they bill the city and don’t have to pay for the damage they cause. To keep the GB’s in check the mayor appoints Walter Peck (William Atherton) to keep track of them. All of the original GB’s return to provide their voices and likenesses in the game; Peter Venkman (Bill Murray) Egon Spengler (Harold Ramis) Ray Stantz (Dan Aykroyd) and Winston Zeddemore (Ernie Hudson) as well as Janine Melnitz (Annie Potts) as the Ghostbusters’ secretary. There is also a new player, Dr. Ilyssa Selwyn (Alyssa Milano) who is the guest curator at the Museum of Natural History’s new Gozer exhibit. You play as a rookie Ghostbuster hired to test out Egon’s new equipment. Without spoiling the story I will say that it all revolves around a PKE shockwave that erupts from the museum the night before the opening of the exhibit.
In the game there are revisits to some classic ghosts from the movies but also a ton of new stuff. You will return to the Sedgewick to fight Slimer, battle Stay Puft in Times Square, and bust the library ghost from the beginning of the first movie. But this isn’t a rehash of the movie there is a ton of original stuff. The voice acting is fantastic and all of the actors really got back into their characters, some reviewers have been saying that Bill Murray “phoned it in” but that isn’t the case at all, they all do a phenomenal job and I was thoroughly convinced that I was listening to the characters and not the actors. The storyline is really deep and there is a good twist towards the end, the dialogue is spot on (Aykroyd and Ramis wrote it so it would almost have to be) there are a lot of chuckles and some laugh out loud moments in the game that hit on what the movies were all
about, comedy. But of course in a game there needs to be more action for the player so you will be seeing a lot more of ghost fighting than witty dialogue but that is part of the shift between mediums and it makes complete sense.Ok on to the gameplay, there are two main types of ghosts; corporeal and ethereal. The corporeal ghosts simply need to be blasted to pieces with your equipment. The ethereal ghosts are a little bit more of a challenge, they need to be dragged into a trap like the movies. Ray describes this as a three step process Sap’em Cap’em Trap’em. You fire your proton stream (or other offensive weapon) to sap the ghost of its PK energy, your crosshairs have a green circle of bars around it when you fire at a ghost, that signifies the amount of PK energy left in the ghost, when it is sufficiently depleted you throw out the capture stream and start the second part Cap’em. Once the ghost is in your capture stream you have to wear him down by pulling in the opposite direction of where he is flying. This will build up a slam meter, when you have built up some “slam” power you hold the left trigger and use the thumbstick to slam the ghost into the ceiling, ground, or anything to weaken it. When it is dazed you will see stars above its head and it is time for the last step Trap’em. Press the “X” button to throw out a trap and you will see a yellow beacon of light emanating from the top of the trap. Drag the ghost over to this and the trap funnel will automatically open then the ghost will try to fly out so use the thumbstick to keep him in the trap funnel while it sucks him in. There you have, that wasn’t such a chore now was it?
You will get upgrades to the proton pack over the course of the game and you will find yourself using them for different types of foes, many reviewers have stated that you don’t use two out of the four equipment functions but that just isn’t true at all. You will get the regular proton stream which includes the blast stream, capture stream, and the boson dart which is like a large pulse of energy that fires from the nutrona wand. Then you will get the dark mater generator, the primary fire is a shotgun like function that sprays dark matter particles, this is perfect for dealing with charging foes. The secondary fire is the stasis stream, this long blue stream will slow down a ghost and if you keep it on a ghost long enough it will actually freeze it in place. Freezing and then blasting apart an enemy is a cool one-two punch. Then you will receive the slime blower which has the slime stream that can be used to destroy or weaken certain monsters, neutralize harmful black slime, get possessor ghosts out of their victims and expose certain doors and such that can’t be seen with the naked eye but can be seen after it is slimed. The secondary fire is the slim tether that can tether ghosts and physics objects together, this will primarily be used to solve puzzles but if you shoot one tether at a ghost and the other at a trap on the ground it will pull the ghost into the trap. Finally you will receive the Meson Collider which probably is the least useful piece of tech but it still can be used effectively. The primary fire is a homing beacon that will attach onto a target then you can use the secondary fir
e which is like a machine gun and the meson particles will lock on to the beacon on the bad guy and hit him regardless of where you are aiming, if you can get it on a fast moving ghost it is a real good weapon to have.As you bust ghosts you receive money and you can put that money towards upgrades to all of the equipment, this is all accessible through the PKE meter which is the next thing I am going to talk about. The PKE meter is like a PDA, it is the pause menu of the game and it includes Tobin’s Spirit Guide, your stats, options, tutorials, and the “store” where you can buy upgrades. When you press the “Y” button you will be put into a first person perspective with the PKE meter in front of you and the Para Goggles (or Ecto Goggles your choice) down. The goggles will pick up a lot of otherwise invisible things like markings on walls and ghost trails. The PKE meter words like a hot and cold meter. The lines will spike in the direction of a ghost or collectible. Green means there is a faint trail of a ghost, red means there is a ghost in close proximity, and blue means a collectible is nearby. You follow the spiking lines and the wings of the PKE meter will start to go up when you get really close. Then you can attempt to scan a ghost or artifact or paranormal anomaly for entry into Tobin’s Spirit Guide. There are three circles in the goggle interface and if you line up the ghost with the smallest circle and press the right trigger you will get a full scan, this scan will allow you to pull up the spirit guide and see the strengths, weaknesses, and backstory of the ghost you just scanned. This can be very helpful in knowing which weapon to use on any type of ghost so when you see a new type of ghost scan it and look at its weaknesses! The backstories for the ghosts were also written but Aykroyd and Ramis and they can be pretty funny or a little creepy at times. Collectibles are cursed artifacts that, when scanned and collected, will appear at the firehouse. You get money for each ghost or collectible you scan. The collectibles are really funny like the disco pants that follow you around and play music or the toaster of sights unseen that dances on the pool table like the toaster in the second movie.
The graphics are simply amazing, a lot of attention was put into the character models and everyone looks spot on. The full CGI cutscenes are more impressive than the in-game ones but that’s not to the say the in-game cutscenes aren’t impressive as well, it all looks and plays great. The framerate did not slow down once and I only saw pixilation in the background of one in-game cutscene so the reviewers who say that those cutscenes are pixilated must be playing a different game. The ghosts’ coloring and the hue about them is nice a vibrant and just what you would expect. The game’s engine performs incredibly and allows for massive destruction. When you fire your proton stream chairs will break apart, walls will scorch, and windows will shatter. You will get a damage tally that you can review in your PKE meter and it is just fun to see a room that you blasted apart. The physics in the game are also impressive and the slime tether is a fun toy to play around with. The scenery is nice a varied and it doesn’t get boring to look at each level is very distinctive.
The sound design is fantastic with the original film score by Elmer Bernstei
n playing throughout along with some of Ray Parker Jr’s “Ghostbusters.” The proton pack, trap, and PKE meter all sound perfect and there really isn’t anything that could have been better, it is just like listening to the hum of a lightsaber you just know when it’s right. The repeating tracks aren’t that back especially considering the movie was 2 hours and this game is 8-10 hours so people who complain about that just want to complain about something but I didn’t really notice too many tracks repeating and when they did it was appropriate so I thought is was perfect. The load screens have Ray Parker Jr’s song playing and it just gets you so pumped up to buts some heads, in a spiritual sense of course.The game can border on really creepy and really silly but it’s all within the parameters of a Ghostbusters story so it is fine, the story gets darker as it goes on just like the movies. But even though it gets darker the sense of humor is still there and you will still be laughing even when the level itself is creepy. There are a ton of references for fans, especially in the firehouse. The firehouse is a great hub world and you can do a lot of stuff like talk to the painting of Vigo, check out the containment unit, listen to messages and yes you can slide down the pole. You can almost spend hours just fiddling around in the firehouse without ever going on a mission.
There are very few nitpicks about the game and they don’t even rally matter that much to me but I will let you know them to try and be fair. A map screen or compass function would have been nice because it is easy to get lost but the maps are pretty linear so it isn’t too bad, your flashlight should be something you can turn on whenever as opposed to something that turns on automatically because there were some parts where I thought it was too dark but the computer obviously didn’t. Some reviewers have complained about bad lip synching but to be honest it really isn’t that bad and who cares? Also they say that the characters are stiff but that isn’t true either, there are a lot of nuances to the facial expressions of the characters and I never once thought they looked stiff so they’re totally wrong with that. The only other complaint I have it I WANT MORE! But of course as a super fan I will never be satisfied however the replay value is great because of the unique ways of catching ghosts, the achievements, and the dialogue that you may have missed the first time through. The online multiplayer is great with my favorite mode being survival where you try to survive waves of ghosts like the Horde mode in Gears 2. Some local multiplayer would be nice but that doesn’t really bother me and no character creator makes sense because of all of the cutscenes that the rookie is in. The nameless character makes the experience much better because when Ray calls you “Hoss” or Winston calls you “Rook” you really feel like they are talking to you. A final complaint that some have voiced is that the other GB’s need to be revived too often and while that may be true it is only in the boss fights and it isn’t that big of a deal.
If you like Ghostbusters, shooters, comedy, or all of the above buy this game. It is by far my favorite game of all time and while you may not agree with that you will have a blast playing this wildly fun ride, here’s hoping for more games and some DLC!
Gameplay: 10
Story: 10
Replay Value: 10
Graphics: 10
Overall: 10
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