Ghostbusters: The Video Game

Reviewed by:
Gerasimos Manolatos

Price: $59.99

The Skinny: They're baaaaaaaack! The minds of Harold Ramis, Dan Aykroyd, Bill Murray, and Ernie Hudson combine once more for an all new adventure. When things go awry at the Manhattan Museum of Art's new Gozer exhibit, the proton pack-packing busters and their new recruit (played by you) are called to the scene to investigate. Are previous supernatural acquaintances to blame, or are there new, more dangerous forces trying to destroy New York City?

The Good: Video game developers treat movie licenses like unwanted stepchildren. So, when it was announced that one of the most beloved franchises ever was being brought to next-gen consoles after a 20 year slumber, we offered our usual gritted teeth reaction of "Oh, great." But, if you ever built your very own toilet paper proton pack, or ever pretended that your sister's lady products were ghost traps, then you're in for a real treat here. After playing through the eight hour singleplayer campaign, it's safe to say that the game is one of the most satisfying experiences of nostalgia you can have on a console. From the story, written by Aykroyd and Ramis, to the accessible controls and functional though repetitive gameplay, there's enough ghostbusting fun and fan service to go around. When you're done playing with yourself, you can head online for some competitive and co-op ghost hunting, with leaderboards tracking all of your mastery over the occult.

The Bad: It's clear that the main focus of making the game was not to push into new boundaries of playing a video game. We had previously played demos where motion controls were implemented—they felt clunky, but may have been a bit more fun if refined. The controls present in the final product are much easier to wrap your head around, but you're basically doing the same thing for a few hours until the ending, which we also thought could've used some work. In general, the graphics are on par with what you should expect from a game noawadays, but we were disappointed by some of the animations and cutscenes: Characters moving like robots is so 2008. There were also a few very strange moments where the difficulty would rise to "break your hand on the wall" levels, only passable if you survived long enough to have your colleagues tell you what to do. (This is why we just typed all of this with our feet.)

Other Modes: Up to four-player support for six distinct job types: Survival, Containment, Destruction, Protection, Thief, and Slime Dunk. The PS3 version includes two special video features showing the refurbishment of the Ecto-1 and the making of the game.

Buy, Rent, or Disembowel: Strong rental. Just enough bustin' fun for a weekend, but nothing to waste a ghost trap on.

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