i ain’t afraid of no review

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Halloween’s around the corner and that gives me a hankering for horror. So I thought I’d give Ghostbusters a try. I have to say I like the Ghostbusters in general. What’s not to like about wise cracking paranormal investigators? I was a kid when the first movie hit the big screen. I fondly remember watching the Saturday morning cartoon version (not the crappy one with the monkey but The Real Ghostbusters). The first movie was a unique funny corny ride introducing Zener cards and a unique alternate reality to the public. The second movie made all the Hollywood sequel mistakes bigger and louder but not better and retreading when they should have started fresh. It’s weak box office performance effectively buried the franchise. Movie based games are typically little more than marketing material, but It’s been twenty five years since the first movie so I went in hoping for a solid game to resuscitate the franchise.

What’s amazing here is not only did the original actors voice the characters but Dan Aykroyd and Harold Ramis co-wrote the story! Immediately you’ll recognize the old crew. Their digitized mannerisms and dialog are right on the money. At the start you’re introduced as a new recruit, a fifth ghost buster which you control in 3rd person perspective. Controls are explained in game as on the job training. Throughout you ride along with them busting as a team, though you’re the one that does most of the heavy lifting.

Game Mechanics

Let’s start with weapons, the basic proton pack works pretty much as you would expect. You blast a ghost until it’s weakened, then throw a trap down and use a capture stream to pull them down into it. That works well looks nice and really feels right. Continuous blasting causes the pack to overheat which can be remedied by running a cooling cycle preventing you from blasting for a bit. Along the way you’ll get some equipment enhancements which in any other game would be different weapons. There’s the one that shoots a powerful close range shot i.e. the shotgun. There’s another that shoots a powerful burst but will overheat your pack really quick i.e. a rocket. You deal more damage when using the correct weapon on a particular ghost. None of them feel as genuine as the standard proton pack. About half the ghosts you defeat by trapping them, the other half just need to be blasted. Capturing ghosts earns you money which can be used to buy minor weapons upgrades.

The PKE meter also looks and feels right. Scanning has a night vision goggle look and shows metered bars that light up when you’re near supernatural activity. Scanning a ghost shows its vulnerabilities. You use the PKE to look for hidden ghosts and also to find supernatural artifacts which are worth money.

The ghosts of course fight back. You can only take so much damage though you do heal with time. Get hit too hard too fast and you find yourself on your back twitching like a beetle. You have to wait until another ghost buster can help you back on your feet. When they fall down it’s your job to help them up. If you all fall down then you fail and have to suffer through an unfortunately long reload to try again at the last auto save checkpoint.

The game is completely linear as is the level design. In pretty much every level you investigate a bit with the PKE, trap some ghosts / blast some ghosts, walk into the next area, repeat 10 times, then finish with a forgettable boss battle. The plot is told completely through cut scenes. There are a few almost puzzles none of them require much thought, though they can be frustrating. There were a couple spots the PKE led me astray picking up something I couldn’t actually get to yet leaving me wandering back and forth. There’re only seven levels, each taking about an hour to complete making for a short game. The end level is noticeably harder but not quite a Final Beat Down.

Conclusion

Unfortunately the 80s cartoon captured a spooky mood better than the game does. The over the top continuation of the tired Gozer story line is what you would have expected if they made a third movie that went straight to DVD. They even threw in the Stay-Puff marshmallow man, in the second level! If twenty five years later and a different media isn’t time to break fresh ground then I don’t know what is. Ghost Busters deserves a reboot, and this sadly isn’t it. I hate to rip on the story when Ramis and Aykroyd actually wrote it, but Gozer is stale. It would have been easier to ignore if the game play was better but there’s just not a whole lot going on there either. The familiar faces and locations make for a few-hour nostalgia trip, thankfully it’s not too many more hours before it’s over.

Rating: C-