Review: Ghostbusters The Video Game
Bustin' makes you feel good. For about an hour, anyway.Published 15/06/2009 at 10:00 by nofi
Will ‘Busting Make Sackboy Feel Good? [32]
Ghostbusters Charts in the UK [25]
Ghostbusters: Not Really HD On PS3 [64]
As we said in our playtest last week, Ghostbusters The Video Game is so full of fan service that it potentially locks out anyone unfamiliar with the fictional universe, assuming (rightly or wrongly) that you’ve not only already watched both movies, but you’ve also seen the animated series, played with the toys and eaten the breakfast cereal. Yes, you can get by without having lived Ghostbusters for the last 25 years, but the game won’t carry nearly as much weight and you’ll not only miss the references and in-jokes, you’ll wonder what the hell’s going on and who all these characters are.
Because if there’s one thing Ghostbusters The Video Game does well, it’s characterisation. By re-uniting all the old guard from the motion picture Atari, bless them, have turned what would otherwise have been something of a middle-of-the-road third person blaster into something with soul and personality. With a script led and edited by Aykroyd and spirited performances by the rest of the gang – Murray, Ramis and Hudson – the likenesses and voice acting creates a really powerful grounding to the game. Supporting roles from Annie Potts and William Atherton round off the IMDB checklist.
Likewise, the motion capture, facial modeling and cut-scenes are all integrated beautifully. The game jumps to a pre-rendered video when it’s loading to mask the wait a little, but for the most part Terminal Reality have managed to power everything you see with the in-game engine. It’s often an impressive sight: despite being a multi-platform release there are often sparks of brilliance and scale when the game wants to show off its graphical grunt and the showcase level, the streets of New York, is a wonderfully powerful display of technology.
But it’s not an even game. Whether the fact that the game was meant to play out like a third movie or not, Ghostbusters is so linear in it’s storytelling it feels like an 8-bit game. You’re ultimately only ever given one path to walk down, the script will loop until you’re in the right spot, and despite some impressive opening sections the game descends into a standard shooter at about the midpoint and never picks up again. Even the story itself, revolving around the player joining the Ghostbusters as a rookie, fails to excite as much as it could and the key devices in the story are ill-explained and poorly delivered.
The plot itself, revolving around a new Gozer exhibit in Manhattan, takes the player back through familiar territory: the Sedgewick hotel, the library, and thus trips down memory lane with reference to the ghosts you’ll find there. There’s some artistic license involved: Slimer is back and serves as little more than a tutorial target which is fine, but the creepy library ghost, who is meant to arc into a story thread, neither scares nor really forwards the story along. The fact that you end up in the same hotel twice in the game (using up two of the already few levels) is a shame, although it is distinctly different the second time.
Whilst the notion of using the Proton Packs to trap the ghosts is clever, the controls are initially quite confusing. It’s never really clear why the main Proton stream changes to the capture stream automatically, despite giving you a button to do this yourself, or how far your trap has gone once you tap Square. Regardless, the middle third of the game involves you getting various (and increasingly daft) power ups to your pack that turn the interesting mechanic of capturing ghosts into simply blasting them out of the sky with what amounts to a shotgun, a machine gun and a bazooka. Yes, they’re rooted in the Ghostbusting universe but they turn an initally clever game into a me-too third person shooter.
Terminal Reality made some odd design choices: the roadie run (pulled straight from Gears of War) controls oddly and doesn’t have the visual flair of Epic’s title, the tapping a button to heal your downed characters seems at odds with the rest of the game and the way the game communicates your ammo and health, via your Proton Pack, is a nod to Dead Space but not nearly as clearly expressed. Likewise, the silly icons that determine which weapon you’re holding only start to make sense once you’ve got a few, and the emergence of these new weapons, and their alternative fire modes, appear suddenly and without clear direction.
The visuals start to decline, too – despite the headquarters being rendered with a stunning attention to detail, later levels appear to be built from an identikit block building system and you spend so much time in the dark with your torch that it’s often difficult to find your way around. There’s considerable use of some kind of normal mapping which coats everything in a shiny, plasticky sheen which would have been fine if between it and the real time shadows the frame rate managed to hold true. As it stands, the game shakes wildly between 30fps and much, much less and there’s even one point (in the library) when the game completely locks up – the audio continues, and you can move, but the graphics don’t update until you manage to get your player through a particular section blind.
The physics engine is smart, though: some of the later weapons allow some truly impressive feats, and although the puzzle-like areas are sparse and underused, when they do appear it’s a welcome break from the blasting. Almost everything in the game is destructable (you’ll be rewarded for keeping things tidy) and whilst you’re never forced to use the environment as a weapon it’s often entirely possible to have some fun with the tougher ghosts if you choose to.
So, despite a smart, exciting start, towards the end you’ll be tired of the game. The pacing slows considerably during the last act, which takes far to long to get through and never really fulfills its promises – the story twist isn’t nearly as satisfying as it could have been and the final boss pay-off is weak. Yes, Ghostbusters fans will get a lot out of the alternative world sections but the reliance on arcade-esque twin-stick shooting rather than considered, tactical trapping is a shame. Stand out moments like the re-appearance of Stay Puft are clever and the set-pieces often impressive, but these are few and far between, disappointing considering the game’s length (five or six hours) because it should have been moment after moment of quality gaming.
Score: 6/10
Please note that we have been unable to properly assess the multiplayer portion of the game and thus the score is indicative of the single player portion only. Developed by Threewave, Ghostbuster’s co-op online mode will be reviewed later in the week, when hopefully more people have the game.
Comments
Please note that all comments are the opinion of the individual author and not TheSixthAxis.
Br0ken | 15/06/2009 10:39
Member
78 TSA Points | Member since: Sep 2008
Thanks for the review, I was undecided but I think I’ll put this on the “when there really is nothing else to play” list
Screenshot above looks awesome though!
Watchful | 15/06/2009 10:48
Team TSA: Writer
2084 TSA Points | Member since: Oct 2008
As a Ghostbusters fan, I’m still tempted despite the failings. Though the multiplayer review and whether I can convince any mates to buy it might be the deciding factors. The chance to cross streams might be enough to make it a good game.
baggyg | 15/06/2009 10:50
Member
121 TSA Points | Member since: Apr 2009
Playing this on the 360 at the moment. The goggle bits are boooooring. When you have a ghost in the capture ray though, its great. I like when all 5 ghostbusters are running and shooting after a ghost with Egon shouting “Dont cross the streams”!
hannes_truce | 15/06/2009 10:53
Member
2920 TSA Points | Member since: Sep 2008
I think this is just gonna be a rental then. nice review. look forward to the mp impressions.
Manorhowze | 15/06/2009 11:08
Driving God
2033 TSA Points | Member since: Dec 2008
Same here, I think its a rental as I do really wnat to play this game but it doesnt look worth buying. Also curious on the MP side as it could add more life to the game
spooner_22 | 15/06/2009 10:55
Member
1184 TSA Points | Member since: May 2009
Was unsure on this as there are tons of other games I want coming out…I think this one can be crossed off my list and save me a bit of money. I trust the reviews on this site so I’ll steer clear and wiat for something better.
DarthSharkey | 15/06/2009 11:04
Member
1044 TSA Points | Member since: Feb 2009
That picture looks very nice. The length doesn’t sound too bad, I will defo check this one out at somepoint. I’m really enjoying all the PSN games at the moment.
kevatron400 | 15/06/2009 11:35
Don't call him Kevatron400.
1763 TSA Points | Member since: Dec 2008
It’s a shame they couldn’t quite get it as good as we want it to be, had such potential. Still sounds definitely worth checking out when I have the £££s though.
2ofclubs | 15/06/2009 11:59
Member
606 TSA Points | Member since: Sep 2008
I remember being stupidly jealous of my cousin for having the slidey floor trap thing but I think I’ll pass on this for the time being. Maybe a rental one day but currently I’m too busy enjoying Prototype which I’m finding to be more fun that inFAMOUS. Graphically Prototype is inferior but the powers are a lot more fun.
cc_star | 15/06/2009 12:17
Team TSA: Writer
7889 TSA Points | Member since: Forever
In the spirit of Ghostbusters and not ever, ever crossing the streams this title stood out as that most deserving a local co-op mode.
The way you’re supposed to work with someone to hold the ghosts in your beams and guide them towards the trap… the lack of local co-op is extremely odd, but it does show that devs still haven’t got to grips with it whilst maintaining HD graphics, although I think Ghostbusters is sub-HD
I loved the movie, I loved the Speccy game… and Bill Murray is my favourite comedy actor so I’ll be renting this in the absence of a Ghostbusters 3 movie and look forward to the in-jokes.
gnipper | 15/06/2009 13:15
Member
709 TSA Points | Member since: May 2009
Im still gonna get it – I love Ghostbusters to death
Out of interest nofi – it sounds to me like development started well, then maybe went downhill quickly when Atari ditched it? I.e. lackluster textures, poor later gameplay etc. etc. about half way through would you say that’s a fair comment? Like they rushed it out maybe?
Zuler | 15/06/2009 17:29
Team TSA: Writer
10500 TSA Points | Member since: Apr 2009
Interesting theory mate….
theshockwave | 15/06/2009 13:28
Member
1877 TSA Points | Member since: Nov 2008
I have never been a massive fan of Ghostbusters, enjoyed the film, but this has sealed the gaes fate as a ‘not to buy’ game. Shame.
BrendanCalls | 15/06/2009 13:46
Post Hoc, Ergo Propter Hoc - YOHIMBÉ!!!
1423 TSA Points | Member since: Forever
Am gonna wait till this is about £15 – £20 quid in a few months
AwakenedInsanity | 15/06/2009 13:55
Member
13 TSA Points | Member since: May 2009
That’s a let down, i was looking forward to this game, since they promised a great coop feature,oh well move on..
thanks for the review.
colossalblue | 15/06/2009 14:07
Team TSA: Editor
1405 TSA Points | Member since: Forever
The review is beautiful, shame about the quality of the game.
double-o-dave | 15/06/2009 15:00
Member
995 TSA Points | Member since: Nov 2008
Think I’m going to join the rental bandwagon too