Review: Ghostbusters: The Video Game

Before I start this review, i just want to point something out. I am a massive fan of Ghostbusters. When I found out that there was a new game coming out, I became very uneasy about the prospect. I immediately thought that it would be garbage, thank god Terminal Reality proved me wrong.

Having reviewed many a lisence tie-in over the last few months I have grown to loath them. However, after hearing a lot of good things about this game I was extremely optimistic. The concept sounded great, the fact the script was written by Akroyd and Ramis was fantastic and to have most of the original cast do voice work seemed to make this a great experience for a Ghostbusters fan. A great experience is exactly what this game is, thank god.

The idea behind the game is that you play a, non-speaking, new member of the Ghostbusters team and have basically been drafted in to test all of their prototype weapons, gadgets and gizmos. You fight alongside the original ‘busters, tackling ghosts and gouls in New York city.

All of your old favorites are here and, to be honest, the game is pure fan service from beginning to end. Something that certainly is not a bad thing. Put it this way, you fight the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man in the fist level of the game!

The story is completely new and is set some years after the events of the second movie. Akroyd has said of the game that it is “essentially the third movie”. While I hope there will be a ‘real’ third film this game does enough to appease fans and continue the story of Ray, Egon, Venkman and Winston.

Wilst the story is good and is quite well told through in game dialoguge and CG cutscenes, there’s something not quite right about it. Personally, I think it’s the voice acting. It’s not exceptionally bad, it just occassionally seems that certain actors (namely Bill Murray) are just going through the motions and doing it for the paycheck. I expected more and it just takes away from the whole experience and feel for the game. Something I found a real shame.

Graphically the game is good. However, it does look better on the Xbox 360, something that shouldn’t be happening now. A poor job on the developers part. Like I said, the game is good looking. All of the character models look good, the old enemies seem perfectly recreated and the new enemy types are pretty inventive.

At it’s core this game is a third-person shooter. Well, a third-person shooter with Proton Packs. You shoot enemies with your pack and then wrangle larger ones into traps. On the whole this works quite well and once you’ve got the hang of it you’ll have a blast. However, there are a few minor quirks that keep the gameplay from being top notch and occassionally the A.I. can be pretty brutal, even on normal. This fluctuation in difficulty level in between sections leads me to recomend that players play the game on casual if they want a really fun, solid experience.

There are a number of other things that make this game stand out from the mass of lisence-based titles on the market. Namely, the ammount of talent attatched to it. Other than that the Ghostbusters universe has been perfectly recreated. The environments are great, the characters look good and, on the whole, the story is something fans of the movies will love. It’s just a shame that it couldn’t be the all round great busting experience that many anticipated. Still, the game is good and is probably the best lisenced game you’ll see this year.

8/10

Secondary Comments – By Chris Malley

Like Anthony, I too really like the Ghostbusters franchise. However, I feel a bit cheated by this game. I’m not saying that it’s not good because it is, it’s just that there’s a number of things that let it down.

I’m not going to beat around the bush. Bill Murray just did not show up for this at all, he practically phoned it in. He’s not the only one who’s voice acting isn’t great but he stands out and, as a fan, i’m quite disapointed.

My Bill Murray hate aside, I think that the game is solid but there’s a lot more that could’ve been done with it. The gameplay does get quite repetetive and, although the fan service is great, it isn’t enough to hide the game’s flaws. It’s not always graphically sound, the difficulty levels of the A.I. can change in an instant and, after a while, it can get quite repetetive.

Like I said, the game is good but it’s just lacking in a number of areas that Terminal Reality should’ve capitalised on. I mean, how could they not have a cooperative campaign in this game. The multiplayer component feels tacked on and really could’ve been pretty good.

I like the game and would recomend it to anyone, but I think that it’s lacking in a number of areas that really should’ve been sorted out for it to become as classic as the movies have.

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