If there’s something strange
In the Neighbourhood,
Who you gonna call?

Oh boy, this one is going to be fun! Ghostbusters is a game which should not need any kind of introduction. A game linked to one of the most loved movies of all time, with a script from the original writers and most of the original cast back to reprise their roles. Sounds like a winner already doesn’t it?
For those who really don’t have a clue, the game puts you in the shoes of a new rookie 5th ghostbuster in the start of the game. So you’ll be supporting the original squad throughout but won’t be playing as them. Which is probably better that way, when you think about it. You follow the team to various locations busting ghosts while unravelling a conspiracy involving the god Gozer from the first game. There are no lives in this game, instead, when you lose your life, you are knocked out and must wait for a teammate to revive you. It works the other way too, so in theory, you can remain alive so long as one of the other teammembers is still moving around.
The story was penned by Dan Akroyd and Harold Ramis and follows on from the end of the 2nd film and adds a large number of references to the first 2 films (mostly the first) and Dan Akroyd has repeatedly said that it could be considered it to be the 3rd movie (even in the extra video in the game).

For the most part, the magic which made us love the movies is still there. Vigo, the main ghost from the 2nd film, still makes me break out into a cold sweat (he traumatised me when I was a child. Even to this day, that scene when he merged with Ray for a few moments scares the crap out of me!!) and the writing is spot on!!

The game has, however, been dogged with contraversy for most of it’s life. Pushed between publishers until it was picked up by atari, the PS3 version became a timed exclusive in Europe as sony chose to publish it themselves. It was also found that the PS3 version of the game looked considerably worse than the 360 version and the PC version lacked multiplayer!
The news of the PS3 version sparked a small flamewar when the news was announced and, being a Brit, I have the PS3 version, being the only one available unless I import so I thought I would throw in my thoughts as it is a little interesting.
You see, it has to be said that the PS3 version looks bad. very bad. You don’t need a 360 version to compare it to, it’s that shoddy. Despite the claims that the PS3 was the lead development console, the textures are not only low resolution, but also very blurry and artifacts (odd patches) appear everywhere, even in the FMV! It certainly didn’t help matters when the developers, terminal reality, tried to douse the fanboy flames with oil by falling on the old “PS3 is hard to develop on” gag and basically tried to say “we did our best!”
Well, from this showing, their “best” clearly isn’t good enough. Games from over year ago look better than Ghostbusters on PS3!!  Not to mention that many other developers have gotten around the very same problems which Terminal Reality describes as being the problems. They really should hang their heads in shame over this debacle!

Luckily, the shoddy graphics don’t affect the gameplay so how is it?

Loved

• The Dialogue: While nowhere near as quotable as the first film (“dogs & cats living together!! Mass Hysteria!!!” or “I’ve seen Shit that’ll turn you WHITE!”) the story and dialogue is just as sharp and funny as the films and goes a long way to really immerse yourself into the game.
  
• Ghostbusting: If you watched the film or cartoon as a kid and ran around pretending to have a proton pack, then this game is for you! I can’t begin to describe how satisfying it is to wrestle ghosts into the containment traps. Only on the lower difficulties tho. On the hardest setting, it just feels artificially extended.
• The references: As I said before, there are lots of references to the previous 2 films. These really help to link the story of the game to the previous films and make it into part of the franchise. But there are also a bunch of others too, like when a “Dr Jones” calls your office asking about the whereabouts of the Vigo painting and how it “belongs in a Museum!!” Rather reminiscent of a certain Fedora wearing archeologist who was the main character in a well known Spielberg film series, don’t you think?
• The theme song!!: You can’t hate it. it’s not allowed!
  

Hated

• The Linearity: This game is linear to a fault. It won’t let you go anywhere except where it wants you. If it asks you to go with Egon to check out something while the others go elsewhere and you decide to follow the others, you will just end up to a point where the others stand around and do nothing, preventing you from going anywhere unless you meet up with Egon. It gets even weirder with the fact that the game only allows you to open certain doors, even if it’s the way you need to go. At times, you have no choice but to wait until one of the main cast comes and opens the door for you as your character is too inept to do so, even though he opened a door a little earlier on!
• Loading times: even with a massive install, the loading times are loooong, meaning that you’re left with a long wait to get back to the action if you die. The only silver lining is that the theme song plays while the game loads.
• Alyssa Milano: She was put into the game to act as a love interest for Peter Venkman in place of Sigourney Weaver, who was not put into the game. And she’s about as wooden and 2D as Paris Hilton attempting to act in a movie! Half the time, it sounded like she wasn’t even trying!! I bet Sigourney Weaver would have done a much better job!!!
• Peter Venkman: Maybe it was the writing, but I found Bill Murrays character to be absolutely insufferable!! In fact, at one point in the game when everyone got separated and eventually joined up, when asked if we had found Venkman, I totally agreed with Winston Zeddemore when he simply said “do we have to?”
• The Non-Ghostbusting parts: Ghostbusting was treated as something a little special in the game so the ghosts were kept in relatively little numbers at certain points in the game. And since a game with nothing to do is boring, the developers thought up new enemies to fight you in between ghost sections. Unfortunately, these end up being rather dull as they usually just devolved the game into a basic shooter. It doesn’t help that the proton pack additions were basically renamed versions of the regular weapons of any shooter. Slime blower = flamethrower, Shock blast = shotgun, etc…
• Multiplayer: It feels really tacked on and connecting to a game is a nightmare! You’re more than likely going to be kicked out due to connection issues before the game starts, and it doesn’t show any kind of signal strength to help you!

At the end of the day, I’d be hard pressed to call this a good game. Aside from the graphical problem and the linear routes, the game is also incredibly repetitive. The good thing is that the repetitive ghostbusing is always great! …The rest, not so much. The length of the game is also a bit of an issue. You’ll probably finish it in just a few sittings

It’s a testament to the writing skills of Ramis and Akroyd as well as the things that Terminal Reality managed to do right that the game is immense fun!! The sheer glee from busting ghosts to listening to the banter from the main cast is just brilliant.
It definitely has it’s problems but while I wouldn’t call the game particularly “good”, I would still recommend it cos it’s that much fun!!

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