Tancap Blog

While a solid try, Ghostbusters can’t quite shake the stereotype of movie license games being mediocre.  It seems like all the right ingredients are here.   The story is written by Aykroyd and Ramis.   The  voices for the most part provided from the cast of the two movies.  The cutscenes do a good job of connecting the various sections of the game together as well.  The graphics are while not quite as stunning as the last Metal Gear don’t look bad at all.  The various main characters bear a definite resemblance to their movie counterparts.  Even though the character you play doesn’t speak, he still ends up feeling more like part of the team rather than an extra wheel.  Everything sounds pretty good so far, right?

The problem is the gameplay quite frankly doesn’t measure up.  Part of the problem is the friendly AI.  In order to progress in the game there are several parts which absolutely require you to have friendly teammates to help you out.  With proper AI, this could have made for a great immersive experience.  Unfortunately, the friendly AI often makes poor decisions.  To make matters worse, even when it is trying to do the right thing it’s pathing often gets stuck.  This becomes a big problem because there is no effective way to duck or move out of the way of much of the incoming fire.  In several parts of the game you will need your teammates to be able to get to you to pick you up.   During play I literally had 2 friendly AIs within 2 feet of me not be able to revive me because the pathing caused the AI to get stuck on a piece of debris.  Also, while there is an upgrade system, it is extremely basic.  You buy upgrades with money you earn buy either scanning artifacts or defeating enemies.  The upgrade system is a simple 1-level upgrades such as make weapon fire faster, do more damage, heat up less, or use less energy.  In all likelihood you won’t have to choose if you get an upgrade, but rather what order you get the upgrades in.  As someone who played the old Apple II version of Ghostbusters which had a ton of upgrade choices this new Ghostbusters feels extremely light in this area.  Most of the game you will either being using your PK meter to find your way or fighting ghosts with your proton pack.  While the pack has a number of different modes they all work pretty much the same and don’t add any real variety to your fights.  Boss fights generally play out the same as well.  There are a couple of puzzles, but they are for the most part so trivial that they don’t really add anything to the gameplay.  Several different modes of multplayer are available, but the lack of co-op is a real lost opportunity.  The single player game is also very short.  I was able to complete it on the default difficulty level in less than 8 hours and there isn’t really a reason to go back and play on harder difficulty levels unless you want to try to earn all of the awards.  At the end of the day, Ghostbusters: The Video Game is probably worth renting if you liked either of the movies.  Otherwise, while Ghostbusters isn’t a bad game, but there are a lot of better alternatives out there.

Scores:

Graphics:

Character models look very good, but not quite an exact likeness to their movie counterparts.  The environments generally look very good, but texture quality seems a bit low in spots.

Sound:

Music is spot on and thanks to most of the voice acting coming from the cast of the 2 movies the voice acting is great too.  Sound effects sound authentic as well.

Gameplay:

Pathing and other friendly AI problems abound.  An overly simple upgrade system doesn’t help matters either.  It’s too bad since the story sets up some great gameplay scenarios.

Controls:

The PS3 controls generally work fine.  A better method of dodging is sorely needed.

Originality:

A generic movie themed third person shooter.  Nothing really new to be seen here.

Overall Single Player:

A rather short single player experience.  Friendly AI issues can cause frustration.

Overall Multiplayer: Not Rated

No co-op is unfortunate.  There does seem to be quite a few good multiplayer options.  I wasn’t able to get enough time in with the multiplayer aspect to rate it.

Reviewer’s Opinion:

What could have been a truly great experience due to a good story and voice acting falls short due to a relatively short single player experience and poor AI.  Still, not a bad rent if you liked either of the Ghostbusters movies.

Screenshots: