- Publisher: Atari
- Developer: Terminal Reality
- Also On: PS3
- ESRB Rating: “T” for Teen
- Genre: Action
- Pros: Same music, sound effects, and actors from the movies; story; fun gameplay; creepy; multiplayer
- Cons: Pretty short; glitchy; new weapon packs kind of suck; objectives aren’t always clear
Ghostbusters: TVG takes place in 1991, two years after Ghostbusters II ended. You play as a rookie recruit who is joining the team to basically play guinea pig for Egon’s new ghost busting inventions. You don’t have a name, and don’t ever speak, but that is a good thing because it lets you just sit back and enjoy the banter between the 4 real Ghostbusters. Most of the original cast reprises their roles in the game, and the performances are very good for the most part.
The game is meant to be pretty much a third Ghostbusters movie, and the story is actually quite good. There are connections to the first movie such as the main baddie Gozer returning (so you get to fight the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man) and you make a return trip to the Sedgewick Hotel, but it all leads up to the real story and real villain and it is rather interesting how everything fits together. The pacing and the way everything is presented is exactly like the movies as well, which is very cool.
In addition to the campaign, there is also an online multiplayer mode. The multiplayer is basically competitive co-op where you compete with your teammates to capture more ghosts and things of that nature across a few different modes and is pretty fun overall.
Gameplay
There are a couple of hiccups that spoil the experience a bit, however. The game does a poor job of directing you towards your next objective, and while the A.I. characters do occasionally give you a hint about what you should do next more often than not they just silently follow you as you wander around looking for what you are supposed to do. There are also some glitches and general clunkiness in the game. In one fight, for example, I had a ghost get stuck in a tree and I couldn’t capture it because it couldn’t move. Also, in later levels of the game cutscenes and set pieces caused the game to slow down to a crawl for a few seconds before picking up again. The experience just isn’t as smooth as it should be.
All in all, though, when everything is clicking Ghostbusters is pretty darn awesome. The gameplay is fun, and the balance between humor and scares and action and exploration is very well done. There are some nitpicky things you can find wrong with it, but none of them diminish the fact that the core game is still very fun.
As far as the graphics and sound go, Ghostbusters: TVG is pretty much exactly like you would expect from a licensed game. The music and sound effects (including the awesome wonky siren for the Ecto-1) are all present and accounted for and really make the whole experience better. Having most of the original cast back to record the voice work also really makes a big difference. The 1991 versions of that same cast (because no one would want to play as fat old guys) also look great in the game. The environments you explore generally look nice, and the special effects for your weapons and fire and bits of marshmallow goo all look good as well. Is any of it top of the line? No, but it looks like Ghostbusters and that is all we really wanted.
Bottom Line
Basically, if you love the Ghostbusters movies you’ll love Ghostbusters: The Video Game. The story essentially serves as a third movie, but this time you get to be part of the action, which is very cool. The presentation is perfect, and all of the sights and sounds you’d expect from the Ghostbusters license are present and accounted for. The gameplay is fun and varied. The campaign is only 5 hours long, which is usually a warning sign, but the story and missions are so well paced that it is forgivable. Ghostbusters: The Video Game really is another real entry in the series, and it is something that real fans will want to have in their collection right alongside the DVDs. Fans will be very happy with a purchase.
