It's hard not to be impressed by GHOSTBUSTERS: THE VIDEO GAME, from a few standpoints. One, you're finally able to strap on a proton pack and go catch some ghosts (and if that's all you're looking for, you'll dig this; just hearing the warming up sound effects gave me a chill). Two, it lets you revisit the cool parts of the original movie (the Sedgewick Hotel, the library, another go-around with Mr. Stay-Puft, and it deepens Ivo Shandor's story). But most of all, it's a serious effort to do right by the Ghostbusters property. The same cast, the same writers, nice production values.
My only gripe with the game is that too much time is spent with the ECTO goggles (put 'em on, take 'em off, repeat), but that's certainly not a deal breaker. It's a lot of fun wrangling a ghost into a trap with the capture stream, and that alone would've been worth the price of admission. But they playfully experiment here with adding new functions to the pack (slime blower, bosons, stasis) so it feels new. Venkman teases you with the idea of driving the ECTO-1, and that's reason enough to want a sequel. Personally, I'm just happy this game happened at all, what with the unlikeliness and Activision dumping the title. Voices in a CGI game is the ideal scenario of keeping the cast as they looked back in '89, and a big enough budget means anything can be done on screen. This looks to be the closest we'll ever get to a GHOSTBUSTERS III and I'm fine with that. It's a win-win all around.
8/10
My only gripe with the game is that too much time is spent with the ECTO goggles (put 'em on, take 'em off, repeat), but that's certainly not a deal breaker. It's a lot of fun wrangling a ghost into a trap with the capture stream, and that alone would've been worth the price of admission. But they playfully experiment here with adding new functions to the pack (slime blower, bosons, stasis) so it feels new. Venkman teases you with the idea of driving the ECTO-1, and that's reason enough to want a sequel. Personally, I'm just happy this game happened at all, what with the unlikeliness and Activision dumping the title. Voices in a CGI game is the ideal scenario of keeping the cast as they looked back in '89, and a big enough budget means anything can be done on screen. This looks to be the closest we'll ever get to a GHOSTBUSTERS III and I'm fine with that. It's a win-win all around.
8/10