Evis T Reviews Ghostbusters The Videogame

One of the most important aspects of a videogame is frequently the most neglected- the fun factor. It exists independently of graphics, game mechanics, game play, story, characters and sound, but it intrinsically linked to all three. Often games can rate very high on all of the above, but still just lack that little spark that makes them fun. That something that turns a solid game into a masterpiece.

Ghostbusters didn’t quite have it, but by Miyamoto’s sacred arse it came closer than most.

The premise

Set after Ghostbusters 2, Ghostbusters the video game picks up not long after where the movies left the franchise. The Ghostbusters’ business is going well, and they have decided to take on a new recruit (you). After a somewhat impromptu training session at Ghostbusters headquarters involving an accident with slimmer and the containment unit, it becomes apparent that all hell is breaking loose, and it’s time for the Ghostbusters to one again grab their proton packs and cross the streams.

First impressions.

One thing became apparent very quickly, this is a videogame of a movie. In terms of praise, this accolade normally ranks on par with ‘Steaming pile of horse manure’ or ‘so bad it made me want to eat my own children’, but as history has shown us, if a videogame is developed independently of a movie, it can throw of these shackles and actually be fun. Kudos to Ghostbusters the video game for managing it.

This is one aimed mainly at the fans of the movies. There’s plenty of little references and one liners in there for you to chuckle at, and the game revisits many of the places the movies went to. Yahtzee of zero punctuation somewhat unfairly described this as the franchise whacking itself off; I prefer to think that this is a case of giving the fans what they want. It’s playing to the crowd, and if you didn’t like the Ghostbusters movie, I’ll tell you this now- stop reading, you’ll find this game mediocre at best.

The plot is typical of the movies. It’s not very deep or in depth, the twists and turns are predictable, but that said I don’t think anyone was expecting a groundbreaking piece of story telling from anything related to Ghostbusters. The story works very well though, and it ambles along at a nice pleasant pace, keeping you interested without overloading you with information, even as it spouts pseudo scientific psycho babble about mandalas, ectoplasm and phase proton shift invertors. Most impressively, Ghostbusters the video game managed to capture the feel the movies, and this gave it massive points on the fun factor.

It’s shallow, simple, silly, and most of all, it’s fun. Something we’ve not seen outside of casual games for a long time.

Gameplay.

If there was an area where Ghostbusters the videogame lost points, it was here. Any videogame has it’s Gameplay flaws, but I’ve noticed a recent trend in games, one of massive polarisation. Basically, when a game runs well, it runs REALLY well, but when it’s not, your experience quickly turns to thick pig shit. Ghostbusters the video game keeps up this trend.

First of all, a nice innovation is that many of the foes you fight are ‘corporeal’ meaning that you don’t need to go through the rigmarole of trapping them- you just blast them into dust. Next, you have 4 settings to set your proton pack to, and each setting has 2 firing options, giving you total of 8 attacks (Once you’ve unlocked them all). This gives you a nice little rock, paper scissors (Or Jan Ken Po, Or Rosh ambo depending on where you’re from) mechanic that means if you’re using the right weapon for the job, you’ll do more damage. On the other hand, sometimes using the wrong weapon can be better. If an enemy is weak against the proton stream for example, but is moving fast, then marking them with the meson collider’s primary attack, and then launching a homing attack using its secondary function may prove more useful.

You can also buy upgrades for your kit which are useful, as well as other items such as slam dunk trapping.

Speaking of trapping, the mechanic works very well. Trapping ghosts is far more time consuming and difficult than blasting apart corporal creatures, but fortunately it’s not usually the norm. I.E you don’t fight a huge number of ‘real’ ghosts compared to corporeal beings. They get more common in the late game, but by then you’ve got trapping down to a skill, and can easily manage a large number of ghosts.

The system is simple. Blast them to wear down their health, wrangle them with the proton stream, bash them around a little, and then throw them over the trap and keep them in the cone until they fall in. Or, if you have slam dunk trapping, throw them right in.

The other Ghostbusters.

Your sidekicks, the other Ghostbusters are pretty much useless except to pick you up when you die, and crack off cheesy one liners. Their attacks do practically no damage, they can’t trap for shit, and if all of them die you’re boned as no one is around to pick up your sorry ass. Unfortunately, there are areas of the game where this becomes HUGELY annoying. If you’re fighting a swarm, or enemies with an AOE, the other Ghostbusters will run up to you to revive you, and then you both die as an AOE blows both your heads off. There is an arena in the last level where this takes place very frequently. It took me about a half dozen tries to complete it, simply because my team was split up and my AI partner was so useless.

Without a doubt the most annoying thing about them (apart from being useless but still necessary), is the fact that when they revive you, they always run up to you, then spend about a half second aligning themselves. This is very annoying as a half second is a long time in an action videogame, and it’s caused me to reload many times.

The revive mechanic is also annoying in a lot of respects, as there have been many situations when it’s me and one Ghostbuster left, and we’ve spent about 2 minutes in an endless ‘I revive you and I die, then you revive me and you die; loop before I thought sod it, let myself die and reloaded. This is especially annoying when your team is split up. Also, for some reason, if you are more than a certain distance from the other Ghostbusters they take a disproportionate amount of time to get to you and revive you.  And if there’s a lot of litter around, the path finding AI can seriously crack up. As they serve no use other than reviving you (remember, their attacks do negligible damage), this gets very aggravating at times.

Graphics.

Ghostbusters the videogame is a very pretty piece of work, but it is also graphics intensive. The lights, the flashes and the wailing banshees all look very pretty on screen, but can cause some lag. That said, my computer is a little overdue for an upgrade, so if people have dedicated gaming rigs that are up to date, they may not share this problem.

And physics. Will videogame developers stop trying to make physics work? Physics in videogames usually equals ‘everything’s really floaty to show how much effort we’ve put into making everything move’. It’s not realistic and the rag doll effect on the player character in the videogame is trite.

Sound.

Having the original actors in was a stroke of Genius, they play the parts very well, and bring the whole setting to life. Ghostly whispers are well engineered and work really well with simulated 5.1 sound. The music is atmospheric, and the sound effects are great. Ghostbusters the videogame could teach many other games about good use of sound, and this added to the fun factor.

Closing thoughts:

Ghostbusters the videogame was fun. I thoroughly enjoyed playing it, but there where many moments that where exceptionally frustrating due to poor development choices. One thing I can’t figure out is why there’s no multiplayer function. It would be an AWEOSME co op game to play with friends after a few beers. If you enjoyed the movies, you will find that Ghostbusters the video game has a very similar tongue in cheek feel to it, and that the old charm of the films is there. It doesn’t take itself seriously; it’s simple and its fun. But, if you didn’t like the movies, you’ll find that most of the game’s unique feel will put you off. It’s one for the fans.

Scores:

Graphics: 9/10 Caused some lag, at the cut scenes where not of the best quality.

Sound: 10/10 flawlessly executed.

Gameplay: 7/10 Good solid fun. Annoying at times. Where’s the multiplayer?

Fun: only if you liked the movies.

Overall: 8/10. A solid buy for a Ghostbusters fan, worth owning even if you’re not a huge fan, but not until it comes down in price.

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