Finally, at long last, a Ghost Busters game that is FUN to play.
Single Player
I played at a rather slow clip making sure to gather up all the bonuses on the casual difficulty and finished in about 8 hours. Some may say this is a bit short – but I found the length perfect. Any shorter would have been unsatisfying but any longer would have gotten dull – again, perfect length. The game is quite easy on the casual setting (as it should be), but I can already see the few areas that other reviewers are referring to in terms of annoying difficulty spikes on the other two difficulty settings – namely towards the end.
The game is broken down into seven missions – all of fairly similar length. This brings me to probably the greatest strength of this game – the environments. The level design is smooth and well-plotted for the most part. The art work and attention to detail is phenomenal and blows away most anything you will find in today's gaming world. While the levels themselves are fairly linear, there is enough weaving around to keep things interesting (the castle level comes to mind). The settings themselves are great, pay homage to the movies, and yet come off as completely authentic and original. The firehouse is perfect. In fact, it looks identical to everything you see in the movies with the necessary gaps filled in. I loved that all the cursed artifacts you find end up in the firehouse as you collect them.
The graphics are great. I didn't realize HOW great until playing in some of the darker areas – the lighting work is some of the best I have ever experienced. Firing off one of your weapons and watching the walls illuminate with intense detail is extremely satisfying. The proton pack is awesome and again, the attention to detail that went into this game is staggering.
The gameplay itself doesn't re-invent the wheel, but it is still solid. You capture ghosts, using one of four weapons. You start out with the standard stream, but eventually get upgrades to spice things up as you move along. For example, you get a dark matter weapon that essentially is the 'shotgun' of this game – great for blasting close range foes. Another weapon acts exactly like the bullseye rifle in resistance:fall of man – where you shoot a tracking shot first, followed by rapid fire homing bursts. The actual character movement could feel stiff at times though – especially when trying to dodge.
They tried to add some puzzle elements but these felt forced to me. You pretty much just use the slime tether for everything which was fun the first time, but felt like a chore afterwards. Thankfully, the puzzles never require much so you won't find yourself stuck.
The most annoying aspect of the game is the knock-down which seems to happen constantly – even on the easiest difficulty. Several encounters get quite hectic with multiple enemies chucking projectiles from every direction. It is simply frustrating to get knocked down every 5 seconds with no real way to avoid it.
My only other large gripe is the lack of in-house multiplayer. I am disappointed that most games nowadays seems to forget about how fun it is to actually play a game with someone IN THE ROOM with you. Yes the internet is convenient and opens doors to long distance gaming, but I wish they didn't forget about the other.
The story itself is what makes this game memorable– you can immediately see the benefits of having Aykroyd and Ramis pen the script. It feels like the third movie and is done quite well. I will leave it at that because I don't want to spoil anything.
Of course they throw in the obsessive compulsive element for all you completionists (myself included) out there. There are 'cursed artifacts' that you can find throughout the game using your PKE meter. You also can scan every different type of ghost in the game which comes with a surprisingly detailed explanation of the ghosts origin's and can be read in 'Tobin's Spirit guide' found in the menu section.
I only played the multiplayer briefly. Latency issues and lack of active games cut my attempts pretty short. I can see it being fairly fun, but I think I prefer a different breed of game when getting online. Simply a personal preference.
The game has replayability if you love the ghost busters. Otherwise, once you've seen the story, going back through won't be much different the second time unless you amp of the difficulty. I personally didn't buy this game for a frustrating challenge, I wanted to sit back and enjoy the experience. For all the hardcore collect-every trophy types out there, you will find PLENTY of stuff to do.
After growing up playing the abomination that is the NES ghost busters game, I am happy to say we finally have something enjoyable.
That's a big twinkie.