A Great Nostolgia Trip With a Few Bugs
Every once in a while you come across a piece of media that scratches that certain itch down memory lane where despite numerous flaws it still puts a smile on your face. Ghostbusters is certainly that game.
The game takes place sometime after the second movie in 1991 and all of the tropes that you loved from the movies are right there in the game itself. The characters, the humor, the geekry and in this case even the odd touches that really make this scream 1991 (an answering machine!!!!). You play the game as an un-named, un-spoken new recruit that has to follow the ghosbusters through an adventure where gozer has essentially be reawakened during a museum event. The plot for the most part holds up fine enough, but I felt that the writers tried way too hard to make everything connected somehow. For example, the library ghost from the very first movie was a wonderful fan service addition to the game, but to try an write her into the story with a connection to gozer just seemed to be too much. I would have been happy just to have gone to the library to bust her ass for its own merits.
Some of the game mechanics added to the game also worked to varying degrees. In order to increase overall interest the developers had to had additional types of proton beams. They essentially took the tried and true formula from the Metroid Prime series and applied it here. Its payoff was OK. While it made sense in the concept of the slime gun, some of the others felt stretched. They did make the game a bit more fun, but ultimately didn't quite fit into the world. The classic proton stream though was fun until the very end.
The game technically has a few issues with it. In some aspects the game looked very good. The proton packs were incredibly detailed and the locations such as the castle near the end of the game had some fantastic details like artwork on the walls. Some of the locations even setup a nice horror mood to them when bookshelves began to fly around or when you get lost wandering through hotel corridors. Nothing was scary persay, but it did get my heart racing just enough. The level of uncanny valley in the game though was staggering that the stiffness of the characters as they talked was downright bad. There were also several instances in the game where trigger events never occurred leaving me standing in a room waiting for and event to occur within nothing coming. I ended up having to restart the game and reload the level to get the trigger to finally happen.
Overall the game is a great trip down memory lane for those people who grew up during the 1980's. If you were like me you had three heroes in your like : The Ghostbusters, The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and G.I. Joe. Getting to fight stay-puff is a treat in and of itself and this game is worth the ride simply because it can put a little bit of a smile on your face.
