Fans of the movies will love just about every second of it, while others will probably see it as unique yet repetitive.
The game starts in 1991, two years after the second movie. You join the Ghostbusters as a new recruit, although you have no name or voice. I hate when games do this with the main character, and this game is no exception. I understand that the story was meant to focus on the four main characters, but giving the player at least a couple of line of dialogue would have really made me feel more like part of the team. As it stands, most of the game felt like I was simply tagging along and wasn't a one of the guys. This complaint aside, the story is epic and ties the movies into it's plot in unexpected ways. Every character in the game is voices by the original actors and actresses. Everyone sounds great, although many of Bill Murray's lines come across as dull; almost as if he didn't want to be working on the project. The excitement in his voice that is known from the movies is completely gone here. Other than this, the story is told well and contains plenty of twists and turns. There are numerous new apparitions to fight, as well as many expected and unexpected return ghosts.
The combat is both entertaining yet repetitive. You fight ghosts exclusively with your proton pack. Capturing ghost works basically the same as seen in the films. You must blast them with a proton stream to weaken them, then lasso them when their health is low enough. Once you toss out a trap and get the weakened ghost over it, the trap will automatically open and start to suck your enemy in. You still need to move them back and forth because they will continue to try and escape all the way up until the trap closes. With all the moving around and flashing lights of the proton stream, it can sometimes be difficult to tell where the ghost is in relation to the trap. Overall though, the system works quite well and it is a blast to try to wrangle ghosts in. Unfortunately, the act of trapping ghosts never changes throughout the game. Even many bosses are captured in the same manner. I never got tired of it, but I know now that many gamers will not like performing the same basic action over and over. There are three new additions to the proton pack that try to spice things up a bit. One has the ability to freeze ghost with a secondary fire that resembles a shotgun. Another shoots slime that can neutralize certain objects that block your path. The secondary fire can tether two objects and pull them together. This mode is used primarily for some basic puzzles spread throughout the game. The final resembles the weapon from Resistance that fires a flare that allows all other following shots to home in on it. You don't begin the game with all of these abilities. They are added at set times throughout the game; sometimes awkwardly. One in particular occurs when you come to an area where your path is blocked and Egon says something along the lines of, "I added a new enhancement to your pack." I couldn't help but think, "When? Just now? You're like twenty feet away from me." Sure enough, a new green tank appears on your pack and you gain the ability to shoot slime. These alternate fire modes do spice thing up a bit, but I found it easier to capture ghosts the old fashion way.
The PK meter plays a big part in the game. many times throughout the story, the ghost will go into hiding and the meter is the only way to track them down. While the game is played from an over the shoulder view, using the meter zooms you into a first-person perspective and you view the world through your goggles. This view adds a ton of creepiness and atmosphere to the game because most times the ghost will jump out when you get close enough. The meter can also be used to track down cursed item throughout the game and get scans of ghosts that aren't hiding. Trying to all of the items and ghost scans really adds to the replay value. Each of these adds the item or ghost to a list on the pause menu that provides additional information about it. These write-ups have no bearing on the gameplay, but just add to the background. It's great to see a game that takes so much time to add these types of additions that expand on the mythology.
The levels contain a good mix of familiar areas and new locations. There is a decent length to the game (clocking in for me around seven to eight hours), but I still think it could have been longer. I'm not giving up on my hope of ten hours minimum for games. The layout of each allows only one path forward, but they are so well designed that you don't really notice that you don't have any choice of how to proceed. There were a few occasion where I had no idea where I was supposed to go until I randomly stumbled across another member of the team standing in a dark corner waiting for me. Speaking of dark corners, there are many dark areas throughout the game, but you can only use your flashlight is moments decided by the game. Since most of the game takes place at night, it would have been nice if I had direct control of the flashlight. This is a minor issue, though, and each level is memorable and enjoyable. The only major issue I ran into was that the game had trouble navigating you around areas with a lot of debris. You character gets easily stuck on certain items and the camera doesn't show your feet, so trying to fight a ghost in a cluttered area can get annoying.
The graphics look perfect for the game. Many of the action moments appear to be right out of one of the movies. Each character looks just like their real world counterpart. Most of the ghost actually look better than in the movies, but still have the trademark Ghostbusters look. These may not be the best graphics around, but this game is a perfect example of styIe over technology.
Ghostbusters is a great ride that ties itself to the movies perfectly. For fans of the films, this is a no brainer. For everyone else, it's still worth checking out, but possibly only as a rental.