Ghostbusters: The Video Game
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| Ghostbusters: The Video Game | ||||||||||||||||
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Otherwise known as, the real Ghostbusters III!
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Ghostbusters: The Video Game is an action adventure third-person shooter released on the PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Wii, Nintendo DS, PC and PlayStation Portable. The game was developed by Terminal Reality for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and PC versions, Red Fly Studios for the PlayStation 2, Wii, and PlayStation Portable versions, and Zen Studios for the Nintendo DS version. It was published by Atari for most versions and Sony Computer Entertainment America for the PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, and PlayStation Portable versions released in the PAL regions. The remastered version of was released on October 4, 2019 for Microsoft Windows, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One.
Plot
Taking place two years after the events of Ghostbusters II, New York City falls victim to another supernatural outbreak in the lead up to Thanksgiving, and the Ghostbusters - with their new recruit in tow - are called upon to save the day once again.
Why It Rocks
- Very fun third-person shooter gameplay which lets you feel what it's like to be a Ghostbuster.
- A good story that despite reusing elements from the films manage to tell it's own original story set after the events of Ghostbusters II. This time it revolves around trying to shutdown a gateway to the Ghostworld.
- Great voice acting with many of the original cast (excluding Rick Moranis and Sigourney Weaver) making their return.
- Good music using the soundtracks from the movies.
- There's a lot of imagination and creativity in the game, just like the movies.
- Lots of unique enemies.
- Throughout the levels you can find cursed artifacts, which are collectibles that can be found with the PKE Meter. Once collected you can find them around the firehouse.
- Lots of callbacks to the movies.
- You have four different systems for the proton pack you can use against ghost. Each one also has a secondary attack.
- Blast Stream: The main weapon of use that shoots protons at ghosts and is the most effective when trying to trap ghosts.
- Boson Darts: Extremely effective bursts of protons that can quickly disperse big chunks of a ghost's health, it will, however, overheat the proton pack immediately.
- Shock Blast: It functions like a shotgun that shoots Dark Matter particles. It is very powerful at close range but less accurate and less potent the further you are from your target.
- Stasis Stream: A stream that crystallizies or “freezes” ghosts. While this tool won't disperse any creatures by itself, it effectively "freezes" enemies in their place (or, at the very least, slows them), allowing you to either get away or to switch to a more powerful device and dish out more damage.
- Slime Blower: It is an integration of the Proton Pack that uses ectoplasm to impair entities, neutralize black slime and black slime creatures, and reveal otherwise invisible structures.
- Slime Tether: This works great for moving heavy objects, making webs, and for tethering the ghosts into the Trap when they're weakened, working like a kind of rope.
- Meson Collider: This releases a hyper-collided, long-range stream of particles. The spread is limited but intensely focused, making it great for long and medium distance creatures.
- Overload Pulse: It's a series of low damage, rapid-fire particles that automatically track to a marker set by the Meson Collider.
- Blast Stream: The main weapon of use that shoots protons at ghosts and is the most effective when trying to trap ghosts.
- The PKE Meter, in addition to tracking down paranormal disturbances, can also help identifying ghosts with categories from Tobin's Spirit Guide, listing their particular strengths and weaknesses.
- You get to fight the ghost from the original movie like Slimer, Stay Puft, and even the Liberian ghost.
- The game eventually received a remaster which enhanced framerate, gives the game 4K support, includes a memoriam to Ghostbusters co-creator Harold Ramis, and if you beat the game on Experienced you unlock the flight suit while beating it on Professional gets you the golden proton pack.
- The latter was in the original, but there were some complications (BQ #9).
Bad Qualities
- The graphics aren't the best.
- The Wii, PS2, Nintendo DS, and PSP versions are inferior.
- The PC version has no multiplayer. While that can be ignored, what can't be ignored is the horrid mouse acceleration that makes it unplayable unless you use a controller (or use 3rd party fixes, fixes that assume you have a Logitech-brand mouse).
- The PC version also has no achievements, unlike the other Realistic versions.
- The PS2 versions runs into a few optimization issues as well such as screen tearing and some of the facial animations not registering (Check the scene where the Mayor and Peck visit the Ghostbusters HQ). Though still plays well.
- The "Nice Shootin', Tex!" achievement requires the player to complete the game with less than $100,000 in property damage. How hard could that be? For reference, it's easy to exceed a million dollars in damage in the Times Square level alone.
- Missed Opportunity:
- Vigo for a few fans. While he only makes a cameo in the Ghostbusters HQ, all he does is act as an Easter egg instead of an actual character.
- Very few of the major ghosts are given any real characterization, the closest being Ivo Shandor, who spends almost all of their screen time disguised as another character completely.
- Vigo for a few fans. While he only makes a cameo in the Ghostbusters HQ, all he does is act as an Easter egg instead of an actual character.
- Pandering: The game is designed to evoke nostalgia and recreates a lot of famous moments from the original film. The unfortunate result is that all three 'movies' end up having the same basic plot with a new coat of paint, and the game sometimes comes across as a trip through an interactive "greatest-hits" reel.
- The multiplayer is dead and the servers were closed on 7th gen consoles without warning on November of 2012.
- Originally you could only get the flight suit through a pre-order and you could only get the gold pack if you purchased the game at Walmart or Sam's Club.
- The PS3 version got a massive resolution downgrade. The launch version plays at 960x540 while a later update gave it a measly boost to 576p, instead of 720p like the Xbox 360 version.
- There are problems with the remaster that weren't in the original.
- It didn't improve the graphics at all. It looks exactly the same as the Xbox 360 version, albeit with minor changes like the Doritos product placement being changed to "Crispy Snacks".
- It removed Ray Parker Jr.'s Ghostbusters song from the loading screen, making it so much more bland.
- Sometimes the audio will desync with the lip syncing, so it may be a bit confusing, but rebooting the game helps.
- The subtitle timing is off by a hair.
- False advertising: The trailers for the remaster showed improved graphics, but as mentioned above, the graphics were not enhanced at all.
Trivia
- The NES ending screen appears in this game.
- You can talk to Vigo from the second movie.
Reception
Ghostbusters: The Video Game received mostly positive reviews by both video game critics and fans of the classic films alike, with many praising it for being the Ghostbusters III that never happened.
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