Ghostbusters: The Video Game
Every month we celebrate the most important, innovative, or just plain great games from PlayStation’s past. This month, we strap a Proton Pack to our back, as we prepare to capture marshmallow monsters and slimy spirits…
For many years, it looked like everyone’s favourite ghoul-pummelling parapsychologists were gone for good. Thanks to Ghostbusters II stinking out cinemas way back in 1989, the franchise stayed dormant for years. While Ray Parker Jr’s iconic tune was never far from public consciousness, it nevertheless looked like Stay Puft’s slayers had been well and truly busted.
Step forth Terminal Reality. The now-defunct Texan studio had one goal in mind when it came to resuscitating the legendary franchise: make Ghostbusters 3… just in videogame form. The team was so passionate about doing justice to the original movie, it managed to convince all four original actors to reprise their roles. Not content with nailing down bangon likenesses of Dan Aykroyd, Harold Ramis, Ernie Hudson, and Bill Murray, Terminal Reality even convinced the first two to help with the script.
The result is a game that felt utterly authentic to its beloved source material. Ghostbusters: The Video Game was no phoned-in movie tie-in. Considering there’s a 25-year gap between the original film hitting theatres and Terminal Reality’s third-person shooter popping up on PS3, you could hardly accuse the developer of trying to peddle an opportunistic cash-in.
Every facet of PS3 Ghostbusters feels wholly faithful to 1984’s cult phenomenon. Likenesses, monster renders – Slimer looks all kinds of slippery superb – and locations are dead ringers for their silver-screen counterparts. Whether going back to the New York City Public Library to recapture The Grey Lady or exploring the ’Busters’ effortlessly iconic Manhattan firehouse, you can feel Terminal Reality’s love for the franchise in each one of the game’s brilliantly realised settings.
ALL FOUR ORIGINAL ACTORS REPRISED THEIR ROLES.
Much of virtual Venkman and co’s success can be attributed to thoroughly impressive tech. The studio’s proprietary Infernal engine brings busting to supremely tactile life, with real-time physics bending the streams of your newbie Ghostbuster’s Proton Pack. Capturing paranormal pests is surprisingly tactical, requiring The Rookie first to tire ghouls with proton energy and slam attacks. When Slimer’s chums are suitably weakened, you can yank out the Capture Stream and pull that spooky spirit into a ghost trap. It’s a super-satisfying system, and one that ensures the action is unlike 99% of other third-person shooters.
The game even makes use of the movie’s PKE Meter. In-game you can use the gadget to highlight paranormal points of interest, like haunted artefacts, which you then need to zap and trap. Viewed in first-person, these ghoul-hunting goggles break up the action, and they provide a nice wrinkle to the overall pacing. Turns out diligent scanning can make you feel just as good as bustin’.
NEEDS BUST
Games like Ghostbusters and Batman: Arkham Asylum helped change the perception of gaming movie tie-ins. On PS2, almost every licensed title was a loveless cash-grab, but Terminal Reality and Rocksteady showed pouring care into cinematic/comic source material could pay dividends. If you still have a PS3 sitting unloved in some corner of your attic, dust the poor old soul off and hunt down a copy of this busting beaut.