Since the first announcement of the Ghostbuster game I have been sold. I figure this was in the bag, come on the Ghostbusters on the next gen consoles. I was ready to believe them.

Who, ya gonna call? (Photo by LA Times)

Gameplay the game is far from bad that being said it is also far from being perfect. You play the newly hired rookie on the Ghostbuster team and right before your training all hell breaks lose. Essentially there are 4 different weapons. Proton, Stasis (freeze) , Slime and a Mega Powered Weapon. The controls are pretty standard it plays a lot like Lost Planet including the fall over when you get hit thing. Which takes about 5 secs before you can get back up, oh and it’s in slow mo :( The is no real cover system and trying to shoot through things is a bit of bitch. When it comes to catching ghosts the game shines showing fun and nostalgia. Totally made me remember playing Ghostbusters as a kid. That being said one of the things that truly bored me a bit was the fact that you play a rookie vs getting to play a Ghostbuster. My fav was always Egon!!! Each of the levels are broken up into chapters which made things really easy to pick back up and play. As you progress you earn money that you can use to upgrade your weapons. One of the neater things to this game is how your life bar and overheat status are located on your pack. Which opened up the screen more to the game. The only downside to this is I felt at times it was hard to read. I went more on sound for the overheat status rather then looking. Another thing with this game is nobody dies they do the I’ve fallen and I can’t get up. The same goes for you and the AI is good enough to recognize that you need assistance which was nice for a change.

The graphics are great. I actually have to hand it to the team the environments are really well done. To top it off the destruction from your Proton Beams is pretty realistic. Essentially most things will burn some things explode. My personal favorite were cars and chairs. What fun it was to just blow them away. With the Slime Gun you have a tethering feature where you create a string of slime which you can launch chairs and various objects into the air. The Character models was another area where the game really shows it’s power. The characters all moved and acted like they do in the movie. Your character generally pantomimes which can be a little meh feeling but amusing all at the same time.

Sound quality is another area that this game shines. Not only do you have your standard ghostly noises but you have great voice acting. The original cast is all in there and it sounds great. Another great addition is the original soundtrack in the background. It really helps to set the tone for the game. At times I almost forgot that I was playing something the music really pulls you in.

Overall a pretty fun game. Certainly not the greatest but far from the worst especially when it comes to Movie games. I would say though that it is a renter and a fun one at that.