'Ghostbusters: The Video Game'
By: Terminal Reality
(Xbox360 / ASIN: B000ZKBJXC / Rated: T / $59.99)
Features: Third person gameplay that allows you battle some of the classic favorites like Stay Puft and Slimer along with a host of terrifying new ghosts. This all new original adventure is written by the creators of the original movies, featuring the voices and likeness of the original Ghostbusters. Game consists of both single player and multiplayer game types to give players countless hours of entertainment.
Description: The year is 1991 and Thanksgiving has come once again to the streets of New York. Play as the newest member of the Ghostbusters in this third person action adventure. As the newest member of the team you be acting as a guinea pig hired in as the teams new Experiment Equipment Technician. Track down ghosts and haunted items using your trusty PKE meter and goggles combo. Fire up and shoot the Ghostbusters’s nuclear accelerator better known as a Proton Pack to weaken ghosts enough to vaporize or capture them in traps.
Earn your keep and you’ll be rewarded with the ability to purchase upgrades to your equipment. Unravel the mystery surrounding the sudden increase of ghostly activity. Go online with the games multiplayer which offers the chance to play as the original Ghostbusters in a variety of different game type such Survival, Protection, Thief, and Slime Dunk.
Verdict: Back in 1984 all I wanted to be when I grew up was a Ghostbuster. It sadly was a dream I could not fulfill. That is until the summer of 2009, a good 25 years later, Terminal Reality with the help of Sony Pictures and Atari released “Ghostbusters: The Video Game.” I really enjoyed my experience with this game. One, you get to join the join the famous Ghostbusters and two, you get to take on the ghostly characters from the movies and put a new twist in dealing with return from Gozer the Gozerian and the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man.
This game triggered my nostalgia button bringing me back to those childhood dreams of being a member of the Ghostbusters. Terminal Reality developed a classic title that felt like an interactive third Ghostbusters movie. What really sells the experience is using the original actors to voice the game characters and you get a chance to join the team rather than take over one of their game avatars. (Please note: if you really want to play one of the actual Ghostbusters you can access them in the multiplayer experience.)
Bill Murray is exceptional funny returning to the role of Dr. Peter Venkman. Bill Murray, Dan Akroyd, Harold Ramis, and Ernie Hudson all reprise their iconic characters as do some of the side charaters from the original mothin pictures. The dialog offers tons of fresh one-liners and random silliness.
To give that true Ghostbusters experience you have the original score and motion picture soundtrack which wouldn’t have been a Ghostbusters game without including Ray Parker Jr’s “Ghostbusters.” Capturing the visual experience of the classic team Terminal Reality captured the younger versions of the actors’ likenesses using the old movies for reference.
As for the game play, the game mechanics make for a classic third person shooter where you blast ghosts and ghouls into oblivion. Besides the classic proton streams you’ll be expected to test out Egon’s new Shock Blast, Slime Blower, and Meson Collider to name a few. To track down ghosts and find your way around the levels you’ll be entrusted upon using the PKE meter and Para-goggles.
As you find ghosts and haunted possessions you be able to mark them and review their back stories using the Tobin's Spirit Guide. This helps set up for one of the cooler elements of the game where you earn cash for the work you put in capturing ghosts and the side research. You can also lose money on the job if you get carried away with the equipment and damage property. You can use this cash to upgrade equipment which you need to complete levels down the road to take out ghosts that don’t react the same way to proton streams.
The games true innovation comes in its Detective Mode, which allows you to scope out crime scenes, see points of interest for grappling, and follow victims or felons trails. The upside/downside of this mode is that while you have the ability to see and assess skeletal forms through hundreds of feet of rock and metal (don’t ask… the technology is beyond our simple comprehension) you get bound to it and miss a lot of the beauty and detail that went into Arkhams dark design. While the game is third person, the first person zoom feature really captures the amount of effort put into making this game visually perfect from start to its brilliant polished finish.
Once you finish off the main story you can jump back into action playing the multiplayer mini-games that you can play online with your friends. This part of the game gives you a chance to play as you favorite Ghostbuster and gives the game some added replay value.
Overall I would highly recommend this game to a fan of the classic movies or anyone looking to experience a fun third person shooting adventure. Ghostbusters: The Video just like the classic Ghostbusters movies in the sense that it’s like a perfect way to kill a weekend and have a good laugh in the process.
Reviewed by: Ken Tebo
www.ghostbustersgame.com