Wednesday, October 9, 2013

Ghostbusters: The Video Game Gripes

It's been a very long time since I first played and reviewed Ghostbusters: The Video Game (over four years to be exact) and now that I just recently replayed the game, I figured it would be a good time to go over some of the major gripes I had with the game. Don't get me wrong, I love the game, but it is nowhere near perfect and there are so many things I wish had been done better or had been expanded on.

Lack of Trappable Ghosts

I noticed this back when I was playing it once or twice a day (yes, full playthroughs once or twice a day) but it became more obvious to me this time through. The game has plenty of ghosts to trap but most of the enemies are enemies that you just blast into nothing. Some levels have a pretty good balance (the Museum level is probably the best) but some- like Lost Island- don't have any. I get that the trapping process might be a bit daunting at times but it is the iconic way that the Ghostbusters capture ghosts and it needed to be just a bit more prevalent.

Cool Ideas Aren't Given Enough Exposure

The Super Slammer trap was brought into the game in the second level and it allowed gamers to use Ecto-1B to trap ghosts via a large slam trap on the roof. This was one of the coolest things in the game and it helped allow for more trappable ghosts in that level (since all you needed to do was slam them into the trap) but after that it was never used again.


Sure, the Ecto-1B was escorted through the Central Park Cemetery at the end of the game, but the Super Slammer got damaged before it could be used. It's just a big tease in that level and the final non-boss battle encounter would have been much cooler had it been there.

Similarly, the possessor ghosts only made one quick appearance in the museum and then were hastily never heard from again. The concept that these ghosts could take over human bodies and would require exorcising (via the slime blower) was a great idea and made for a really cool gameplay mechanic. The scene at the museum gala is great but we never get to do that again in the game and that's a real shame.

I'm A Ghostbuster, Not A Doctor

People have brought this up before and they are absolutely right, the Ghostbusters need reviving WAY too much (especially on the higher difficulty settings). The revive system is similar to Gears of War but instead of the occasional wounded comrade, the other Ghostbusters are constantly being knocked down.

This makes certain encounters ridiculously hard and many times you can't fight ghosts for a while because you are running around trying to help all the other Ghostbusters.

Missing Presentation

Ghostbusters: The Video Game features some great CGI cut scenes that are beautiful, but the in-engine stuff is ugly and just not up to spec. The lip synching is dreadful, the character models are OK but their movements and facial expressions can be wonky, and I think there are some missing lines.

There are times when characters react to nothing like a line was said (case in point: Peter says "Come on Ray, I'm the one who gets a face full of slime every time "the little green buddy" escapes" after Ray has said no line that would warrant that reaction).

These presentation hiccups become more noticeable over time and the lack of polish really hurts the overall experience.

Plain Jane Multiplayer Options

The multiplayer in Ghostbusters: The Video Game is actually really fun and being able to play as any of the four Ghostbusters or the Rookie is a cool way to let players into the boots of those characters. However, the game suffers from a dull leveling system that is WAY too easy to max out (level 20 and you are done) and no real customization options. The uniforms change as you level up-which is cool-but instead of being able to go back to other uniform colors, you are just stuck with what you have.  I've been at level 20 since June of 2009 and I can't change the uniform color so that kind of stinks.


The Most Wanted Ghosts system (where random ghosts will appear in multiplayer matches that the player has a chance to catch) is a cool idea but it was marred with glitches on launch and takes some serious grinding and hassle to complete even now.

No DLC

The game was supposed to have a level that takes place at the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade but it was cut and we never saw it again. Why was that level not DLC? Some of the cut scenes had been made since parts of them made their way into trailers for the game so there was clearly a lot of the work already done.

The game also never got any map packs even though some artwork of a River of Slime map (the Van Horne stations to be specific) surfaced later. Why did the game never get even one map pack? This would have helped the multiplayer immensely but it never came to fruition.

I love Ghostbusters: The Video Game so much but it really is not perfect and the more I play it, the more I see the things that my love for the franchise blinded me to back then. I don't want this to be a downer, I just wanted to open up my end of a dialogue on what could have been better and what I have noticed as I have played the game more and more.