Ghostbusters: The Video Game

Review from Anna, Anna, Anna, Anna, Anna and Anna - Thursday, 24 September 2009 @ 11:46pm

If there's something strange in your neighborhood...

It's been 25 years since the Ghostbusters movie graced the silver screen and now we've got Ray Stantz and Co. jumping into our consoles. To get myself in the mood, I watched the previous two movies again – a good choice considering the game has been identified as the third installment in the series. On top of this, it has the original writers and actors in it so the authenticity is virtually leaking from the disc.

The game throws you right into it. Playing just like a movie, the first level is consistent with most tutorial/introductory levels. It explains that they only call you Rookie because they don't want to get too attached. Uh, okay. I wasn't really worried about that, and to be honest I think it would have worked better without an explanation as it fits the story line anyway. The acerbic wit of the 'Busters is consistently strong through the game to keep you chuckling as they shout over the din of a cross-dimensional portal about Dr Venkman's latest love interest.

The interface used for the game was interesting as it followed what a few other games have been doing in terms of shaking up the UI to make things more realistic. Instead of having a health bar across the top, it's part of your pack as well as indicators showing if your Proton Pack is overheating or not. Handy because it's right there in the corner of the screen, on your character that you're desperately attempting to manoeuvre around so as not to cross the proton streams.

If there's something weird and it don't look good

Controls are fiddly, even though they give the rookie a walkthrough in the beginning, I still felt like I was guessing my way through and wasn't pulling my weight for the team. They are less than intuitive than I would have liked though perhaps this is because they've remained consistent with the movie. Switching from third to first person, you seek out the ghosts with your PKE meter and goggles, helping you to locate paranormal clues that may not be evident without using the goggles. A pain with the PKE is that you cannot do anything outside of it, which leads to unnecessary scrapping about in the event a ghost pops up while you are looking for it.

So you've found yourself a ghost and you're ready to bust it. The process here, while hearteningly very true to the source material, is unwieldy in a game. It's all very well to say don't cross the streams in a movie but in a game it's a rule applied to NPCs that are a damn pain and a half to keep an eye on when you have half a dozen ghosts waiting to be busted one by one. First of all, you're looking up most of the time. That means, you're not exactly sure where your fellow ghostbusters are and while this does add a level of difficulty to the game, it's more frustrating than challenging. Let's say you've managed to hurt the ghost enough with your proton stream that you're getting ready to capture it. First it's going to need a few bangs on the head to make it more agreeable and then you're going to have to set out the trap and hold it above the trap long enough for the ghost to be caught and sucked in. Unwieldy and unnecessary in game design although the loyalty to canon is touching.

If you're seeing things running through your head

There's a lot to gripe about in the game design, and it's mainly to do with the strong ties it's kept with the movies. I like it when IPs grow and spread into other areas (like games) that provide a more immersing experience into their canon but the IP needs to adapt to the new media if it's going to be as successful as what got it popular in the first place. Just look at the latest Batman game to see it done right – managing to balance the original IP against making an entertaining game that flies off the shelves for more than just the core market at which Batman is aimed.

Graphics on the PS3 are as expected, though sometimes there are some off moments where frames struggle to catch up or race ahead of what you're actually doing. There are some brilliant scenes here that are perfectly laid out for your character to find, like screenshots waiting to be... uh, screenshot. There are times when you're stuck in a situation where the dozen odd proton streams' mean you can make very little sense on screen but most of the time it's not too bad. The soundtrack is awesome, really suiting the game, and with most characters from the movie reprising their roles in the game, there's little to fault on the soundscape.

An invisible man sleeping in your bed

Apparently you can play as a girl in the PlayStation 2 and Wii versions but not PS3 or Xbox 360. I wonder if it's because they think girls are more likely to play those consoles or are they trying to make up for the limitations on the lesser systems. It's a mystery that has frustrated me since I found out that they'd arbitrarily decided to limit which ones would have the gender option. I know it's flogging a dead horse sometimes, and I keep going on and on about it but gender options are going to be one of the key factors in opening up player orientated gaming to the female demographic. Otherwise, the game for the differing platforms is almost identical. Particularly in the length of the game – you'll find it over in a heartbeat if you can get past the odd difficulty spikes.

In a nutshell, the (first) movie was better. This is pretty much what you expect from a movie tie-in, like you would with any other franchised IP from Hollywood. Actually, I'm still not sure what I think of Ghostbusters as an IP in general. I eagerly sought it out after seeing the amazing Blues Brothers movie as a child and I just couldn't get into it in the same way. Maybe I just have a thing for guys in suits rather than jumpsuits or it's a case of which ever you see first becomes your favourite. For that alone, I have a fair bit of bias. I can tell that fans are going to go to extreme ends for this, either really positive if only because it immerses you in a very movie-like experience or really negative, because while it's commendable to stick so close to the source material, the source material doesn't make for great game design if you're sticking to the letter. A little more flexibility and this could have been a much more enjoyable game.

Pros

Immersive, dedicated to the original source material and has the original writers and actors on board

Cons

Fiddly and unwieldy controls, limited visibility/camera control in some areas and frustrating difficulty spikes that make little sense.