Ghostbusters: The Video Game

Who you gonna call? Ghostbusters!! It’s been 20 years since we have seen an original movie and it was about time for the boys to pick up where they left off and bust some ghosts. As a matter of fact, Ghostbusters the Video Game could be called Ghostbusters 3 since the story is basically a continuation from the original movie.

Dan Akroyd and Harold Ramis wrote an original script for the game which takes place two years after Ghostbusters 2. The Museum of Natural History in New York is about to open a section on Gozer, the big baddie from the original movie. But of course, it does not go as planned. Someone or something causes a spectral explosion which releases ghosts into New York City. Thankfully, the Ghostbusters, now government approved, are on-hand to take care of the mess throughout the 7 stages. The story pulls heavily from the first movie plot and, to be honest, I think it would have made a better sequel than the second movie.

Bill Murray, Dan Akroyd, Harold Ramis, Ernie Hudson reprise their roles as Peter Venkman, Ray Stantz, Egon Spengler, and Winston Zeddmore respectively. You’ll also hear the voices of some of the other original movie cast which help to immerse you into the story.

But every good story needs to have the gameplay to back it up. And Terminal Reality really hit the nail on the head. Even with a few questionable functions (press B to run?) the gameplay was more or less intuitive. It’s not easy to hit a target, but that’s part of the fun. Most of the environment can be destroyed and will be because capturing the ghosts takes patience and timing. This is not a run and gun game. You have to wear down your enemy before throwing the trap out.

The game starts you with the proton thrower. But you earn three other weapons during the course gameplay. A shock blaster, slime blower and meson collider make up the progressively more powerful weapons. Each one has a second function which you will find handy and all weapons can be upgraded with the money you earn from capturing ghosts.

You also get to use the trusty PKE meter to find and scan ghosts and objects in the environment. But, except for the few achievements that coincide with it, the PKE meter is useful only when the story tells you to use it.

Multiplayer is where you really get the feeling of being a Ghostbuster. You get to hunt ghosts in either four campaign modes or seven job modes. Basically, all you are really doing is hunting down and capturing ghosts even in the survival mode. But with the new ghost types and communicating with up to three other players about tactics you truly get the feeling of what it would be like to hunt the living impaired.

I had a lot of fun with Ghostbusters the Video Game. The campaign is very short with a less than 8 hour completion time, but the multiplayer more than makes up for that. One playthrough on the experienced difficulty garnered 730 in gamerscore. Give this game a shot even if you are not a fan. At the very least, you’ll rack up a lot of gamerscore and get a good laugh from a fantastic story.

-Tim Fischer

Managing Editor

Gamertag: porkroll1711

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