Ghostbusters: The Video Game

Ghostbusters: The Video Game

Rating: 6/10

Achievements: 7/10
By completing the main story and checking out the online play you should be able to walk away with 450 – 550 gamerpoints. For each mission completed you receive 20 G’s with additional G’s coming from scanning artifacts & ghosts with your PKE meter…you do remember the PKE don’t you? Trapping ghosts with the various versions of the proton pack will also net you a few more achievements.

Review:
I don’t know anybody who was around during the eighties, child or adult, who was not a fan of the Ghostbusters. I had the Ghostbusters lunch box that obviously had the Hi-C Ecto Cooler. Heck, I even had the slimmer grape toothpaste…it sure tasted great, but not sure how well it cleaned the teeth. So you can imagine my excitement when I first heard that there was going to be a video game; that was three years ago. What made this even more intriguing was that the story was written by Harold Ramis & Dan Akroyd with all the original cast members coming back to lend their voices. Sorry all you Rick Moranis fans, he must have been too busy blowing up his kids.

I get the game home and throw it in the Xbox and instantly I have a big smile on my face when I hear the theme music. Bobby Brown tried, but just couldn’t beat the original. So I start my career as a rookie Ghostbuster tagging along with the original crew and the story starts off superbly. The characters are cracking jokes and the cut scenes look fantastic. Get used to the cut scenes, because there are a bunch of them. I haven’t tried, but you can go back and view all the scenes that you have unlocked in chronological order. This story could have been the third movie.

The game play looks sharp as well from the different characters, ghosts to the backgrounds. The proton pack and its various streams look as good as they did in the movies if not better. Speaking of the proton packs; you have three additional experimental streams that can be switched back & forth pretty easily. Well…that’s about it…Thanks for reading.

What, you say my praise of this magnificent franchise was short winded? Alright, alright, so I am a little biased since I was such a fan of the movies. I wanted this game to be so good, but in the end was disappointed. Watching the many cut scenes was entertaining, but I had to play the game to unlock each scene. The game play quickly became monotonous.

You start each level and walk a very linear path to the boss encounter. That doesn’t sound that bad, but the problem is there weren’t enough ghosts. The story can be completed in seven to nine hours and there is an achievement for capturing 20 ghosts and retrieving the traps…seriously, that’s all? The majority of the enemies that are encountered are small and weak, which can be killed easily with a charged proton shot. Don’t give me levels full of filler…I want to battle some ghosts and reel them into the trap like a giant marlin.

However, if the developers did include some additional ghosts to fight this would be a whole different complaint. During the boss battles your ghost busting partners were too busy lying on the ground waiting to be rescued to be of any assistance. I was so furious with the final boss, because I actually thought that I was doing more running around playing doctor than fighting. I seemed to finish each level more frustrated than having that sense of accomplishment.

As you are running through the levels be sure to blow up everything in your path as this is an effective way to earn cash that can be used to upgrade your different proton pack streams & PKE meter. This function made the levels entertaining and a great way to earn some G’s.

Once I completed the story I no longer have a desire to go back and play it through again on a harder difficulty…maybe just to clean up some achievements that I missed. The online play is where it’s at. Since you are not playing with the terrible AI the online players are actually helpful. And get this…you do nothing but capture ghosts.