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To read my full review and various others vists: http://monstervine.com/2009/07/ghostbusters-review/

I think I can speak for all Ghostbusters fans when I say we’ve been waiting for a game worthy of having the Ghosbusters logo on it. Most people(myself included) are hesitant on film-games and grow a little anxious of a game based off a dear childhood film for fear of it failing like pretty much all of them tend to do. Worry not Ghostbusters fans, this game is good.

The game is set 2 years after the second film and puts you as a mute rookie who signs up to be the experimental tester of all the Ghostbusters’ new equipment. Mysterious events tide to the Gozer exhibit cause a chain of events that lead you to battles against Stay Puft, The Gray Lady, and into the ghost zone itself. This game is actually made out to be the third film in the series and it doesn’t let down in that aspect. You’re character duded ‘Rookie’ doesn’t ever speak and that’s actually perfect since it allows you to listen to the voice-acting of the original actors. It’s made clear early on that they don’t want to know your name in cause something unexpected happens with your experimental gear and blows you into New Jersey.

Ghostbusters plays just like a third-person shooter. It does well by not having a HUD and instead keeps your health on the right side of your proton pack shown as a green bar. You also have a heat meter that shows how much you can use a certain weapon until your pack overheats and you have to ventilate it. It also changes to show which weapon you have equiped. For example when you have the slime gun equipped a green tank will come out and the lights will flash green.

There are four different modes you will attain to dish out some ghost pain. The starter is the Proton Pack from the series but now it has a secondary funtion called the Boson Dart that fires one big shot at your target for more damage at the cost of using more heat. The second is the Dark Matter mode which is your Shock Blast ’shotgun’ style gun which has a secondary function Statis Stream that is a stream that when targeted on a ghost will slow them down and eventually freeze them allowing you to get a quick shot off to blow them to bits. The third is the Meson Collider which functions mainly as a ‘machine gun’ style mode. The last, and my favorite, mode is the Slime Blower which sprays green slime and can also be used with a secondary function called the Slime Tether that can bring to objects smashing into each other or slime dunking a ghost into a trap. Oh the times I spent spraying my fellow Ghostbusters with slime just to see them covered in the stuff and spit out a quick complaint on how they hate the stuff.

I can’t ever decide what I think of the AI allies in this game. At times it’ll be amazing having all of us work together to bring down some ghosts, but at other times they’ll just stand there getting hit and allow themselves to keep getting knocked out forcing me to stop wrangling a ghost and help them out. The ghosts are always keeping you on your toes and with each new level you get a new set of fresh ghosts to tangle with that range from swarms of flying books, marshmallow creatures, and to an epic battle between Confederate and Union ghosts in a museum. Speaking of ghosts you can also scan each one you encounter using your PKE meter to provide you with more in-depth info about them including their weakness. This game also boasts are varied amount of environments. Some are even downright creepy like the children’s section of the library. I haven’t played a game in so long that sent chills up my spine like that area did especially once you left you hear a child’s voice whisper ‘goodbye’ to you.

[Follow the link at the top for the full written review]

MonsterVine Rating- Excellent

I have one quarrel with the Ghostbusters game.

In the game you play a rather generic looking male, a new recruit to the Ghostbusters team who doesnt seem to have a name or even talk.

To me this seems like a poor third option after two very obvious great ones...

a) Instead of bringing in a new character to play, stick with the original crew and let us choose which Ghostbuster we want to play at the beggining of each section. Maybe each one has different stats? Or maybe you don't choose and just have to play a different character each section.

b) Create a Ghostbuster! Bring in the new recruit character like the game has done, but let the player customise him, a decent amount of customisation tools would let the player create themselves as a ghostbuster! and if you enter your surname, it would appear on your name badge.

Theres also a locker for every Ghostbuster except you. You should get one, perhaps a place to change outfits or upgrade equipment. If they had gone for option B then it should have your surname on the nameplate.

It just seems to me that they've missed a few tricks with the game certainly in the player character department. We all know the smallest of things can make the biggest of difference.

Ghostbusters is a passable, if largely forgettable game. The entire experience is held together on the merits of its source material alone, with occasionally witty dialog and story draped like a sheet across what amounts to inconsistent gameplay and level design that would make most amateur modders cringe.

To its credit, Ghostbusters gets the action right straight away, as wrangling ghosts with a positron collider while wearing an unlicensed nuclear accelerator on your back feels just as manic and haphazard as I'd imagine. Spooks dip and dive mid-air as you give chase, destroying most surroundings in satisfying fashion before finally roping them in and slamming them into the trap. In this way the game feels exactly as it should.

The problem is that this entire experience is explored within the first few moments of gameplay. While Ghostbusters changes things up a smidge by adding a minutia of different weapons and upgrades, these do little to help keep the handful of hours it takes to complete this game from quickly disintegrating into tedium.

The original Ghostbusters is one of the most quotable films this side of The Princess Bride, a benchmark this game fails to meet -- let alone exceed. Banter, while occasionally spot on, more often than not falls flat, and comes off like the actors doing impersonations of these characters rather than actually losing themselves in these iconic roles.

Nowhere is this more prevalent than in Bill Murray's portrayal of Dr. Peter Venkman, which is both stilted and charmless. Unfortunately this same description can just as easily be laid at the feet of the game's story, which fails to even measure up to the tepid Ghostbusters 2, complete with an ending that feels like a grapefruit forced through a straw.

All is not lost, however, with a handful of multiplayer modes that ensure Ghostbusters has at least a modicum of extended shelf life, though even these fail to save this game from being merely average. It's unfortunate, but maybe it was too much to believe that Ghostbusters would give the stigma that surrounds movie-licensed games a total protonic reversal. As it stands, there is some fun to be had, as well as a few chuckles. However, given that I've seen Ghostbusters more times than I care to admit, I don't expect to revisit this video game any time soon.

Score: 7

Ghostbusters for the PC

first off I am playing this game on a pc with a xbox controller.

Well I must say , I am happily surprised with this game! , its a blast!
the effects and the physics and the sounds are great! the voicework is terrific! great dialogue at the right moments. The attention to detail is amazing.

The gameplay is pretty straight forward but it doesn't get boring at all, its fun to do! zapping and trapping ghost is alotta fun the puzzels are fairly easy and the scanning is fun to do, although they could have done less of it.

Even though this game follows a pretty linear path , it doesn't mean its less fun, this game is supposed to be linear or else you would ignore all the awesome ''scary' effects and that's a waste.

when you unleash you're proton pack in a library or a fancy hotel , or even an old museum it just makes sense, its really good fun.

a true ghostbuster should have this game!

ave seen from your childhood i.e. a Staypufft Marshmallow man figure and Ecto 1 car, along with some stuff that revolves around the storyline and previous movies or just general myths from around NYC.

Speaking of the Ecto 1…
Nope sorry you don’t get to drive it, as the Ghostbusters in the game painfully point out towards the end, “Shall we let the rookie drive? … NAH!”
In that second I was excited and afterwards almost broke down in tears, cruel teasing gits… oh well maybe in a sequel?

There is an online component that allows you to capture ghosts with up to 4 friends both online and off, game modes are quite interesting but mostly sort of Ghostbuster twists of the classics like death match and CTF. This feature mostly feels tacked on at the last moment but is still a nice feature, if you have time issues but feel like busting ghosts.

Overall the game is enjoyable, funny and pleases the inner nerd. At times however, there are a few areas that may anger a few gamers out there with some repetitive ghosts.
Any Ghostbusters fan will undoubtedly pick up this game, if not shame on you, anyone else may struggle to pay full price for it but it’s truly a great game to play.

8/10

There’s something strange in the neighbourhood, the PKE aims towards this game but should it of crossed the streams or become a god?
So… who are you going to call?

Story:
Written by the original creators, Dan Aykroyd & Harold Ramis, and coming packed with the original Ghostbusters, Dan Aykroyd, Bill Murray, Ernie Hudson & Harold Ramis, you take the role of a fifth Ghostbuster only known as the Recruit.
You see you are brought in by the group to test their new equipment but they decide to keep it a no name bases encase something was to happen to you, i.e. full protonic reversal.

But just as you become a new member, something strange begins to happen in your neighbourhood, something strange that began with the Museum and the Gozza exhibit, which leads to the release of Slimmer and a slew of other ghosts.

You chase Slimmer back to the first place that the group court him, the Sedgwick Hotel, where you run into a new character Ilyssa who is crucial to the story... but by the end the character feels out of place, don’t think of this game as a game, think of it as Ghostbusters 3, making this character out of place specially with the story tying a few loose ends from the series and turning a few plot points around with subtle hints towards the end of the game. And with that twist, you can tell that this character was original meant to be Sigourney Weaver’s character; Dana.

The game can take between 10 and 15 hours to complete the story, which leads to meeting a lot of old friends, such as the infamous Walter Peck, who once again wants to shut the Ghostbusters down, even if that means loosing his own job.

Gameplay;
To borrow from the theme song again, busting makes you feel good, especially when capturing ghosts. Any fan will know the basics of a proton pack, throw out the stream and capture the ghost and pull it towards the trap… well now comes the game version, before you can pull the ghost into the trap, you must first stun the ghost by slamming it to the ground then pull it towards the trap but even then it wont go down without a fight.
FYI: PS3 version has controller support for this version, which makes the game quite a lot more interesting.

There’s even more of a twist here, the pack can over heat. So you can’t run round shooting everything, although there is an Achievement/Trophy for that. There’s also a little part showing your health meter, which recharges over time, but this is so small you’d hardly notice it besides you’ll be relying more on the visual ques, blurring and the screen going red, then a few blinking lights.

But gamers rejoice there are a few new weapons that the Ghostbusters can use, one we’ve seen from GB2, the Slime Blower Mark 2. There are two other weapons, one that causes the Ghosts to slow down, Dark Matter Generator and Meson Collider.
All these weapons have secondary fire, the Proton stream comes with the Boson Dart, the Slime Blower comes with the Slime Tether, the Dark Matter stream’s secondary fire acts like a shot gun and the Meson Collider acts like a machine gun.

Along with these new goodies comes the original Ghostbusters Gear, such as the Ghost Trap and PKE Meter, both of which can be upgraded for faster trapping or faster tracking of the ghosts.
A lot of the gear can be upgraded, just to make the pack stop from over heating as quick or to make the streams stronger.

Now comes the nerdest part of the review, the Ghostbusters Firehouse is pretty damn cool, after certain chapters you are given the freedom to run around the firehouse where you can;
• Slide down the pole,
• Turn the ghost vault off,
• Talk to Vigo (yes he’s mister baddy himself from GB2 is here)
• Watch Slimmer mess around,
• Over hear Jean talk on the phone,
• Listen to the answer machine,
• And run a mock around the firehouse…
Okay maybe you can’t do that much around the place other than run around but its great fan service. There’s also a few ghostly items around the city which you need to collect, some of it you might

OHHH YES Its finally here, we have been waiting for this moment for a decade. I can remember the first ghostbuster game that i had way way back on the commodore 64, and now the moment has come when it has appeared on the PS3. Long ago Dan Aykroyd and Harold Ramis decided to do a third Ghostbuster film and then planning and the development of the film was under away but sadly it never got the green light, so then it had to be turned into a game. Thus, the events in the game are significant, and take place in 1991, a year or so after Vigo is defeated at the end of Ghostbusters 2, You join the Ghostbusters as a new recruit, and your whole job is basically to kick butt while listening to hilarious banter between the rest of the team.

The gameplay does make you feel that are part of the team and it also puts you in way that you are in the film itself, all in all you'll rarely be on your own. Not only is the dialogue great, but there's nothing quite like three or four Ghostbusters all firing up their Proton Packs; streams pulsing, sparks flying, collateral damage mounting, all to wrangle an ectoplasmic entity. It just wouldn't be Ghostbusters without the ability to absolutely level the ballroom of the Sedgewick Hotel, for instance. What fun would it be if you didn't leave scorched trails all over the walls as you tried to track Slimer, or being able smash the chandelier and the grand piano, or pick up a table with your Proton Pack and wrench it across the room, shattering it into splinters?

On top of that, many of the enemies are golems – comprised of dozens of smaller objects, such as a lumbering beast with a body of swirling books and a lamp bulb head. Each blast from your Proton Pack dislodges books until you've worn it down enough to target and rip off its head with your capture stream, showering the floor with (now) inanimate tomes. Your equipment consists of having the standard proton beam and even the Boson Dart ability either, which fires a concentrated ball of energy – great for taking off chunks of health. Two are pretty standard – the blue ammo can slow enemies down and fire buckshot, while the yellow one fires out chunky pulse attacks. But the most interesting function has to be, is the slime weapon. This has the power to purify black slime, to exorcise spirits that have taken control of humans and other things. Slime can also be used to tether things – fire at a table, then at the ceiling and the tether draws the table up to the roof.

Killing/trapping ghosts nets you cash, which can then be spent upgrading the performance and abilities of your equipment. The controls are spot-on but there are some problems, one is that without a lock-on it's very difficult to smoothly track ghosts as they flit about across the screen, leaving you feeling like a bit of an idiot. The second is that your movement speed is slow and you really don't have any defensive options other than a sidestep/jump back. This means you're constantly being hit by fast-moving specters that you can't efficiently track. If your character gets attacked by any of the entity's then there is a chance to recharge your health and get back into the fight, and with the support of your fellow teammates nothing can go wrong. We also thought the implementation of the PKE Meter was great from a visual perspective, but not that interesting in terms of gameplay. We like using it to work out where something is hiding, or to pick up a trail, but the mystical objects to collect really weren't that engaging, and in fact proved to just be an unwanted distraction.

Ghostbusters the game is quite fun and even entertaining the only drawbacks that this game has is that it is such a short game to complete, the jokes, dialoge, the voiceovers have the same feel when the first film of the franchise came out in 1984. In final word this game has to be one of the best movie games that I have ever played, it is worth getting to live out the memory of the film itself.

Ghostbusters for me was a very entertaining game and a childhood dream come true. The graphics were outstanding and the detail was extraodinary. But throughout the story there was quite a few gaps. Every now and then disappointment would kick in due to something not being where it should be in the story. The gameplay itself was exactly as I expected and very thrilling to say the least.
Being a Ghostbusters fan I would never have thought they could create such an incredible game from the movie franchise. Its defintely worth its buck. 8/10

The Ghostbusters are back, and it’s about time! I have always been a fan of the Ghostbusters franchise, and when the game was first announced by Sierra Entertainment a few years back, I could not wait to get my hands on it. I went into this game and review with a lot of high hopes for a great Ghostbusters game. Knowing that many movie franchises fail to succeed in the gaming realm, I knew what to expect. But by time the game’s credits were rolling and I had ranked up a few levels in the online multiplayer campaign, could you or I really say that “bustin makes me feel good?”

Ghostbusters: The Video Game is an enjoyable experience; unfortunately many problems plague the game with the storyline holes taking the forefront. If you want a fun to play Ghostbusters experience then look no further than this game. Fans of the film will be both excited and disappointed in this gaming rendition of two great 1980’s classics, but it passes off well on its own merits as something worth picking up for anyone somewhat interested in the franchise