Ghostbusters - The Video Game
REVIEW:
I am a big fan of the original Ghostbusters movie, less so of the follow up but it is still one of my favourites. I first heard of the plans for a Ghostbusters Video Game a while ago, although the little I read was of it being dropped (here on Gamespot).
However since finding out it would be released on Next Generation Consoles this has been the game I have been looking forward to more than anything else, the twelve year old in me is reminded of seeing the movie when it was released, the gamer in me excited to be be able to pick up the photon pack and go zapping ghosts.
I pre-ordered the game and it arrived this Friday (19th June), which was great for me, all weekend to bust ghosts, play online and experience the game I was so desperate to play for so long, and it does not disappoint.
Essentially acting as the game version of a Ghostbusters III movie, and with a script written by and performed by the original writers/cast the characters and humor is spot on to fit in well with the world of Ghostbusters, and despite the many years between the second movie and the game, it still works for fans as cannon.
Taking the role of a fifth Ghostbuster (essentially a guinea pig for Egon and Ray's experimental equipment) you have a very brief intro to the controls of your Proton Pack, and some very important pointers.
Once completed the game starts for real abeit with a slighly training feel start off to the mission at the Sedgewick Hotel (although the gradual introduction is welcomley brief as your thrown head long into the job of busting ghosts and more importantly testing out the experimental equipment). From there you head to familiar locations including New York Public Library and Time Square, and bump into a few familiar faces.
The game has a few glitches, which will hopefully be ironed out with a patch and some will claim it is repetitve, thats subjective as the whole idea of the game is to bust ghosts. I would mention online play but that for me has been limited so far due to problems UK users are having connecting to games, so hopefully once this is resolved ther emay be a few more comments on online play, although from what our American cousins have posted it would appear that if nothing else, online play pays for the price of the game alone as it is supposed to be really good, so hoping this is true.
Overall though I would say that the game does tick all the boxes for fans of the two movies, and certainly given the current technology makes this almost as good as a movie.
For most gamers I think there is enough to keep the majority happy, although one thing that may bug PS3 users is the slight lack of graphics quality in comparison with the game on 360, although that is to be honest a very small thing to gripe about.
SUPPLEMENTARY REVIEW:
Having played through the game to completion, gone back to get a few of the achievements and rewards I failed to pick up in my first lay through, plus very brief forrays into online play I mst admit now to more than a mild case of disappointment and feeling let down.
But there are so many glitches and errors in the game with screen freeze, and game freeze (I get this when I enter the library), saved data being lost and only being retrieved by either quitting the game or restarting the console (this is also sometimes necessary for game freeze/screen freeze), scanned ghosts and acquired artifacts not showing up on list after they have been gained, all pretty much basic errors that should have been found and fixed in the QC stage of pre-release or at least when they were beta testing the game.
And then there is online play, not very online, not very multiplayer because of the plethora of problems thrown up by trying to access games which include "wrong map version" message, "can't connect to server" message, and "can't connect to game" message as well as the obligitory "you have been signed out of the playstation network" message. The problem apparently is a serious problem for just European game players (although some North American gamers have on the Gamespot forums stated they too have had problems), and it is not confirmed to PS3, with 360 players also having problems
Overall the game should have been and could have been better, the glitches and problem with game play slow down, screen freeze and game freeze are pretty basic problems that any company should be sorting out before release, the biggest let down however is the failure of online multiplayer, I did rate the game as a 9.0 after my first play but now on reflection and aware of all the problems I can only give this game a 3/5, as I say the problems with this game are basic and lazy, and should not be so apparent or cumbersome in a fully released fully priced game.