PS3 Review: Ghostbusters: The Video Game
“We came. We saw. We kicked its ass”
Nothing’s better than strapping on a nuclear accelerator and catching some ghosts and demons. Growing up I watched both Ghostbuster films, when they came out, and all I wanted to do – was to be able to strap on that pack and be one of them. Now with the release of Ghostbusters: The Video Game, I can now fulfill my childhood dreams.
Developer: Terminal Reality
Publisher: Atari
Genre: 3rd Person – Action
Rating: T (Teen)
Price: $59.99
The year is 1991, two years after the second Ghostbusters movies. With so much activity going on, the ghostbusting crew finds themselves needing somebody to help test out the new equipment Egon is working on, which is where you come in. As the rookie, the player joins the squad as the experimental weapons technician. After something goes array at the museum, releasing countless spirits, the boys spring to action.
From the beginning to end, the game is a true sequel of the movies and even plays out like the film counter-part. With Harold Ramis and Dan Akroyd returning to write the script, the game speaks and feels like Ghostbusters. The game links stories of some of the characters found in the first movie like the Librarian, Gozer, Stay Puft, and William Peck…yes the “Pecker” has returned. The story was solid the whole way through and did a fine job tying in parts of the first movie.
Playing the game never got old – nor did it feel repetitive. It plays in third-person perspective, with the exception of using the PKE meter, which then puts you in the first person “night vision” perspective. It was designed with no HUD, so you’ll find all your vitals on the proton pack itself or around the screen. This design decision helped make the game feel more like a movie, and doesn’t take you out of the games atmosphere.
Besides having the basic proton pack and its functions, you now have the ability to use dark matter, electricity, and green positively-charged goo. Each of these new methods of arsenal had their own secondary fire, and had a unique configuration on the proton pack. It’s always nice to see a developer, like Terminal Reality, adding more weapon designs and giving the player more playability options.
With a plethora of locations, the fear of boredom will be the furthest from your mind. The ghostbusting gang makes returns to sites found in the first movie like the library, Sedgewick Hotel, and Times Square – but you’ll also see locations like a resurrected island, graveyard, the New York museum, and the spirit realm to name a few more. These various locations make the game interesting at every turn and keep GB from feeling stale in environment count.
Even the fighting of ghosts didn’t get old. Most of the game, you find yourself weakening the spirits before capturing them. The end result is always the same, but how you get the spirit in the trap is left to the player to decide. Each unique monster or spirit has their own weakness to certain weapons and research is done using the PKE meter.
The voice acting was – for the most part great! The original cast voiced their 3D counterparts; Dan Akroyd, Harold Ramis, Bill Murray, Ernie Hudson, Annie Potts, and William Atherton returned as William Peck. Hell, even the boss on National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation makes a voice appearance as the mayor. The voicing isn’t without some issues, though. Peter Venkman’s voice acting seemed to feel like the movie character, but it also felt as if Bill Murray lost his connection with him. Another issue is bad voice over syncing with animations. It was so obvious, that it looked like a bad Chinese film. Besides the voice acting griepes, the audio effects held true and genuine to the series and a lot of the sound effects and songs from the first movie made the return for the game. I understand the game is pretty much based off the first movie, but couldn’t they borrow some audio from the second? The music will get repetitive after awhile – be warned.
The video presentation of the game was decent. The CGI cutsenes were great and the character models looked a lot like the actors and actress; showing wrinkles and scars that the actor might have had. With all good comes a bad, and the bad here is the in-game cutscenes. Characters looked as plastic as Ken and Barbie dolls and lacked the hints of “realism” from the CGI.
Ghostbusters: the game was very enjoyable to play! It keeps you intrigued with its story, environments, and the iconic characters that you come across during the game. The controls feel good with characters having a sense of weight to them, also. The problem, some might find, is at times during some boss battles, or major moments, the enemy’s difficulty ramped up or there were just too many enemies to focus and reviving your partners at the same time was nearly impossible.
All in all, Ghostbusters was slightly above-average and enjoyable. Between the controls, graphics, fan-lore, and overall playability of the game – it was a great “movie tie-in” title. As a fan myself, GB gives true fans of the series what they wanted and more. If you’re like me, this is a must buy. If you’re not, I suggest picking this up as a rental, and who knows, it may interest you into watching the films. (B+)
- Mike K
Nowadays games about movies are popular than the actual movies.
Nice Review. An incredible nostalgic feeling brother. How I miss those days.