Still busting, but not quite the same
The story deserves praise. Harold Ramis and Dan Aykroyd put together a coherent storyline that is probably one of the better ones for a video game. Many critics have griped that it isn’t up to snuff with the first movie, but think about what video games usually sport in terms of stories; that’s right it’s typically crap or not quite Hollywood. So to compare a game to a movie is laughable. Anyway, the story follows a new recruit joining the boys (that’s you) and you have to bust ghosts. The catch is that the ghosts you are busting are originating from past ghosts that have been busted. One particular ghost that is back is the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man, who isn’t technically a ghost, but he’s being controlled by one. As the boys begin to uncover more and more strange clues to what is turning out to be a huge ghostly mess an old name reemerges from the past, Gozer. Could Gozer be behind all of this? You’ll have to find out.
Let’s talk gameplay.
If you’re a huge nerd like me (and you have to be because you’re reading this site), you want some fast-past action out of your third-person style; Ghostbusters doesn’t disappoint when it comes to pacing. Once you begin the storyline you follow it all the way through. It’s basically the driving force behind the game and the game itself treats the gameplay like an actual movie. You won’t find any usual stops in the gameplay; it just keeps on trucking. So, when you start out in the hotel at the beginning, the next stage will be poured onto the streets of New York. You don’t have rest stops anywhere along the way; you simply have checkpoints. I know I’ve seen this type of gameplay before, but I can’t quite put my finger on a recent game…. hmmm…. (God of War anyone?) Anyway, it’s not typical in a lot of games, but it keeps the players on their toes. In a sense, that’s a good thing. While certainly the pacing is good, my problem with this type of play is that the checkpoints aren’t clearly marked in the game. You might leave the game, but there isn’t a clear marker that states it’s a checkpoint. When you have to leave the game and come back, you simply hope that you went far enough to establish a checkpoint, which is highly annoying. I hate replaying the same level over and over again. Why there wasn’t a manual save function built in is beyond me, but this game seriously needed one.
Not to harp too much on the negatives (I’m just trying to get those out of the way), I have a huge complaint about the gameplay. Your character can’t duck; you’re only permitted to move on an X/Y axis. There’s no jumping out of the way either, so you have to pretty much walk/dodge fireballs, ectoplasm and whatever else the spirits decide to throw at you. I don’t think I’ve ever played a game that didn’t allow me to take evasive maneuvers; that simply doesn’t make sense to me. Anyway, I find this highly annoying and I wish that they had allowed for more freedom of movement. I know that people will say that you can run out of the way, but even the running is faulty. Having just reviewed Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince I simply cannot understand why developers haven’t gotten this ‘running’ thing down yet. I simply question whether developers have actually ever run themselves. When your GB wants to run, you simply hit the circle button and they take off. When you’re running around corners you have to drift your character into a wide turn to be able to make the turn successfully. Why the hell is it that you have to start turning three seconds before actually getting to the turn? I don’t get it! If you can visualize the letter ‘C’ that’s the arc you have to make to turn a corner while you run. Running would be great to get away from bad guys/gals/marshmallows, but since it’s a little screwy it really isn’t an option. Again, dodging, running, diving isn’t an option. Please don’t say, “Well, you have a nuclear bomb basically strapped to your back, would you really want to run with it?” My answer is this…. if I have a nuclear bomb strapped to my back wouldn’t it be bad if I collapsed in the streets after getting the crapped kicked out of me? The game doesn’t think so when that happens, so no…. I want to dive/dodge/run/duck.
Staying on topic with the controls, and shifting from negative to positive, the controls are incredibly easy to pick up in the game. At the beginning there is a clever tutoring session where you get to bag a baddie in the basement of the GB’s HQ. You learn from Ray how to use the proton pack and how to control the stream properly. You also learn how to rest your pack and vent it (is that even remotely safe?) and keep it from overheating. The entire process is fantastic, it’s simple and it’s a bit of a rush. As soon as you’re done with the tutorial you’ll be ready to play the game and catch some ghosts. Atari and Terminal Reality made this portion of the game incredibly easy to catch onto. I feared this might be the most difficult part of the game, but it’s the easiest part, which makes the game somewhat easy to play. That’s a huge plus when it comes to getting people to accept the game as a fun action adventure. The basics are this, you hit R2 to fire a proton stream and wear down the ghosts. The ghosts emit a green circular life meter that indicates when a ghost is at full-strength or incredibly weak. When the green circle turns red, the ghost tires to the point where you can hit L1 to lasso them. Once lassoed you treat them like a fish and reel them towards the trap you can lay down with the square button. Once the ghosts are over the trap you have to keep them in the triangular light for the ghost to be successfully caught. Again, it’s not rocket science. If you hit L2 while the ghost is lassoed, you’ll slam them to the floor, which causes them to basically not want to move. It’s a bit brutal, but it’s fun as hell to do. Again, all of the schemes are simple for every type of gamer; that’s a huge plus.
Basics aside, the game offers you upgrades for your proton packs and other equipment. Much like Drebin out of Metal Gear Solid 4, you’re able to call up for upgrades in the start menu at any given point in the game (sans the cut scenes). You can upgrade your pack with the ability to shoot more precise streams or upgrade your PKE Meter to be faster and longer (TWSS), or even upgrade your traps. The option for upgrading is a huge focus of the developers and it shows. There’s nothing wrong with wanting to make the game better and the experience less limiting. I think this is a very strong part of the game and one that people will enjoy. Now, to get the upgrades you have to bag ghosts to earn money. That money allows you to purchase the upgrades. It’s a simple capitalistic style of rewards.
One final complaint about the gameplay, which didn’t really fit into any specific category that was mentioned above, is your health meter. I can see how it seems clever to put your health meter on the proton pack, but for those of us who value our eyesight, it’s hard to see. When you begin to lose a great amount of health you get this onscreen halo that surrounds your television picture and keeps getting blurry with every little hit. Had you been able to see your health it would prevent such a catastrophe from getting to that point of needing a halo. I understand that cleverness mixed with not wanting too many onscreen indicators probably prompted this decision, but it really needed something a bit more definitive.
On that same token, the pack also has an indicator for your proton pack heat level, which is easy to read. Why is it easier? Thanks for asking, it’s easier because it’s a vertical meter (much easier to form an decision on its indication) and it’s in red. When your proton pack gets to the point of overheating you simply push R1 to vent it. If you don’t, then you basically get a 2-3 second suspension from using it until it goes back to normal. This didn’t happen very often thanks to that red indicator.
Presentation can be so Hollywood some days
It’s no great secret that Atari is pushing a lot of the budget of the game with the cast. I don’t think this game works with anything less than Ramis, Murray, Hudson and Aykroyd. In this day and age where big budgets are swelled for gaming, no expense should have been spared with getting these guys onboard the project. Not only did Atari manage to snag these guys, but the guys seem to be genuinely enjoying their roles as the ‘boys’ again. I’m not sure if it’s because it’s incredibly special to them all or that they got paid a ton of money (or they’re wanting to get everyone ready for the upcoming third movie), but in the end it sure sounds like they really wanted to be apart of the project. This is by far the strongest part of the game and something that should be praised over and over again. The wisecracks are in there, the jabs, everything that you would expect from this cast and their characters has been faithfully included in the game. This is the strongest part of the game and probably the biggest selling point.
With that said, the character models and environments aren’t too shabby too. While certainly restrictive, you still have some good detailed environments that show how much the developers put into the game. You have huge buildings, a wonderful cityscape of New York and some fantastic shading elements (see Stay Puft for details). All of these things make the girth of the game a lot bigger than it really should be. As for characters, they all represent a younger version of our favorite ghost busting guys. I wish that the characters would have aged slightly, but I’m sure their contracts read, “We won’t make you look old.”
You have to tip your hat at the special effects too, as the proton streams look incredibly accurate when compared to the film. They maintained all the goofy, unrealistic glory that would be firing a controlled nuclear stream at something. The lighting and shading from the stream is fantastic and pretty accurate (in terms of if it was real). The packs themselves are incredibly detailed too, showing you the complication and roughness of the material used. All in all, the stuff looks great.
Now, having said that, there are places where the game looks really rough and bland. For example, when you’re racing upstairs to stop Stay Puft (you’re racing up a building), you’ll run into some really bland rooms that contain enemies. These rooms are Playstation 2 bland, possibly even Playstation One. There are spots in the game where it looks like effort was left on standby, but they are far and few between.
All these years and still busting, but is it worth the price of admission?
The game’s difficulty is medium to high. While the hardcore gamers out there will fly through this probably in three days, the normal gamers looking for a solid experience might find some rough patches, which would move this over a period of two weeks (depending on accessibility when it comes to free time). Kicking the hell out of enemies isn’t difficult; it’s simply that the amount of enemies thrown at you is what causes the problem. Some ghosts you’ll be working on will have companions fly in unannounced immediately and will start kicking the crap out of you. It’s a bit unfair, but it’s manageable. There will be parts where you’re completely frustrated and you’ll want to take an hour or so away from the game to regather your gaming skills. For example, let’s go back to the part of the game where you’re racing up the building. You enter a room where you see nothing, but soon Stay Puft’s marshmallow minions start falling through the ceiling and attacking you. There is an incredible amount jumping at you and you basically can’t back yourself into a corner or you’ll be a goner for sure. You have to wait for Ray to lead the way out, but you have to kill a certain amount before you get to that point. It’s insanely difficult and unfair, but the game gives you these moments here and there. So, pack yourself a bag of patience because you might be served some frustration in the game.
As for the online experience, it’s nice. You get to play up to four players online. It’s an added bonus and one that encourages you to play through the game and get better. Speaking of playing through, you also get trophies throughout the game. You trophy fans out there will feel warm and fuzzy knowing that you’re accomplishing many great things. As you do accomplish them you also unlock little goodies, like the cut scene videos. Now that may not seem like much, but it certainly is a plus considering who wrote and basically starred in the game. It’s one of the better performances in a game and worth an ‘unlocking’.
Atari was really shooting for nostalgia here, and I can’t blame them. The game is average to good, and it needed a little extra boost to keep it in the good category. If I were a fan of the movie or just of these actors, then the $59.99 that Atari is asking for would be worth the price of admission. If I was the type of gamer who expected more controls, more add-ons, more incentive then this would be a rental before a purchase. For me, I would rent before I bought it, mainly because I’m weary of how game companies treat movie-esque licenses. Most of the time they aren’t treated well; thankfully this one is treated very well.