Ah Ghostbusters. A good piece of my childhood, and that of many other people who were born in the 80s. After 20 years since the second film, and the video game industry not treating the franchise very well(or, well, barely treating it at all), with the only decent game coming from the series being the Genesis game, but looking so wacky it wasn’t a great representation of the movies.

So after all that waiting, a new Ghostbusters game comes for next-gen consoles. I don’t know what was the draw to make a new game for it after so long, but as a Ghostbusters fan I couldn’t be happier that some developers(and publishers, thank you Atari for picking it up after the Vivendi/Activision merger almost destroyed it) showed some love for it.

So can the Ghostbusters finally make it into a great game? Read my review!

Information
Developer: Terminal Reality
Publisher: Atari
Date of Release: 06/16/09
System(s): PS3, Xbox 360, PC
Alternate versions: PS2, Wii, DS, PSP

Genre: Action
Number of Player(s): 1 (up to 4 online)

Story
For some difference here, let’s start with the story of the game.
The game takes place 2 years after the second movie. In some strange decision, you play as a new Ghostbuster. He has no name, and he has no voice either. He’s basically a witness to the whole story, despite doing the most work. So after learning about how the game plays, you go after Slimer, who escaped after a big… ghost-related shockwave got out of the museum. That brings you to the hotel from the first movie. After capturing him, Gozer attacks in his Stay Puff Marshmallow Man form. You find out that someone, using certain supernatural seals or something, is trying to revive Gozer, or something related to Gozer and the mythology behind him. You go through a bunch of stages, some from the movies, some not, and you try to figure out what’s going on, who’s doing it, and what to do to stop it. The story is very Ghostbusters-like. It sounds and plays off just like a Ghostbusters movie. I find that there’s a bit of a lack of transition between each level, but overall it fits toghether nicely.

But the high point here is the characters. They’re voice-acted by the original actors. Some characters from the movies are missing, of course, but the characters that are there are great. Janine sounds just like before, the Ghostbusters are almost as funny as in the movies and deliver the lines well (there are, though, some lines that sound off or sound like they were just reading the script instead of acting) and overall the voice acting performance adds a lot to the story. The random paranormal mumbo jumbo that mostly Egon(sometimes the other guys) spouts out sounds awesome, and makes it feel like it’s really Ghostbusters. The interactions between the characters are not flawless, but overall very well executed. The comedy remains pretty much the same, and the characters are just like you remember them from the movie. Not perfect, but the Ghostbusters fans will most lkely be happy enough about it.

The only weird thing here is the fact that you play as a fifth Ghostbuster who never speaks, or even react to anything. He just feels… random and pointless. I don’t think giving him a voice would’ve been THAT bad, though I understand that the developers wanted to keep the experience as authentic as possible. It’s not a big problem, it’s just a weird choice.

Also, the final boss is completely random and just feels to come out of nowhere. Unless I missed it completely in the story, he was never mentioned until you fight him. Really weird.

Looks and sounds
Graphically, I can’t really complain. The Ghostbusters look great, just like they did in the movies. The other old characters are just about the same. The proton packs are the kings of the show though, being incredibly detailed and well animated. And considering the proton pack is also the HUD, it’s great to have it look so good. The PKE meter is also full of awesome. As for the areas, they look fine, but the textures are just a bit low-res. Not as bad as some comparisons you might see between the PS3 and Xbox 360 versions, but still it could use a bit more work. Oh, and the firehouse is very well replicated and badass.

The graphics, for the most part, seem a lot darker than in the movies. Lots of dark and spooky areas, bordering on scary (though the game will probably never manage to scare you). The atmosphere in general is really good, and you never know what might pop up. It takes the style of the movies, but makes it slightly creepier, which is a good thing.

Sound-wise, the game does everything well. I already mentioned the relatively good-quality voice acting, but the rest is pretty good too. The slime sound like slime, the proton pack sounds like in the movies, and the new sounds for various weapons on the pack have appropriate sounds.

The music is, basically, the Ghostbusters 2 soundtrack, and it fits very well with the game as well. If for some reason you don’t like it, the game supports custom soundtracks on the PS3, so you can have your own music instead. No complaints here whatsoever.

Gameplay
Well… Without being TOO fanboyish here… THIS GAME IS GREAT. Really, if you ever wished you were a Ghostbuster when you were growing up (I know I did…… that’s perfectly normal… right?), this is the closest you’ll ever get. It’s not even worth comparing this to the gameplay of any previous Ghostbusters game.

The basics are simple enough. This is a third-person shooter. Run around Gears of War style and shoot stuff. That’s pretty much where the similarities end. Basically, going through the levels, you go from encounter to encounter, getting cutscenes with the characters and solving puzzles. On the way, you can side-track from the main path and find extra stuff using the PKE meter(which works in first-person view). The PKE meter has a few functions: Green is basically showing where you need to go, minor PKE levels. Blue means there’s a cursed item around. Those are small bonuses and easter eggs, basically, and some of them are pretty creepy as well. Finally, red is major PKE level and either there’s a ghost right in front of you or there’s a big one close. The PKE meter also serves as a scanner. You get cursed items by scanning them, but you can also scan every enemy type and some other things, which fills up Tobin’s Spirit Guide, which gives info on enemies, including weaknesses and strengths. When it comes to navigation, that’s pretty much all there is to say.

The fighting is the major part of the game. Most of the time you’ll be fighting ghosts. The ghost busting is relatively simple. Find a ghost, weaken is with proton blasts or your various other weapons, when he’s weak enough your proton blast automatically changes to the capture beam and you put out a trap (either while wrangling him or beforehand) drag him towards the trap and get him in and pick up the trap when you’re done. Dragging a ghost in is a bit tough, since they fight back (kinda like fish). You can charge a bar to slam the ghost on the walls and floors, which weakens them further and makes them easier to catch. When you manage to get them over the trap, the trap starts to drag the ghost in. He still tries to get out of the trap’s clutches until he’s fully in it. So you have to move the capture beam to prevent the ghost from flying out, and other Ghostbusters helping you makes it easier to drag the ghost in. The whole ghost busting gameplay is incredibly well done, and it couldn’t feel any better. There are some enemies that actually have to be destroyed though, so this definitely adds some variety. And most enemies attack you, and you can try getting out of the way with the circle button.

Getting hit enough knocks you out(and you can regenerate health as well if you wait long enough, but the regenerating time is really slow). If you’re not the only Ghostbuster around, the other Ghostbusters can come and revive you. If all the current team of Ghostbusters is knocked out, everyone dies and it’s game over. So as long as there’s a Ghostbuster not knocked out and reviving dead ones, you can continue playing for a long time. If you do dies though, there’s a minor problem… a LONG loading screen. I mean, the level is already loaded and all, why do you have to wait a minute each time you die? I would excuse it if the game didn’t have an install, but it does. But otherwise the system is prettty good and does make it relatively convincing to use good old teamwork. Oh, and differently to what some sites have been reporting, crossing the streams do have an effect. If you cross them for too long, it blows you away and damages you a bit. Not exactly “All life stopping and all the molecules in your body exploding at the speed of light… total protonic reversal”, but at least it’s something.

You have a whole bunch of weapons packed in the proton pack. You have the normal proton blast from the movies(which you can turn into the capture beam when you want to lift objects), and along with that you get Boson Darts which are basically rockets with a relatively big range of effect and more damaging than normal shots/ Shock Blasts and Shock Streams which act as, respectively, a shotgun and a petrifying gun (which solidifies certain enemies, which are then to be blown up with the Shock Blast). A slime gun filled with positively charged mood slime which can be used to shoot slime which certain enemies are weak to and it also neutralizes negatively charged slime and slime strings that can move obstacles, solve puzzles and slam enemies to the ground. Finally there’s the meson cannon, which acts as both slow concentrated blasts and a machine gun. I frankly didn’t find much use in the Meson Cannon, but the other weapons are great. The slime is used both for puzzles, fights and a combination of both(where you have to fight and solve a puzzle at the same time)., the proton blast and boson darts have great uses for destruction and damage, Shock Blasts and streams are useful against quite a few enemies. Each weapon has a heat consumption rate. When the heat meter on the proton pack goes too high, you have to wait until it cools down. If you press R1 before it fully overheats, it cools down a lot faster, which counts as “reloading”.

And each weapon has a few upgrades it can get. Stronger streams, less heat consumption, larger area of effect, upgrades to the trap (enabling you to slam ghosts straight into the trap), and various other effects depending on the weapon. You get money by capturing ghosts or destroying certain enemies. There’s not much more to say in that regard, as you will most likely be fully upgraded 2 levels before the end of the game. It does add a fun leveling element, which is good.

Finally, I guess I could talk about boss fights. Each boss has a gimmick of sorts. They vary in scale and attack pattern, and for the most part they’re really interesting to fight. Once you get the pattern right, it can become relatively simple to fight the bosses, but there’s always some fun to be had.

The gameplay is awesome. Not the best out there, but Ghostbusters fans, such as me, will be GREATLY pleased with how the game handles.

Overall
This is, by FAR, the best Ghostbusters game. No other Ghostbuster game is even close to comparing. The gameplay is great, the busting feels as good as you’d want it to and the puzzles, while repetitive, are pretty cool. And the boss fights are quite interesting. The difficulty is fair most of the time, with a troublesome areas, and feels weird when everyone stops talking/moving other than you until you figure out what to do. It just randomly starts to feel… lifeless. But that’s never a major problem.

If I’d say there’s a real big problem with the game, it’s the lack of a co-op campaign. I mean, the game is based around teamwork, but you can’t actually build a team and complete the story. A bit disappointing. There is some co-op in multiplayer, but not enough really.

The amount of Ghostbusters fanservice is awesome. I mean, in the FIRST level you fight Staypuff. There’s tons of collectibles and Ghostbusters trivia and Easter eggs everywhere. The one Kotaku found is on the screen of the computer on the second floor of the firehouse, you see the famous ending screen for the NES game (“Conglaturation! You have completed a great game!”).  The firehouse, Ghostbusters, original voices and how good the busting itself is make this a must for Ghostbusters fans.

Pros/Cons
Pros
- Great graphics
- Busting definitely feels great (AKA awesome gameplay)
- The Ghostbusters fanservice is almost overwhelming
- Great atmosphere deepened by a dark visual style
- It’s the Ghostbusters at their… second best

Cons
- Lack of a Co-op campaign
- Final boss is really random
-  Use of a silent protagonist is a bit weird
- A bit on the short side
- Despite the weapons being more varied that I thought they would be, there’s still not THAT much variety

The Save Factor (explanation)
For the first Save Factor ever, I’ll actually have to use 2 of them. With a starting price of 60$, the Save Factor for this game is:

For Ghostbusters fans: $60 USD (the full starting price)
Otherwise: $25 (A good game, but there’s better offerings out there for Third-person shooter fans)

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