That's the bedroom, but nothing ever happened in there.
Ghostbusters: The Video Game captures the charm and quirkiness of the first two movies. It also somehow coalesces as an entertaining video game by taking gameplay inspiration from Luigi’s Mansion and Gears of War, while also delivering an adventure that maintains the spirit of the first two Ghostbuster movies. For the most part, the game plays and feels like a third person shooter. Originally released in 2009 on Playstation 3 and Xbox 360 (among other systems), a remastered version that updated the graphics was released in 2019 for the consoles current at the time. This review is based on the Playstation 4 version of the remaster.
The vibes from the first two Ghostbusters movies are the centerpiece of this game, and for good reason. Dan Aykroyd and Harold Ramis, two of the four Ghostbusters actors from the original two movies, played significant roles in writing the script for this game. In addition, the game has the likenesses and voices of all four Ghostbusters.
The story takes place in November 1991, two years after Ghostbusters II. You will play as a new recxruit to the Ghostbusters and team with the original four members, including Peter Venkman, Raymond Stantz, Egon Spengler, and Winston Zeddemore. As the new recruit, you will travel to different parts of the city, including the New York City streets, a library, and a museum to capture ghosts. The Ghostbusters are contracted to New York city in the game, which leads to the game comedically tracking the approximate dollar amount of damage you do while trying to capture ghosts.
The overarching story is not the reason to play this game. Though the story feels like an extension of the movies, the story in this game plays it safe by being relatively bland. Progressing through the story is fairly formulaic. You will start off going to a new location to investigate paranormal activity, reports of a ghost, or something similar. Once there, you will quickly find a big, bad spirit and end up chasing it throughout the location. As you are hunting for the special ghost, you will be attacked by several other minion-esque ghosts that need to be defeated. Eventually, you will explore the location thoroughly and annoy the special ghost enough to where they confront you in a boss battle. This formula is essentially rinsed and repeated for each location/story chapter.
The game starts slow as you begin controlling the new recruit. You will start with the crew in a firehouse and then move to the Sedgewick Hotel to investigate paranormal activity. It is not until nearly the end of the Sedgewick Hotel chapter before the game picks up and becomes interesting. I first tried playing this on Playstation 3 a year or so after it was originally released (most likely sometime between 2010 and 2012). I was bored through this part and felt like I was forcing myself to play a game that was not going to improve. So, I dropped it. I regained interest in potentially playing Ghostbusters: The Video Game once it was remastered. Now that it is near Halloween 2023, I thought what better time than to give capturing ghosts a second chance. I begrudgingly went through the boring beginning again, but this time I was able to make it through and see that it does actually become an interesting, lighthearted game that fits perfect into the Halloween season. Embarrassingly, the boring part takes around 30 minutes to get through. I guess I was too impatient the first time and had higher expectations that were not being met early on.
The PKE meter from the movies is used in the game to find ghosts hiding in objects, secrets, et cetera. As the game describes it, the PKE meter is the lynchpin of supernatural investigation. It will detect PK energy sources. The signal will get stronger as you get closer to pointing directly at the energy source. You can also use the PKE meter to scan ghosts and objects that are emitting an energy. This will give you insight into the ghosts and objects/artifacts.
There are a variety of ghosts that will be attacking you throughout the adventure. The fisherman, opera singer, Stay Puft Marshmallow Man, road crews, Civil War Confederate soldiers shooting muskets, et cetera. These ghosts have unique looks and different attacks for you to dodge and avoid. They also have different weaknesses that you can exploit with your equipment to capture or destroy them.
Your first defense against ghosts will be the proton pack, which essentially shoots a laser. You will need to shoot the proton pack at targeted ghosts until their health is reduced from green meter to red and/or completely depleted. Then, you can wrap the ray around and slam them into buildings, the ground, or other nearby objects. Once the ghosts become groggy, you can throw out a Ghost Trap device to capture them. You will need to reconnect your blaster with the ghost and pull them into the Ghost Trap in order to capture said ghost. You can also buy an upgrade that will automatically capture the ghost if you slam them onto the Ghost Trap.
At times, you will need to lead the way and clear a path for the Ecto-1, the famous Ghostbusters 1959 Cadillac driven by the Ghostbusters. While doing this, there will be a large Ghost Trap on top of the vehicle that you can slam ghosts on to immediately capture them. This is hugely beneficial in situations where you are fending off several attacking ghosts at once, as you are able to skip over the few second process of throwing out your own Ghost Trap and trying to pull the ghost into it.
As you progress through the story, you will unlock additional weapons that can be used. At the start of the library level, you will be given a stasis stream. Pressing L2 while having this selected will shoot what is akin to a shotgun in typical third person shooters. This action shoots out 4-5 beams that are effective at close range, but do less damange and have decreased accuracy the further away from a ghost you get. You will also eventually be given access to a slime blower, which shoots slim at black mold, ghosts, and other objects. This acts similar to the water canon from Super Mario Sunshine and shooting slime in the Luigi’s Mansion games.
Boss battles are entertaining and are usually an accumulation of varying game elements that have been implemented up to that point. You will typically need to use different weapons for different stages of the boss fights. Unfortunately, the other Ghostbusters will be giving you hints on the strategy needed to defeat the bosses. There is very little time for you to figure out what needs to be done before one of them starts blurting out near step by step instructions.
Weapons and equipment can be upgraded using in-game money. Money is earned by defeating and capturing ghosts and completing story chapters. I highly recommend purchasing the Blast Stream Focusing upgrade as soon as you save up the $2,000 it costs. This significantly improves the handling of the blaster for aiming at ghosts. No longer will you be controlling and accounting for an unstable aiming of the blaster. Instead, you will be able to hold the blaster completely steady and focus on blasting ghosts.
Although I enjoyed the gameplay and fighting ghosts, this is not a game I would want to take an extended break from and then come back to try and pick up where I left off. The controls are not intuitive. There are some weapons that shoot a stream with R2 and a single shot effect with L2 and then there are other weapons where that is reverse (i.e., L2 for the stream and R2 for the single shot). Despite me playing through the story over a few consecutive nights, I would sometimes still press the wrong button for my intended action.
Sometimes you might get defeated by a spirit. If your teammates are still alive, they can run to and revive you while the action continues. This is reminiscent of the Gears of War series. Speaking of, running in the game looks and feels like the Gears of War series too. When you run, the camera angle will change to a slightly further back third person view and the mobility/agility of your character will be reduced. It is easy to run in a straight line, but turning will not be as responsive as when you are not running.
Even though this is a remaster for the Playstation 4, the graphics still primarily look like a game released in the early to middle cycle of the Playstation 3 generation (the original game was released in 2009). The full motion videos within the game have the worst graphics of any element. There is a clear lack of detail and blurry features to the characters during these FMVs compared to later Playstation 3 and Playstation 4 releases. It is comical seeing Bill Murray’s hair missing detail and having portions blurred out, like it is something that is actively being censored on broadcast television. Additionally, physics for when you get hit and take a lot of damage is ridiculously awful. Your body flies into the air and floats down in awkward contortions, like a ragdoll.
Ghostbusters: The Video Game will be entertaining for gamers that are fans of the Ghostbusters movies. This game captures the spirit and charm from the movies. Controlling the new recruit to battle iconic spirits from the movies and new ghosts designed for the game really makes it feel like you are part of the movie franchise. The six hour or so campaign length is perfect for the type of game this is. It does not overextend its welcome and is wraps up at the point the gameplay is starting to feel repetitive.
