Prepare to be slimed

by ERIK LEIJON

As far as games go, Ghostbusters: The Video Game (X360, PS3, PC/Atari, Terminal Reality) is the movie of the year. Written by original Busters Dan Aykroyd and Harold Ramis and starring Bill Murray, Ernie Hudson and a few others from the theatrical releases, this game is pretty much the long-awaited third movie, conveniently released on the 25th anniversary of the first film.

Ramis, Murray and Aykroyd may be the ones to call if there’s something strange in your neighbourhood (or you need a bottle of Patron in the case of Aykroyd), but they’re not go-to guys when it comes to video game adaptations.

If you care to break the nostalgia-based euphoria that comes from hearing the theme song during the game’s load screens, you could claim Ghostbusters isn’t a great game and, story-wise, would make for a pretty lousy film. Still, when one considers that Ubisoft Montreal bought Sin City and 300 visual designers Hybride Technologies and needed a small army of designers in order to create Assassin’s Creed 2, their supposed juggernaut of media convergence, the fact that Ghostbusters’ more modest development cycle resulted in a game with the right movie feel is a commendable accomplishment.

A third-person, over-the-shoulder shooter, the movie’s zap and trap method of catching the many restless souls that haunt New York City was recreated with as few frills as possible. Thankfully not every ghost needs to be corralled and deposited into a trapper, as there are smaller ghouls that disintegrate after a few shots from your proton pack.

There’s also an abundance of lethal, black slime around the city that needs to be avoided or green slimed. The third-person perspective limits the amount of movement possible, although the game is rarely too constricted. Some of the new types of guns feel like an unsuccessful attempt to bring video game concepts into the fold, although the green slime gun retains the spirit of the mood slime from the second film. The developers also managed to make the paranormal-detecting PK meter central to the gameplay, as players will wander the dark hallways in first-person, scanning haunted artifacts and discovering hidden ghosts.

Really though, the main draw of the game is the storyline, and more specifically, the dialogue. You play a nameless rookie Ghostbuster, a frequent target of Peter Venkman’s (Murray) insults and a guinea pig for Egon Spengler (Ramis) and Ray Stantz’s (Aykroyd) latest inventions. As you chase down spectres with the team, they’ll banter back and forth and provide sound game advice. The dialogue never repeats itself and is a constant reminder that this isn’t some random, generic shooter, but the spiritual sequel to an iconic film franchise.

The one complaint with the voice-acting is that it sounds like the stars were saying their lines in a booth (the slurring Murray especially), which can feel inappropriate given the Ghostbusters are usually running for their lives or witnessing some pretty freaky netherworld phenomena. Annie Potts is terrific as the team’s sassy secretary Janine Melnitz, and William Atherton returns as the slimy and devious mayoral assistant Walter Peck.

Early on in the game, the Ghostbusters are escorting the Ecto-1 down to Times Square when their old nemesis, the colossal and squishy Stay Puft Marshmallow Man, shows up and terrorizes them as they seek refuge in a nearby building.

The rest of the game finds the team in some pretty interesting cross-dimensional locales, and the new supervillain is a suitable follow-up to Gozer the Gozarian and Vigo the Carpathian, but nothing that follows matches the thrill of going face-to-face with the 100-foot-tall harbinger of destruction. Just seeing the boys back in action, though, is exciting enough.