I Ain't Afraid of No Ghost

This past summer was the slowest summer of gaming that I can remember. It was brutal. Absolutely nothing came out that was worth playing. I haven't posted anything to the blog, because frankly there was nothing to talk about. There was however one game that I took a chance on, and I really enjoyed it, Ghostbusters: The Video Game.

Ghostbusters didn't receive a lot of press. It was released, and people generally liked it, and then no one talked about it ever again. I played Ghostbusters for about 4 - 6 weeks. I didn't play it relentlessly. It was just a casual gaming experience and it was great.

You play as the 5th Ghostbuster. You are a rookie and your job is to use the new experimental equipment that Ray and Egon have invented. Right when you join the team, the whole city goes to hell. Apparently the worshipers of Gozer are back and they brought reinforcements. You spend the game fighting ghosts along side the original team and revisit all of the famous movie landmarks, like the Sedwick Hotel, and fight some of the famous movie ghosts, such as Slimer and the Stay Puff Marshmellow Man.

Overall, the game is great fun. What really adds to the fun of the game is the writing and the voice acting. All of the major movie stars from the original are back to lend their voices to the game. Bill Murray is classically brilliant as is Harold Ramis as Egon. At one point in the game you are travelling through a hell version of Central Park where Winston says, "This isn't like any Central Park I remember." And Egon comes right back and says, "What? You still have your wallet?" Classic. These lines were used throughout the game.

The gameplay is nothing you haven't seen before. It's a classic run and gun type game from the Gears of War / Resident Evil genre. It starts to get a little repetitive and during the more intense scenes is a little crazy. When you have 5 people firing proton packs at a dozen ghosts flying around the screen, it's a little hard to not "cross the streams". The boss fights are kinda cool, but it's a little cheesy when the bosses have big glowing "hit me here" spots on their bodies.

Overall, the game was a lot of fun and was a great way to pass the time through a very boring summer. I'm sure the game will get lost during the holidays with all of the other new releases, which is sad, because it was a good fun game. And at the end of the day, that's all we really want out of our games.

Until next time,

- The 30 Year-old Gamer