When I was six years old, my aunt took me to the store for my birthday and let me pick something out. I was in luck and couldn’t believe the Ghostbusters Proton Pack was in stock. More importantly, she agreed to buy it for me! I was already a huge fan and the second movie wasn’t even out yet. I wanted nothing more than to be a Ghostbuster.
Fast forward 22 years and I was still a huge fan and excited for the video game. I’d finally get a chance to capture a “Free Floating Full Torso Vaporous Apparition”. This was the first legit Ghostbusters video game I would get the chance to play (the one on Atari wasn’t very good, let’s be honest). Ten years later, and the announcement of the remastered game made me excited to save NYC once again from poltergeists and specters.
You know, it just occurred to me that we really haven’t had a successful test of this equipment.
Raymond “Ray” Stantz
As a game, Ghostbusters does a lot well and there are some things it does lack. Visually, the game has some issues with the mo-cap which is to be expected from a game that’s a decade old. However, it runs very smooth and looks crisp though. I will admit, the game isn’t very long but that’s ok. I would rather have a shorter well done experience than a longer drawn out one. The gameplay can be a bit pedestrian at times and even repetitive. Normally, that’s a major problem for a game. Locking a ghost up in a trap never gets old.
The writing is where Ghosbusters shines! The story and the dialogue mesh so well that if you were just listening to it, you would think it was a scene from one of the movies. By keeping the scope of the story limited, it feels like the Ghostbusters movie fans of the franchise always wanted!
Right from the get-go, it’s clear that Harold Ramis and Dan Aykroyd played big part in writing the story and dialogue for Ghostbusters. Not only does the story seem like it’s the lost Ghostbusters script, but the dialogue is spot on too! Each of the characters has lines like you would expect. Peter is still the ladies’ man while Egon says things that make you wonder what planet he’s from. Ray is still the excited paranormal enthusiast and Winston is the guy that wants the steady paycheck.
Excuse me, Egon, you said crossing the streams was bad.
Peter Venkman
Egon and Ray have lines about ‘Tobin’s Spirit Guide’ and ‘all the regular literature’ and things like that. The way the Ghostbusters deliver their lines seems natural, for the most part. Peter Venkman’s lines seem a bit forced at times but the other three and Janine all seemed to truly enjoy recording their parts. The conversations they all have really helps you feel you are in one of the Ghostbusters movies. Oh, and as the Recruit, you don’t say anything… at all. When one of the members of the team asks you something, another one cuts you off before you can respond. I don’t normally praise dialogue in a game, but Ghostbusters definitely has some top notch lines.
The game takes place a few years after Ghostbusters II in the late fall. Some of the same locations we saw in the movies. If you are so inclined, you can do a LOT of damage in the Sedgewick Hotel (the game tracks your total destruction and there are achievements/ trophies for racking them up). You go to the New York Public Library and encounter the librarian from the first movie. Eventually, you piece together that the massive spike in ghosts stems from the spirit of a long dead occultist possessing the Mayor of NYC and trying to reestablish the cult of Gozer and to become a god. Yes the story sounds predictable. However, it exactly the kind of story you would expect from a Ghostbusters movie and you would not be disappointed.
We had part of a Slinky. But I straightened it.
Egon Spangler
Saber Interactive did an excellent job with the remastering of Ghostbusters. I played through the game entirely in handheld mode on the Nintendo Switch and didn’t experience any frame rate drops. The animations look smooth as well. From a technical standpoint, the remaster is superb. I can only imagine that the ports for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One are fantastic as well.re
As I mentioned previously, the gameplay can get a bit repetitive. Each chapter is broken down into sections. In each section you will encounter either waves of enemies or a boss. I enjoy wearing ghosts down with the proton pack and trapping them. It brought back the memories I had as a kid wearing my prized proton pack toy. That being said, they often come in swarms and can be a bit much to handle all once. There is a slam attack you can use once you get a ghost caught in your capture stream that is a lot of fun. It’s so gratifying to get grab of one of the phantoms, bring them to the trap and watch as they struggle to avoid oblivion.
Yeah, we conjured up a hundred-foot marshmallow man, blew the top three floors off an uptown high-rise, and ended up getting sued by every city, county, and state agency in New York.
Winston Zeddemore
You do get some nifty enhancements for the proton pack. In all honesty, two of them aren’t used a whole lot. The slime sprayer is used to seal portals are to solve some puzzles. I feel like more could have been more done there with the new tools. In the original version of Ghostbusters you could use them in the multiplayer mode. Unfortunately, multiplayer was omitted in the remaster. Capturing specters and apparitions sure is fun though! There are also a ton of easter eggs hidden throughout the chapters and some in the Ghostbusters headquarters. Things like that really show the love everyone involved has for the franchise. As a lifelong fan, I appreciate it a lot.
Overall, Ghostbusters Remastered is a really enjoyable experience. It is far from perfect, but it’s fun to get into that universe. If you missed Ghostbusters when it first came out, now if the perfect time to jump into it, especially if you like the movies. I consider it the Ghostbusters movie we fans always wanted. It’s the kind of game you will keep coming back to every year, probably around Halloween since it fit’s the season. For decent gameplay and graphics, with fantastic writing, I give Ghostbusters Remastered a 3.8/5. Now go bust some ghosts!
