The game introduces you as the new member of the team. In Ghostbusters: The Videogame, you get to know the other members, as well as the tech needed. The first mission is at the fire station where the Ghostbusters team resides, helping Ray catch Slimer, whom has gotten on the loose.
The fire station is quite cosy to walk around and explore, but nothing of the extraordinary to interact with – you can interact with the arcade machines, but can’t play on the games, but you do get a few seconds of cutscene as your character plays the game. You can interact with a few other things, but nothing that opens up for anything or of the slightest interest.
Who you gonna call
The messages on the answering machine does correlate with incoming missions, which later will be explained in detail by Ray and the others.
The gameplay itself is quite entertaining, albeit slightly simple and repetitive. Find your way through the courses, scan the areas and find the ghosts, then catch them in the traps. The weapons and the means to do this does vary, and can be used to open for locked areas too. There isn’t much idle time unless you end up in place you can’t figure out, which happened a few times for me, but as of writing I have never been too much of a fan when it comes to puzzle-exploration, exactly because of the frustration that can be caused by getting stuck.
The areas is very well made, and they vary a lot. Everything from cosy lobby’s at hotels to scary and unnerving cemeteries or small tunnels underground, which will trigger your claustrophobia, even if you don’t suffer from it already, which is quite amazing, given it is on a screen.
Online is overrated
Looks like the multiplayer part of the game consists of the missions from the campaign, which can be played by up to 4 players in all, some mini-games where you get a challenge, I however did not get the chance to try the multiplayer for real, as I simple could not find enough players to play with online.
Graphics are vivid and smooth, and quite realistic – as realistic as it can be with catching ghosts and all. The facial animations are an absolute blast to look at during cutscenes, perhaps a bit overdone, but I enjoy it more because of it. The animations on the ghosts effects are also pretty rad, and as realistic as ghosts can be. The music is quite fitting all the way through the game, which will also let you know of any incoming trouble.
It’s just marvellous to see such much work and money behind to get the actual real actors from the 1984 movie back together, and in turn that really pops the audio side of the game to top notch. There is so many golden lines throughout, so I highly recommend you take your time to listen to the dialogues.
Totally catering to fans
If there is anything to point out: you need to know and love the franchise already to truly appreciate this game. The game is not that challenging and should be beatable in a day if you play focused. If you hunt achievements – or trophies – it will naturally require more time.
Do not expect hundreds of hours of playtime, as there is only 7 missions of respectable length, with checkpoints so you don’t have begin the mission from scratch should you need to attend to the real world for a change. I was hoping for more missions, and who knows we might see an expansion later on.
To round up this review, I can conclude that the game primarily is gonna relate to fans of the movies, but if you are fan of shooters and exploration you’ll like what it offers.
