Daily Loaf

Remember 1989? Remember the disappointment? How exciting the mere prospect was, the idea that we’d get more of that magical, hilarious madness. Another two hours worth of memorable quotes – what would replace “When someone asks you if you’re a God, you say yes!” or “Listen; Do you smell something?”

But then we got Ghostbusters 2 in all it’s lifeless, tepid, walking Statue of Liberty forgettableness. Who would want another sequel after that mess? And how could we get it two decades after the fact? Of course you’ve guessed the answer – Ghostbusters: The Video Game, which really is the sequel I’ve been waiting for.

All the original busters are back, Murray, Aykroyd, Ramis, and Hudson playing digital, young versions of their now aged and expanded selves. Dan Aykroyd and Harold Ramis are even credited as writers of the game, and I can believe it. The story has the same sensibilities as the original movie, the same over the top mythology and paranormal gobbledygook, and I found it a lot more interesting and entertaining than the Ghostbusters 2 plot. Of course it’s spread out over 7 hours of game play, but that works fine. It’s the transition to digital actors and recorded voice overs that’s less satisfying.

More review and video after the jump:

The character models certainly look great – very good renderings of the 1991-era actors, but the delivery of the lines is a little uneven, sometimes stilted, and the timing is sometimes excruciatingly bad. But it’s on par with most video games, and these are characters and settings so much more interesting than your average third-person action game fare, that I’m willing to forgive all the rough edges. There are a few good laughs and plenty of little smiles along the way, and taken as a whole I found almost the entire experience just plain pleasant, a fun romp through New York City’s occult hot spots with some old friends.

The game play is solid, if occasionally frustrating. You’re a new cadet member of the team, a nameless Rookie who sort of resembles a fusion of Dan Aykroyd and Bill Murray and has no dialogue. You’re of course armed with your proton pack, which can zap and capture ghosts and later gets upgraded to shoot slime, blast like a shotgun, and zap like a machine gun. Each setting has two fire modes, giving you a number of options in battle. Scanning ghosts with your PKE meter reveals their weaknesses and can also help uncover hidden (and pretty funny) haunted artifacts. The combat sequences, especially ghost capturing, feel true to the movie and are fun enough, but in the bigger battles the game can be frustrating as ghosts attack from all sides, often blindsiding you. Your fellow Ghostbusters will run over to revive you if you go down, but if the whole team gets KO’d, you’ll have to restore to a checkpoint. Throw in some decent puzzles involving the slime setting on your proton pack and some amusing cut scenes, and there’s a solid single player game here. There are also multi-player modes that involve capturing or repelling ghosts in various settings, which are a fun little addition to the game but don’t offer lasting replay value (at least not to me).

For me, a huge Ghostbusters fan, this game was just about exactly what I wanted. It’s not a great game, and those without any attachment to the characters or setting will probably find it much less compelling than I did. The story may not be stellar, but it’s fun and it works, and most importantly to me – it feels right. It feels like Ghostbusters.

I played the X-Box 360 version of the game, which is the same as the Playstation 3 version, both of which retail for $60.00. The Wii version has a different, more cartoony art style and employs some motion-based controls, but follows the same story. The PC version is like the one I played only $30, but doesn’t include multiplayer.

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