Before you even get into the story, the game welcomes you in with a shot of the Ghostbusters firehouse, accompanied by a jaunty piece of familiar music. It's definitely a sign of things to come, as the game is absolutely shameless about bringing back familiar faces and revisiting key events from the films. Set two years after the events of Ghostbusters II, the game opens with a supernatural event in a museum that just so happens to be hosting an exhibit concerning Gozer the Gozerian. Back at the firehouse, you're playing the part of a nameless rookie being shown the ropes by Drs. Venkman, Spengler, and Stantz, who make clear early on that they're loading you up with their sweet new prototype hardware only because they consider you expendable.
Before you know it, you're back at the Hotel Sedgewick, chasing after Slimer, which quickly rolls into an extended chase with the Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man through Times Square, followed by a return to the New York City Public Library to confront the Grey Lady, that silence-appreciating ghost that kicked off the first movie. For a story that's ostensibly original, that's a whole lot of recycled material packed into the first three levels. The specific whys and the wherefores of all the supernatural activity in the game isn't made clear during that time, though it's apparent that it has something to do with Gozer.
One of the big reasons I've allowed myself to get invested in Ghostbusters: The Video Game is the involvement of the original cast members. Virtually everyone's back, and despite the 25-year difference, they sound about the way that they should. I definitely found Dan Aykroyd's Ray Stantz to be the most authentic, though Ernie Hudson's Winston Zeddemore's pretty solid. Harold Ramis is OK, though he doesn't have a ton of great lines, and Bill Murray's smarm just feels a little... off. Since this is the Xbox 360 version, everyone looks like fairly realistic versions of their 25-years-younger selves, though their animations are a bit more exaggerated. There's just something about the character models, the animation, and the voice work that didn't quite click during my time with the game.
If there's one thing that I would warn other Ghostbusters fans about avoiding, it's the expectation that this game can live up to the humor of the source material. Comedy is one of the toughest things to pull off in video games, and it's a much different beast than in other media. You can't just copy and paste an existing joke into a game and have it work. The game makes an honest effort to be funny, but the most it has elicited out of me so far were a couple of low chuckles.
First you have to wear the ghost down with your proton pack. Once its "health" gets to a certain point, you have to switch your stream to capture mode, which you can use to slam the ghost around, dazing it. Once dazed, you can start guiding the ghost towards a trap that you've hopefully already thrown out. During all of this you have to make sure your proton pack doesn't overheat, and avoid any incoming attacks. It's kind of an ordeal, trapping a ghost, but then again, shouldn't it be? If nothing else, the ghost-trapping process seems like it should help keep Ghostbusters from feeling like any run-of-the-mill third-person shooter.
If I come off sounding down on Ghostbusters: The Video Game, it's only because of my profound affection for the source material. It's got issues, but I didn't find the experience offensive, and I'm still eager to see the rest of the game when it hits shelves alongside the Blu-ray version of Ghostbusters on June 16th.
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