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| The Entertainment Review |
| Genre: Action Developer: Terminal Reality Publisher: Atari |
Set in 1991, nearly two years after the events of Ghostbusters 2, “Ghostbusters: The Video Game” finds the boys in gray moving onto
the next chapter in the world of paranormal investigations and eliminations by adding to their overall team. Players will join the squad
as an experimental weapons technician with the sole purpose of testing the latest Proton Pack modifications. Within a few moments of
showing up to the new job, a strange wave of ghosts emanate from a museum packing a Gozer exhibit and they spread across New
York City. The spiritual spike gets every ghost in the boroughs worked up and the boys get to work and a devious plan is set in motion.
Players will quickly realize that the game seems to work at the third movie in the franchise and with that in mind, the presentation needs
to be brought into account. The game opens detailing the ghostly explosion in an awesome cut scene, all the computer generated
movies look great with lots of detail and animations, and players are launched into the Ghostbusters theme. These scenes will
continue along with the soundtrack from the original movie throughout the game and setup the story. There are a few drops in the
presentation value, but these all pulled right from the movie and players into this third person shooter with a specific story to tell.
To fully immerse players in the experience, the new member of the squad doesn’t speak and isn’t given a name other than Rookie. In
the game it is explain that this nameless move is to keep the core members attached in case a device goes haywire and puts the new
member out of commission, but it is actually so players can sit back and play their part while the real members talk with each other in
the technology heavy dialogue and a slew of one-liners.
The four original Ghostbusters; Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, Harold Ramis and Ernie Hudson, are back to lend their voices along with the
team’s receptionist played by Annie Potts and the ever popular Walter Peck played by William Atherton. Because of the long list of talent
there is no real need of adding another character’s dialogue. It would have been awesome to allow players to create their own
character, but when players see the facial animations, the omission will be forgiven.
The game feels a lot like a movie, and this time around there is a new love interest for Vankman named Dr. Ilyssa Selwyn, voiced by
Alyssa Milano. The game plays as a third person shooter and rather than have the screen littered with health bars and HUDs, the
players Proton Pack serves as the hub of in-game information. By monitoring the meter on the right side of the device, players can see
if they are close to overheating. When it is close, players will have to allow time for the device to cool. The Proton Pack also works as a
visual representation for the weapon mode that players are in. Rather than limit players to a proton stream, Egon has given the Pack
four firing modes by the end of the game.
While players are running around taking out ghouls, their PKE Meter will chirp away. When players bring it up with a face button, the
POV drops to first-person from behind their Para-Goggles with the meter in the middle of the screen. They will follow the peaking bars
on the meter to enemies, objectives and hidden artifacts, each shown by a different color.
Although player aren’t given free reign of New York City, they will get to mess around in the firehouse between missions. They can slide
down the pole, listen to Janine on the phone, play with a jumping toaster and more. None of this has any real effect on the story, but it is
a fun little distraction from the game. The environments are fairly diverse. At times the levels are bright and colorful, dark and twisted
and extremely creepy.
There are a total of four campaigns for players and the team to go through, but these are just pulled from the six job types that they can
go after. Containment has players trap as many ghosts as they can in a time limit. Survival will see how long players can survive while
trapping spirits. Destruction means the player and the team have to destroy a set number of evil relics. Slime Dunk is a competition to
see who can dunk Slimer the most times in a trap. Protection has players guarding some of Egon’s equipment and players will have to
keep ghosts from stealing artifacts in Thief.
Of course the game isn’t perfect, especially in the presentation. Although the CG scenes look great, the in-game cut scenes don’t look
nearly as good. The lip sync seems to be off at times, the characters are standing a little too rigid and more. It is the double-edged
sword of using a property that is so well known. However, the few flaws that are able to be found in the game aren’t enough to keep
players from checking out the game.
For those who enjoyed the movies, there is no reason that they would be disappointed with “Ghostbusters: The Video Game.” There
are some moments in the game that cause the game to stumble, but players are getting a new story to add to the series, fun game
play, a bunch of stuff to destroy and cool ghosts to capture. The game may seem to end a little flat and the romantic interest was a little
forced, but the game is an awesome experience.
the next chapter in the world of paranormal investigations and eliminations by adding to their overall team. Players will join the squad
as an experimental weapons technician with the sole purpose of testing the latest Proton Pack modifications. Within a few moments of
showing up to the new job, a strange wave of ghosts emanate from a museum packing a Gozer exhibit and they spread across New
York City. The spiritual spike gets every ghost in the boroughs worked up and the boys get to work and a devious plan is set in motion.
Players will quickly realize that the game seems to work at the third movie in the franchise and with that in mind, the presentation needs
to be brought into account. The game opens detailing the ghostly explosion in an awesome cut scene, all the computer generated
movies look great with lots of detail and animations, and players are launched into the Ghostbusters theme. These scenes will
continue along with the soundtrack from the original movie throughout the game and setup the story. There are a few drops in the
presentation value, but these all pulled right from the movie and players into this third person shooter with a specific story to tell.
To fully immerse players in the experience, the new member of the squad doesn’t speak and isn’t given a name other than Rookie. In
the game it is explain that this nameless move is to keep the core members attached in case a device goes haywire and puts the new
member out of commission, but it is actually so players can sit back and play their part while the real members talk with each other in
the technology heavy dialogue and a slew of one-liners.
The four original Ghostbusters; Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, Harold Ramis and Ernie Hudson, are back to lend their voices along with the
team’s receptionist played by Annie Potts and the ever popular Walter Peck played by William Atherton. Because of the long list of talent
there is no real need of adding another character’s dialogue. It would have been awesome to allow players to create their own
character, but when players see the facial animations, the omission will be forgiven.
The game feels a lot like a movie, and this time around there is a new love interest for Vankman named Dr. Ilyssa Selwyn, voiced by
Alyssa Milano. The game plays as a third person shooter and rather than have the screen littered with health bars and HUDs, the
players Proton Pack serves as the hub of in-game information. By monitoring the meter on the right side of the device, players can see
if they are close to overheating. When it is close, players will have to allow time for the device to cool. The Proton Pack also works as a
visual representation for the weapon mode that players are in. Rather than limit players to a proton stream, Egon has given the Pack
four firing modes by the end of the game.
While players are running around taking out ghouls, their PKE Meter will chirp away. When players bring it up with a face button, the
POV drops to first-person from behind their Para-Goggles with the meter in the middle of the screen. They will follow the peaking bars
on the meter to enemies, objectives and hidden artifacts, each shown by a different color.
Although player aren’t given free reign of New York City, they will get to mess around in the firehouse between missions. They can slide
down the pole, listen to Janine on the phone, play with a jumping toaster and more. None of this has any real effect on the story, but it is
a fun little distraction from the game. The environments are fairly diverse. At times the levels are bright and colorful, dark and twisted
and extremely creepy.
There are a total of four campaigns for players and the team to go through, but these are just pulled from the six job types that they can
go after. Containment has players trap as many ghosts as they can in a time limit. Survival will see how long players can survive while
trapping spirits. Destruction means the player and the team have to destroy a set number of evil relics. Slime Dunk is a competition to
see who can dunk Slimer the most times in a trap. Protection has players guarding some of Egon’s equipment and players will have to
keep ghosts from stealing artifacts in Thief.
Of course the game isn’t perfect, especially in the presentation. Although the CG scenes look great, the in-game cut scenes don’t look
nearly as good. The lip sync seems to be off at times, the characters are standing a little too rigid and more. It is the double-edged
sword of using a property that is so well known. However, the few flaws that are able to be found in the game aren’t enough to keep
players from checking out the game.
For those who enjoyed the movies, there is no reason that they would be disappointed with “Ghostbusters: The Video Game.” There
are some moments in the game that cause the game to stumble, but players are getting a new story to add to the series, fun game
play, a bunch of stuff to destroy and cool ghosts to capture. The game may seem to end a little flat and the romantic interest was a little
forced, but the game is an awesome experience.
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