As I've made painfully clear throughout my years on this blog, I am quite the fan of Ghostbusters, certainly not the biggest, and certainly less so than other things, but my love of this franchise runs deep. For Halloween this year I even won a goodie bag and a teddy bear at work for my costume; a combination of a hideous but very spooky shirt and a Proton Pack, built by yours truly from foam sheets and floor mats, along with other bits and bobs I could scavenge like toilet paper tubes, old belts and a garden hose. Like most Ghostbusters fans though, my passion for this series has been strained, but one good thing to come out of that movie was a resurgence of the Ghostbusters that most people actually want; there's a new movie coming out next year and this year, Atari and Terminal Reality's 2009 Ghostbusters game got a rerelease on current gen systems, and right around Halloween too, so you know the drill, let's stick it to the norm and spend Christmas getting our spook on with the Ghostbusters.
But before I even started playing the game, I was stopped in my tracks by its memorial to Harold Ramis, which is something I genuinely didn't see coming and it put a huge smile on my face, it's a tiny touch that actually made the game feel just a tiny bit more special for me, because the day he died, the world lost a legend, and this game is a six hour long love letter to arguably his most popular work. And the game really drives home its homages and influences, with an opening sequence very in line with the films, even featuring the old Columbia Pictures logo. And while it isn't as intense as the opening scenes of either of the films, it sets the stage as well as they did, hinting at the larger picture of the story and throwing us in at the deep end with a spooky encounter. In a lot of ways, Ghostbusters: The Video Game is more like a movie than a game, which has repercussions I'll get to later, but for now, let's talk story and characters. The Ghostbusters being deep, dynamic characters with compelling arks was something the two films didn't even bother with, nor did they need to because these characters were outstanding out of the gate. This hasn't changed for the game, nor have the characters themselves changed in the two years since Ghostbusters 2; they're exactly the same as they were in the films; Egon's an autistic tech-head, Venkman's a deadpan ladies' man that doesn't take anything seriously, Winston's the sane, normal one, and Ray's the slightly less autistic, mildly over-enthusiastic book worm who never grew up. 
All four are portrayed by the cast of the films, with many of the game's supporting characters like Walter Peck and Janine also being voiced by their movie actors, which isn't necessary but god damn is it cool, and it really helps in immersing you in the world of the films, less like a video game and more like an extension of the films themselves, and that carries over to its writing. The game is full of the usual constant babble that the likes of Egon and Ray would come out with, explaining sci-fi and paranormal stuff in a way that doesn't actually make sense, but like in the movies, it works because it's never too heavy handed, sure, it sounds like nonsense, but the game never makes you feel stupid for thinking so, and as the films did, it's often unapologetic about the absurdity of a lot of their long winged and overly technical observations. And also like the films, the ridiculous technicalities of the plot don't make it any harder to follow, you're still going to get all of the important story beats and understand what's going on, and while the story isn't that bold or new, especially for Ghostbusters, it's so fitting to the world of Ghostbusters that it's almost comfort food, which I'm pretty sure is by design. Were this a movie, it'd probably be awesome, but there are some aspects of the story and writing that I think are lacking. Firstly, the game isn't as funny as either of the two films, though it's still funnier than that other film, not that that's a challenge. A lot the game's comedy is safer than the films and while it still has its smarter gags, none of them are ever as smart as some of the comedy of the films.
All this is to say that Peter never wins over the mayor by appealing to his political ambitions or that Ray never calls Peck Dickless, which is odd because this game has a lot of fun with the franchise's horror undertones. This really is a non issue because these characters could probably still be entertaining as the stars of a sit-com. One weak link however is the Rookie; the character you play as and the perspective through which the game's events are presented, because he is a silent protagonist and I don't know why. I have a hunch that the game's dedication to fan service might have come at the expense of the Rookie, who is ultimately a fifth wheel in the shadow of Ray, Egon, Peter and Winston. Eventually I'll publish my review of Borderlands 3, and in that review I talk about the game's issue of having a protagonist that's disconnected from its story, and this game is like that but in reverse; rather than talking to NPCs and never actually influencing the story or appearing in cutscenes, the Rookie appears in cutscenes but never talks and never actually influences the story, either way, the disconnect is there, at least this game has the advantage of having a story that doesn't suck, with characters that are actually charming. Anyone who's watched the film will also be familiar with the game's villain, one Ivo Shandor, an architect and cult leader in life and aspiring god in death. And something I adore about the game is how its story unfolds; specifically how it introduces Shandor and builds him up as an antagonist, one who always had a backup plan in place in case Gozer somehow failed, and while he's not a deep or even very frightening villain, he is a perfect villain for a narrative follow up to the films, cannon or not. 
Him being the big bad does somewhat undermine Gozer though, especially with how Gozer is portrayed in this game, but once again, I feel that the game's dedication to fan service came with catches. All of this being said though, this is still Ghostbusters; even though it's as much as four times the length of either of the films, this story is distinctly in the spirit (pun indented) of them, certainly more so than other films we needn't talk about today. But the one big, obvious difference to the movies is that this is a game, and Ghostbusters takes a slightly different approach; in that prioritising gameplay, which is almost always the safer bet, wasn't this game's intention. In this game, you are thrown into what is essentially a Ghostbusters theme park ride, filled with nostalgic highlights of both the films. You get let loose in the Firehouse, you fight Slimer in the Sedgewick Hotel, you chase the Librarian ghost through the New York Public Library and fight Stay Puft on a roof top. One aspect of the gameplay that the game absolutely had to nail was the actual Ghostbusting, and to the game's credit, Busting does in fact make you feel good. Your weapons against the spooky spooks are the Proton pack and its various functions; starting with your typical Proton stream, before unlocking a Boson dart, which functions similarly to a rocket launcher. Later you unlock gadgets like the Shock blast, which is the game's take on a shotgun, a slime gun for more environmental threats and solving puzzles, and eventually the Meson collider, a machine gun type weapon that fires homing rounds. 
On the surface, this is all very straight forward; you essentially have four weapons, each with alternate fire options like a stasis beam that I never felt the need to use and a slime tether for sticking things together. But things get a little more complex when you take on the game's enemies; with some of them needing to be dispersed by just shooting them, and others needing to be captured using your Proton stream and trap. Each enemy is vulnerable to different weapon types; for example, you will encounter black slime enemies that are weak to the slime gun, or zombie type enemies that are weak to the shock blast, which quickly becomes your best friend in many of the game's encounters. The dispersible ghosts are taken out by just blasting them and taking down their health bar, which is represented with a circle overlay when your crosshair is on a ghost. The non-dispersible ghosts are the same, but rather than killing them, you weaken them enough to be susceptible to a capture stream, one that you can throw at them with your bumper or that'll get thrown at them automatically when they are weak enough. Once you've got a ghost, you have to wrangle it into a trap, which involves awkwardly dragging and throwing a ghost around until it's above the trap, then keeping it in the capture cone while the trap pulls it in. And this is where the game is at its most enjoyable; the feeling of bagging a ghost after mauling it into the trap literally never gets old, and you can also upgrade the trap to let you slam dunk enemies by slamming them directly into the trap, which is unbelievably satisfying to do. 
All of your equipment can be upgraded in the game, and these are upgrades you're going to want because without them, a lot of the equipment is harder to use. All of the weapons have unlimited ammo but cause the pack to overheat, with different weapons overheating the pack faster than others. You can manually vent the pack before it goes critical, at which point you'll be unable to use your weapons briefly while the pack cools down. The game also goes the Dead Space route by not featuring a hud, instead displaying relevant information like weapon type, heat level and health on the pack itself, as explained to you by Ray in the game's little tutorial level. And on top of blasting spooks with a Proton pack, the game, as I said before, completely nails the feeling of being a Ghostbuster, it puts you in the boots of a Ghostbuster about as well as I think a game will ever do, but outside of those spurts of absolute magic, the game becomes a bit less magical, we'll get to that, but before we address problems, one other slightly marred strength the game has is its atmosphere. The game heavily relies on music on the films, like, very heavily, which isn't necessarily a problem, especially since Ghostbusters had an amazing soundtrack. My issue with it is similar to my issue with Shin Godzilla and its use of older Godzilla music, because I apparently can't stop myself from likening something to Godzilla or bringing him up. On the one hand, it's great to hear this music because it's great music, but on the other hand, it's the same music, used for the sake of nostalgia whether it fits the scene or not, and since this is a video game, that issue is compounded. 
This being a six hour long game, you're going to get a bunch of different environments, ghosts and scenarios thrown at you, but all of it is accompanied by the same score. This is another one of those non issues if I'm being honest, as well as another one of those things where the dedication to fan service comes with catches, because if you've not a die-hard fan of this series and you're playing this game for some reason, by the end, you will hate this soundtrack and never want to hear it again. It's equally odd because the soundtrack from the film doesn't really lend itself to atmospheric horror, and there are times where this game dabbles in that. For example, there are two levels in the Sedgewick Hotel that really go off the deep end in building a creepy environment, the game makes the lower levels of the Library genuinely terrifying to be in, and in the game's later stages, you're traversing gothic ruins of lost islands and supernatural cemeteries. These environments are genuinely creepy, yet a lot of the time, you're hearing Ghostbusters' charming, chirpy score, of which even the spookier tracks lack the atmospheric quality to, as I said before, fit the scene. But that's as much of an issue as you want it to be, and the game does have some actual issues that can't be ignored. I'm going to say it, there are some sequences in the game that are complete bullshit; areas where the game overwhelms you with ghosts or puts you in a position where you have to solve environmental puzzles while also being attacked by ghosts. 
For example, in one area of the game, you are separated from the other Ghostbusters and have to fight your way to them, and the game locks you in a room with a bunch of black slime portals that constantly spawn smaller enemies, as well as throwing a pair of golems at you, sound easy? it isn't. How about a sequence earlier in the game where you're on a narrow walkway with a golem charging you, the walkway is barely wide enough for the Golem, so how does the game expect you to dodge him, or how about a room that has an abundance of possessor ghosts and a bunch of civilians for them to possess, which they will do often within seconds of you sliming them out of the last host they were in. But my favourite part, and most people's favourite part, I'm sure, is the Stone Angels. It's in the last few areas of the game, you have to break open a magic gate by throwing Stone Angels at it, and this brief sequence of the game fucking sucks. Imagine, if you will, being tasked with getting flying enemies to hit a target on the ground while said enemies are moving really fast, and your tools are an inconstantly reliable slime tether and a capture stream that's about as precise and easy to control as a bro after a heavy night at the bar, and all while you wrestle with the game to get these things to hit the gate, they're constantly spawning, constantly hitting you, and are able to kill you in two or three hits, and are accompanied by ground enemies as well, and did I mention they keep spawning.
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| Call of Duty, an example of a game where unfair artificial difficulty is offset with regenerating health, getting jam in your eyes means it's time to sit behind a rock or wall for a few seconds |
Regrettably, it's quite common for me to get really annoyed with a game, or anything really, but there aren't many games with sequences that I absolutely dread, and this is one of those games. I got so fed up after the twentieth time that I died that I dropped the difficulty to easy and finally got it done, albeit after five more failed attempts. It's instances like this that really highlight this game's shortcomings as an actual game, and it's a shame because the game can be amazing, as I said before, this game can make you feel like a Ghostbuster, there's just those moments that don't just bring the game down, they downright ruin it, derailing any fun you were having by playing dirty with you, and not the fun kind of dirty, if you know what I mean. This is a game that makes me think of the difference between difficulty and artificial difficulty; there are games like Doom, tough but fair, then there are games that throw you into unwinnable positions, encounters where the deck is stacked against you not through the numbers, cunning and strength of its enemies, but through damage and health numbers and other artificial nonsense. A lot of games with regenerating health have this problem, because having infinitely regenerating health allows you to get around infinitely taking damage from enemies that can shrug off a shotgun shell to the chest but put you in the ground with a couple of hits. That isn't to say games that do this can't still be fun, I talking about one right now and I'm obviously going to tell you to play it, Borderlands does this too, and I love those games to death, but this game, Borderlands, Call of Duty, all struggle with finding the line between manageable and annoying and can therefore get extremely frustrating.
You May Feel a Little Tingle
Ghostbusters: The Video Game is a dream come true if you're a Ghostbusters fan, it has everything you would want; the original cast, the catchy music, the dry sense of humour, a spooky story that's loaded with fan service and is still as close to Ghostbusters 3 as we'll probably ever get, sorry Ghostbusters: Afterlife. It lets you strap on a pack and throw Proton streams at ghosts, which is something most people have probably wanted, let alone Ghostbusters fans, just as most people have probably wanted to swing a lightsaber at some point. But if you're not the biggest fan of Ghostbusters and are coming at this as a game, your experience will be quite different. It's clear that the majority of the passion and polish went into its story and characters, which is entirely respectable when you're dealing with the goddammed Ghostbusters, but it comes at the expense of a refined and polished gameplay experience, because this game often bounces across the spectral spectrum from some of the most fun you can have in a game to so infuriating that you'll never want to play it again.
For every couple of moments of pure magic as you maul a ghost into a trap, there's a moment of pure frustration as the game throws a sudden and sharp difficulty spike at you, one that's unfairly tough in spite of your impressively sized and wonderfully realised assortment of Ghostbusting gadgets. This is a rare situation then where I'm left not knowing how to recommend it, as this game seems uniquely inaccessible to people outside of its target audience, kind of like the 2016 film but in a good way, and unlike that film, it at least knows where its target audience is, and it isn't on Twitter. As a game, it's alright, not too special, and occasionally intolerable, but as a follow up to Ghostbusters and its sequel, it really is something special, and I'd say it's worth playing.
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