Game Review: Ghostbusters

Quick Review:

Top end voice talent, production values, and a polished look will appeal to any fan of the films, and the ghost-catching gameplay is relatively unique. However, the "try and die" progression will frustrate some players, especially since there are unforgivable load times after every death, and sometimes you will be forced to watch the same cutscene over and over again as you struggle past certain difficult parts of the game.

Full Review:

I was a big fan of Ghostbusters when it came out in 1984, I own an XBox 360, and I have some disposable income - all of which means I was probably smack dab in the middle of the target audience for the recently released "Ghostbusters - The Video Game" published by Atari and developed by Terminal Reality. Well, they weren't wrong - I pre-ordered this game and threw it into my 360 as soon as it came out.

As soon I was hearing the well-known piano score, and looking at the firehouse building, I was immersed. And the game doesn't let up there, not with all of the original 4 ghostbusters in the cast granting their likeness and voices (plus notable extras such as Janine manning the phones, and Vigo's portrait cursing at you). What's more, Harold Ramis and Dan Akroyd wrote the dialogue for the game, which feels spot on. Soon I was off with the ghostbusters, capturing ghosts, reading PKE readings, and consulting Tobin's Spirit Guide.

The production values in this game are top notch - everything looks crisp and detailed, the voice acting is superb, and the enemies look like they were pulled straight out of a Ghostbusters film (and at the end of the day, this game is essentially "Ghostbusters III").

And besides feeling like a Ghostbuster, I was having a lot of fun, too. The game plays like a cross between Gears of War and Bass Masters, as you blast your targets from an over the shoulder third-person perspective, and then - once the ghosts are weakened - you reel them into the trap in what feels like a fishing simulator. Its a fun dynamic, and one I didn't get bored of from start to finish. It is hard to get a handle on how to play "defense" in this game, since your character is slow and cumbersome, but at the end of the day your best bet is keeping your teammates alive so they can return the favor if you get blasted with ectoplasm.

Unfortunately, that will happen way too often. Because there is no real defensive mechanic (other than laying low for a while and letting your squad-mates take the heat) you and your computer-controlled squad-mates will be on your back alot. Its not terrible, but it does make some fights feel more like "Ghostbusters: Medic Edition" than a shooting game. And your squad's AI is barely passable in combat, so you will have to do most of the heavy lifting in taking down ghosts.

The big "grrrr" moments come later in the game, when you encounter some truly rampaging ghosts that overwhelm you with numbers. While these sequences can be fun and over-the-top, they can also be maddeningly frustrating. Why? Well, every time you "die" in the game, you are forced to sit through a LOAD SCREEN while Ray Parker Junior sings the Ghostbusters theme. Hey, I like the song, and its catchy, but having to wait 15-30 seconds before you jump back into the action is simply not good game design in this day and age, especially not in a game that uses "try and die" as its dominant gameplay dynamic, and accordingly forces you to die over and over.

This becomes particularly irritating if you happen to have died just after having listened to a long exposition explaining your situation. At times, the game will reload you right before that exposition, meaning you had to sit through the load screen, then listen to the exposition again, before you can get back into the action. Dying, then waiting for 1:30 before you can get back into the action is not good game design. I spent one 30-45 minute play session where I didn't progress at all, because of how much of my time was tied up in this cycle. Not good.


The game uses checkpoints to save your progress. While there are normally not very far apart, there are certain points where this system fails you, as you wind up having to restart a mission near the beginning after ending your session. Developers: savepoints and checkpoints are really outdated game design at this point, especially when your target demographic works for a living. I'm fine with forcing a player to go back a bit when they restart a game sequence - it allows for the developer to control the pacing and flow of the game - but be reasonable.

That is the main flaw in the game, along with its relatively short length (you can play it start to finish in about 15 hours if you are an experienced gamer). But honestly, the shortness wouldn't have bothered me if I hadn't spent so much of that time staring at load screens.

FINAL VERDICT: 3 out of 5

If you are a fan the movies, I give a qualified recommendation, as I enjoyed the game myself. But its has quite a few "issues" that will irk even the biggest fan of the franchise.