• Summary

• Reviews

• News
• Images
• Videos
• Downloads
• Hints & Cheats

Genre: Action Publisher: Atari Developer: Terminal Reality Players: 1-4

By Frank20 (29th Jun 2009)

Once in a while a game or movie will come along that will generate enough hype to power a small country. The first of the Star Wars prequels, the new Indy movie, the latest Resident Evil or GTA title, you know the type. The only problem with this is that sometimes the pre-release hype is more than the actual release can handle. Sometimes the title will be placed on a pedestal before anyone gets their hands on it and it will suffer as a result.

Ghostbusters: The Video Game from producers Terminal Reality seemed to be inexorably drawn to this sadly common category and who could blame it? It got major publicity in just about every computer magazine and, because of its background, many of the major movie mags and sites as well. Released on the 25th anniversary of the first Ghostbusters movie and sporting a frankly stellar cast, this game had a lot of fanboys to satisfy.

The whole adventure is set in 1991, two years after the events of the second movie. You play the role of a new ghost buster joining the original four coincidently just in time for a major paranormal event to hit New York. Business for the busters had been booming of late and motivated your recruitment to the team, and not to soon either as Gozer, the evil entity from the first movie, has returned with the expressed purpose of making the Ghostbusters his bitches. Your main job is to test experimental equipment on your phantom enemies and this is just as well as it gives you some cool toys to play with.

The intro to the game could be the intro to a movie. It opens with the advert you may recall seeing them making in the first movie, then straight into the theme tune where it unashamedly touts its cast of characters which includes all the original Ghostbusters backed up by Annie Potts who played their secretary Janine, and in a brilliantly unexpected move they got William Atherton to reprise the role of Walter Peak, the leachy straight backed civil servant who tried so hard to shut them down in the first movie. The characters behave just like you’d expect them. Ray is excitable and spouts techno babble whenever possible, Egon seems to be the opposite with the droll scientific talk, Peter being the funny one cracks the jokes and sarcastically warbles his way through the game while Winston seems to be the only normal one.



While the voice acting should have been a major seller for the game, believe it or not it can get old after a while. Bill Murray’s Peter making fun of the others is usually unfunny and unnecessary, while the precise technical talk out of Egon and Ray seems to waste time and can’t be skipped. Still it does all give you the impression of being there with them as the voices and characters are so intimately familiar – even the noise the ghosts make is the same from the movies and the theme tunes, such as when danger is around the corner or when something humorous is happening, are the same as well. The story takes you to many of the same locations and reintroduces many of the ghouls that you would recognize from Ghostbusters 1 and 2. But this is what to expect from the same guys who wrote the big screen versions as well.

The visuals for the most part are nothing to write home about. While the set pieces seem to suffer from what would appear to be inattention on the producer’s part, the characters do look very realistic. The Ghostbusters, Janine and Walter Peak could have been lifted right from the movies and the wonderfully intricate design of the proton packs lets you feel their power and realism whenever you juice them up. Many of the ghosts look basic and average but some, like the obvious introduction of Slimer, look particularly impressive. It still seems unfair then that they have to interact in a New York that seems to lack something. Many of the locales don’t look the part and feel like they belong in a cheaper game.



The ghost busting alternates between pretty easy and violently hard. Granted I did start on the hardest difficulty but what makes it so damn frustrating is when a part of the game seems to be completely impassable. It happened to me twice and compounding my misery-induced rage was the loading time you went through every time you died. It lasted over 30 seconds which, in my experience, is an extraordinarily long wait for any game. In some cases the playing time lasted less than that in between loading times. I was hymning Ray Parker Jr’s Ghostbusters in my sleep.

Aside from that the combat was new and exciting. Like I said, you use more than just the proton packs as you get the latest spectre-hammering weapons to maul your way through the game. Bullets and bombs make no appearance here and the difference was stimulating. Expect tools like the Boson Dart, Slime Blower and the Stasis Stream. It had the potential to get repetitive but with so many different ghosts to battle and different ways to do it, it really did not seem as much of a problem as I thought. What stood out was the way you fought. Some ghosts you could vaporise but many do need to be trapped. This means wearing them down then capturing them with the proton stream and then manoeuvring them over a trap and holding them while they get pulled in. It’s not as easy as it seems and the ghouls will struggle mightily against your efforts. Remember, ghosts can appear and disappear and move through solid objects at will. It made many of the ghost fights appear like individual battles and an enjoyable chore to accomplish rather than the usual point-and-fire affair many games would employ. The other guys will revive you if you get knocked out and expect the same in return – the game is only over when the last Ghostbuster hits the floor so helping them is in your best interests.



A solid cast added to a recognizable storyline in familiar surroundings will let you almost share and feel the ghost busting experience. Wonderfully created cut scenes and down time in the HQ adds intensity and authenticity to that experience - such as Vigo’s ugly picture from the second movie that spits threats if you get too close. One for fans and newcomers alike, Ghostbusters is a game that won’t take an age to play and seemed not to live up fully to its high expectations. Still it justifiably never takes itself too seriously and as a result was still a pleasurable experience. Different from the rest of the herd, it begs to be played and deserves to be enjoyed.

Share On: