Ghostbusters: Concluded

Since the baby came along I've found less and less time to play games, which isn't ideal because a) the more games I play, the better I become at my job, and b) I still love playing games. Balancing time between games, work, and home is becoming increasingly difficult. But then Ghostbusters came along.

Let me begin by saying that I've been waiting what feels like my whole life for this game. Ghostbusters is a constant in my life. Other favourite films come and go (The Big Lebowski, Aliens ... I could go on), but I can put Ghostbusters on at any time, in any mood, and I'll love it like I loved it as a youngster watching at the Curzon cinema in Manchester, my mum telling me to cover my eyes before the librarian ghost flies at the camera. My expectations couldn't have been higher.

Ghostbusters fans have been harshly treated over the years. I have hazy recollections of an old plaform game (probably on the Amiga) disappointing me, but other than that Ghostbusters games have been thin on the ground. Zootfly released footage a few years ago that peaked attention, but that game appeared to die after the news broke that there was no official license. Shame as the footage looked excellent.

Fast forward to 2009, and after a few years in development Ghostbusters: The Videogame is released by Terminal Reality, a developer few people had previously heard of. Due to some complicated legal wrangling between Sony, Atari and Activision the game has a staggered release, meaning I have to pay over the odds for an American import version which works on PAL 360s.

Anyway, enough of the history lesson: my thoughts.

Ghostbusters: The Videogame is as good as Terminal Reality, or anyone else, could have made. It's very difficult to see how they could have made anything different, given the source material: it ticks all the boxes but feels a little sterile.

The bad:

Lip sync is terrible, the characters seem intent on showing that they have teeth.
The PKE image capture mechanic feels very tacked on, as if someone in Production decided the game needs something else, so they throw in the equivalent of a digital camera and expect the player to photograph every ghost, even in the heat of battle.

The game design is very old school. Expect locked doors and invisible walls.

AI is not so good either, expect huge gameplay pauses while you wait for them to do what their supposed to do, and for them to stare blankly until you do your thing. Peeking behind the curtain indeed.

The setting is a strange one. Obviously to get the best effect the game had to be set close after the end of the second movie (which would place it in the early 90s), however all the actors are now in their 60's, and sound like it. This gives quite the juxtaposition when you see the fresh young face of Egon Spengler on screen, but hear the voice of the 65 year old Harold Ramis.

Talking of the voices, Bill Murray could not sound less interested. I think he rang in his lines on a mobile phone from the bath. Sounds like it.

Overall it gives a decent spooky experience, with a few high points (sta puft is brilliant), but I'm afraid I'm going to have to end this with a terrible cliche: if you're a fan of Ghostbusters you'll love it, if not you'll think it an average videogame. As I've explained I'm a fan, so back off man, I'm a scientist.