Game: "Ghostbusters: The Video Game"
System: PlayStation 3
Genre: Action
Published by: Atari

Reviewer: Protoclown
Posted: 8/10/2009

Review: Dan Aykroyd and Harold Ramis apparently always wanted to do a third Ghostbusters movie. As the years went on and on, it became more clear that this was probably never going to happen (and given the disappointing revival of certain other franchises of late, that's probably a good thing). But this video game effectively serves as the third movie, picking up a few years after the second one left off and continuing the Gozer storyline.

I have to say that this is one of the most fun games I have played in some time. Despite the fact that you play a nameless character who never gets any dialog, everything about the game is geared towards making you feel like you actually are a Ghostbuster. The sound that the proton pack makes as you fire it up, the working with your teammates to wrangle ghosts (many of which require quite a bit of attention to trap--few one shot kills to be found here), the witty banter flying back and forth between them as you investigate haunted locations--it all adds up to a damned fun playing experience.

All of the actors (save Weaver and Moranis) come back to reprise their roles, which tremendously adds to the atmosphere and legitimacy of this as a continuation of the movie storyline. Some people have complained about the fact that you mostly just revisit locations from the movies, but I actually liked that aspect of the game. They sprinkle a few new ones here and there, but there's something awesome about stomping the familiar halls of the New York Public Library or the Sedgewick Hotel, hunting for ghosts to catch--after all, didn't we kids who grew up on this shit all want to imagine ourselves walking side by side with Venkman and Egon when we first watched the movie? Is it contrived? Yes, but at least the story does a decent job of explaining why you're going back to these places.

The weapons keep from getting boring too, as they introduce plenty of upgrades that Egon has been feverishly working on to keep things from getting too dull with the standard proton stream. You get a status stream, a boson dart, a shock blast, a slime blower--all kinds of fun toys that are each upgradable on their own. You've also got your PKE meter to use while searching for paranormal activity, but be mindful of your surroundings while you're looking through it--it can be easy to miss what your companions are doing.

And that's another thing, the AI for the most part is pretty decent. You do have to save your teammates' bacon quite a lot, but they're pretty good about running over and saving yours when you go down too. You really do feel like part of a team though--they're not all completely useless, and when there's a room full of ghosts to deal with, they're capable of doing their own thing, but they'll also work with you to bring down a ghost without hogging all of the glory themselves. I feel like they struck a pretty decent balance there.

One complaint I've heard about the game is that it's too short. I've not beaten it yet myself, but from what I've heard, I'm actually not that far from the end. Considering that it took me well over a year to beat Bioshock however, I think shorter, tighter games are perhaps the right kind of thing for me anyway. I don't know, I have so much fun hearing the banter (which you can't help but miss some of over the sound of your proton pack) and wrangling ghosts with my pals Winston and Stantz, I can't help but think that this game will have a pretty decent amount of replay value.

There's also a multiplayer that I've not yet tried myself, but they say that you can team up with three other people and play various games involving goals such as racing to catch more ghosts than the other players, defending a location, trying to cause the most damage to the environment around you, etc. I'm only marginally interested in those next to the main storyline, but it's nice that they included something like that.

If you're a casual fan of the franchise, you may find this game to be worth a rental, but if you're an oldschool fan who's been waiting for this kind of game for years, I don't think you'll be disappointed at all. It's not perfect, but it's damn fun, and here's hoping it leads to a future franchise of quality Ghostbusters games.

Overall rating:
(Scored on a 0.5 - 5 pickles rating: 0.5 being the worst and 5 being the best)