Ghostbusters Video Game Review & Rating

In 1981 the entertainment world changed forever with the release of the seminal classic Ghost Busters.  Fans all over the world fell in love with the laughable cast of half-wits, nitwits, and nerds and movies would never be the same.  Does the 2009 video game title of the same name (produced by Terminal Reality) live up to its predecessor or is it just another example of a crossover that should never have happened?
There really isn’t a concrete answer one way or another because while the game is really quite a lot of fun to play and pays the appropriate homage to the source material, it’s plagued by a few shortcomings that won’t keep diehard fans of the franchise from loving the game but might not convert any newbies.


Gameplay

The action in the game takes place in 1991, just a few years after the events in Ghostbusters 2, and once again pits the squad of unlikely soldiers against Gozer the Gozerian in a rather faithful recreation of the scenario in the original movie.  Instead of risking tearing the thin veil between realities by allowing players to jump into the boots of the original cast (thankfully), players are introduced to the gang as a new recruit and A number 1 lab rat for all of Egon and Spengler’s whacky inventions.  It might seem daunting at first running around with a nuclear accelerator on your back, and there’s is a definite learning curve to beating the stuffing out of the ectoplasmic freaks you meet along the way before stuffing them into a trap, however, even novice players will soon be slam dunking (quite literally) the little green goobers.

With most of the original cast returning to do voiceover work (with the noticeable exceptions of Rick Moranis and Sigourney Weaver) and maestros of mayhem Dan Akroyd and Harold Ramis penning much of the dialog, fans will no doubt feel right at home as they slime their way through the seven levels.  Along the way you’ll run into some old frenemies (Slimer and the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man) as you generally destroy everything in sight and make that angry little man from the mayor’s office even angrier.

You’ll also be able to scan the ghosts you capture and keep track of them baseball card style which is really quite fun when you get down to it. 
But it’s not all just nostalgia.  There are a few new elements to the gameplay that may seem a little weird at first.  As you build up a reputation, earn cash, and pimp out your firehouse with special supernatural loot you nab during the missions, the biggest addition to the Ghostbusters world is your proton pack’s new fire modes.  Face it; the game would have been rather boring had you been forced to run around with just a basic pack all the time.  So developers added three more modes to the “weapon” each of which is upgradable and comes with multiple fire modes.  The basic mode is your standard boson dart attack/wrangling mode which you’ll use most of the time.  The second mode features a shock blast capable of hitting multiple targets and a stasis stream which slows down the ghosties.  Next comes the Meson collider mode which allows you to attach homing beacons to ghosts and nail them with multiple, rapid-fire energy streams.  The last mode is the green goo slime blaster mode.  This mode is reminiscent of the pink goo in Ghostbusters 2 and you’ll use it both to ensnare troublesome harbingers of doom and manipulate a few of the physics puzzles which you’ll run across.

Gameplay is generally okay, which is kind of a downer.  You’ll spend 90% of the time weakening ghost with primary attacks and they wrangling them toward the traps, which does get easier as you upgrade your equipment, but makes things a little dull toward the end.  By far the most annoying part (other than the incredibly slow place at which your characters move!) is the amount of time you—and the other NPCs—will spend on the floor.  Since the Ghostbusters universe never delved into death, you won’t have to worry about being killed.  However, the in-game equivalent is being knocked down/out.  You’ll either have to wait while your character scrambles back to their feet or is revived by an NPC.  That would be fine—if it didn’t happen so much.  There are a few spots in the game, especially in the enemy-cluttered levels where you’ll spend most of your time trying to keep your team on their feet because when you all fall down, you get a game over screen and have to reload.

The storyline is great and the dialog written by the masters behind the comic core of the franchise is great.  There’s plenty to keep even fare weather fans entertained.  You’ll also spot quite a few Easter eggs and extras that nod back to the movies as well. 


Graphics

However, graphically the game is a bit weak.  While the whole things is very colorful and really feels like an extension of the big screen series, the animations are a bit stiff and the lip syncing is just plain terrible.  Still, the models themselves are quite detailed and the entire original cast look like they did on the big screen (unlike the game version of Wanted) so a little jerkiness is forgivable. 


Sound

With Dan Akroyd, Bill Murray, Harold Ramis, and Ernie Hudson lending their talent to the NPCs, the game really has some strong vocal legs on which to stand.  It adds an element of realism to the game that a lot of movie tie-ins are sorely lacking.  However, the dialog does get thin toward the end of the game (the game takes about 6-8 hours to play through and a movie is only 90 minutes after all) and a lot of people have crapped on Bill Murray’s lackluster performance.  I can’t fault it really, the man has earned the right to be a little cantankerous, but overall it doesn’t detract from the entire package.
Top off the audio with a stellar 80’s soundtrack and you’ll find yourself singing along as you’re busting!


Value

While the game is fairly short, and multiplayer is available for console owners, there’s really not a whole lot of replay value.  There are some loot hunts and a few unlockables but I don’t know if all of them combined would be enough to keep a gamer interested.  The true value of the game is getting to put yourself in the iconic Ghostbusters universe and on that note the game is pitch perfect.  Keep in mind it was created when the original cast had all nixed the idea of another movie and wanted the fans to feel that the game was the third movie—that should give you some idea of the production value.  Now that a third movie has been green-lit (even by the cast members!) we can all look forward to even more comic hijinks on the big screen!


Final Verdict

While the game is technically up to par with the cutting edge games in today’s market, the nostalgia and overall good times Ghostbusters brings with it is worth the price.

Pros:  Playing as a Ghostbuster, fighting your old frenemies, witty one-liners and spot on dialog.

Cons:  graphical mixed bag, developers missed a few golden opportunities to expand the game, its short.



Overall Score: 7.5/10


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