No offense Stay Puft, we just really want some smores!

Graphics: 95

Audio: 100

Gameplay: 70

Replay: 40

Overall: 75

The graphics and voice work in the game are phenomonal, I loved every second of experiencing being a Ghostbuster when it came to going back in time and seeing Bill Murray in 1991.

The game play is a little frustrating at times, actually a lot frustrating.

I Ain’t ‘friad o’ no Ghost!

The 80s, some of the most memorable, strangest, crazy times in most of our lives, for example: I was born in ’85 and I’m probably the strangest thing you will find since the chea pet, which also is from the 80s. The cha-cha-cha chea was not the coolest invention on this era though, and no it wasn’t the clapper either, it was the sirens from the ecto-1 and the awesome plumber suits of the Ghostbusters that rushed into theaters around the country which quickly became a household wonder. This happened almost twenty-five years ago (wow I’m old) and is still popular in this modern day culture.

Basics

Ghostbusters: The Video Game released to just about every system you can think of besides the Sega Saturn. The storyline is pretty decent for a movie-based video game. You start out as a new recruit to the Ghostbusters organization and it might be the only game I’ve played where you don’t have a name or speaking parts at all. However, you don’t really need to talk too much since Bill Murray is around stealing the lines. The story focuses around some strange events happening at the Gozer exhibit and you are quickly re-living the events that happened in the movies of the 80s. The game is based two years after the events that happened in the second movie which puts you in ’91.

Visuals

 I got my copy for the PC and I must say that I was impressed at the level of detail they put into the character models, even though it was a fact before the game came out that they used the likeness of the original cast. I was able to set all my graphic settings on high and the characters were smooth, crisp and eye-candy. However, since I’m on the topic of the visuals, there are some objects that just seemed to be tossed into the game last minute. The Ecto-1’s movements and doors seem to be incredibly stiff and the outside of buildings in cut scenes seem out of place compared to the flawless character design. Though, other than those two things, the visuals were incredible.

Audio

The other thing that I loved about this game was the voice-acting and audio. Just hearing the old Ghostbusters theme and other music used for the movies made the whole experience entertaining. It felt like I was really in one of the Ghostbusters movies, running around with Dan Aykroyd and Ernie Hudson capturing Slimer with my proton pack. I’ve read in other places that they thought the voice acting was a bit forced and the humor was lacking, but honestly I was laughing at several lines from Bill Murray. The original cast being a part of the game, with their 1991 faces and voices, made the whole game enjoyable and real.

Game Play

Now, let’s talk about the game play, which was the only thing that seemed to irk me a bit while playing. Like I said before, you play a nameless rookie on the squad, and it really feels like you are a rookie. The incredibly stiff and slow movements of the rookie gets to be incredibly frustrating, especially if you are used to playing fast-paced action games out right now. You have a sprint button you can hold down, but it seems to have a slow response whenever you push it, so you end up running after the fact that you needed to. Also, if you get hit by a ghost you fly half-way across the room with your limbs flailing all over the place. Once you’ve taken a couple hits the rookie ends up knocked out and waits to be revived by one of the original busters. As the rookie, you also have to help the other guys up as well, and if all busters in the mission get knocked down then the mission fails. Luckily the game saves checkpoints pretty often and the difficult areas seem to have a checkpoint right before you get to them, so that saves the frustration a bit. However, I did find myself holding back from throwing the monitor out the window a few times, and I was even playing on the medium difficulty so I can’t imagine what it would be like on the hardest difficulty.

Now, there are some good things about the game play, mainly the fact that you are a Ghostbuster! The game did stay true to form with the proton pack action, the visuals and sound of the pack make me smile every time I try to capture a little ghost, not to mention throwing out a trap. Growing up I wanted nothing other than to be a Ghostbuster, throwing out bars of soap and bricks like they were traps and using the vacuum as a proton pack (sorry Mom!). This game definitely delivers on the childhood dream of bustin’ some ghosts! The different types of proton packs are really nice as well, but I found myself only really using the standard one. It gets a little repetitive as the game progresses, but I expected that since that’s all they do in the movies. Also, the fact that you get to re-live all the moments in the movies make it refreshing enough to enjoy.

Conclusion

Overall, this game is a pretty average, especially to someone who hasn’t followed the awesomeness that is the Ghostbusters. Now, if you are a Ghostbusters fan and you are questioning this game, I really feel like you should try it out. The storyline only lasts about eight hours, so this game might be a rental – especially if you have an Xbox 360 or PS3. The one thing you do get in the console versions is a multi-player mode, which the PC doesn’t have, so I was unable to give my thoughts about that. The reason they kept the multi-player out of the PC version was the price tag, they wanted to keep the PC version price low so there needed to be something extra for the console versions. So, I’m not going to penalize for that because they kept true to the lower price.

If you can deal with a little frustrating game play to get the gems of the visuals and voice acting then you should try this game out. If you aren’t a true Ghostbusters fan, then it might not be worth the new release price on the console versions. So, if there is something strange in your neighborhood…who you gonna call? That’s right: the police.

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