Ghostbusters: The Video Game

15 Jun 2009 at 17:37:12 by Andy Alderson
Systems used to review this title: (PS3)

Every now and again a game comes along which I want to like before I’ve even played it. It could be that’s it’s an update of a franchise I fell in love with in years passed (like Operation Flashpoint or Bionic Commando) or maybe because an industry fave is working on the project (like Brutal Legend). In the case of Ghostbusters: The Videogame, it’s because I loved the films. Yes, even the technically unfunny sequel. With a great cast, a genuine dynamic between them, blockbuster set pieces and wicked one-liners I still harbour a nostalgic love for Ghostbusters. I still find myself humming the theme tune.  I still find myself repeating the line “it’s true...this man has no dick” with annoying frequency. And so I wanted to like Ghostbusters: The Videogame. When I heard that the original writing team of Aykroyd and Ramis were scripting it, my interest levels rocketed. When the game suffered a number of publishing catastrophes, it became the plucky underdog I liked even more. And now I’ve actually played it I can confirm two things: One, it feels like an authentic Ghostbusters product. Two, given a little more time, it could have been so much better.

Let’s address that first point for a moment. What’s immediately obvious from even the first ten minutes of the game is that Ghostbusters possesses a rare commodity in gaming, and that’s charm. From the Columbia pictures screen at the start to the first time we hear Peter, Ray and Egon arguing, everything about Ghostbusters’ presentation feels perfectly familiar. For example, the incidental music as you potter around the Fire Station is Elmer Bernstein’s score from the original. Janine is on reception. Slimer’s downstairs in containment. It all feels well-observed, in keeping with the game’s origins and this goes for the story and voice acting too.

Because the plot and dialogue are written by Aykroyd and Ramis, the game gets the characters right, which rarely happens in movie tie-ins. Venkman spits wisecracks and surreal humour at every opportunity, Ray has a boundless, nerdy enthusiasm for all things spectral, which is anchored by Egon’s deadpan sarcasm and Winston is the endearing everyman who has just found his feet in the team. The aforementioned dynamic between them works very well and it’s refreshing to play a squad-action game where you like everyone on your team.

Authenticity was clearly a big concern for developer Terminal Reality and so, rather than have the writing team create a new character and back story for the player, you take on the role of a nameless rookie. See, the guys are wary of becoming too attached to the noob as they go through rookies like Spinal Tap through drummers.  This was a wise move by the developer as you can’t really risk polluting the chemistry between the main characters with a new guy, but at the same time it does throw up a big problem. As I played through the game, trying to analyse why I was enjoying it, I came to an odd conclusion.  In Ghostbusters: The Videogame, it’s not so much about you as it is about watching the others. The gameplay itself, sadly, is not particularly engaging and yet the atmosphere is.

The game plays out like a third person shooter of sorts, with the main gameplay feature being the capture of ghosts. This is done via the iconic Proton Pack and as you encounter ghosts in the game you’ll need to follow a four step procedure: blast, stun, wrangle, and trap. R2 fires a stream from the proton pack which you’ll need to reduce the ghost’s energy meter. Once it’s sufficiently depleted, the ghost will be stunned, allowing you to hit L1 and engage your capture stream. At this point your stream will wrap around the ghost and you’ll need to wrestle it towards a trap, which is easier with some ghosts than others. It’s not a badly-implemented system and there’s something pretty cool about the whole squad working together to trap a ghoul. The problem is that, beyond this, there’s not much else to the game and even though the main campaign isn’t very long (around 6 hours), it doesn’t take long for the gameplay to become repetitive.

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