Ghostbusters: The Video Game (Xbox 360, 2009)

I bought this games cause I am a big fan of the Ghostbusters franchise and absolutely love the movies, especially the first one. I like to think of this game as the third movie. You basically play as a new recruit to the Ghostbuster's squad when all hell breaks loose. The main actors (Bill Murray, Dan Aydroyd, Ernie Hudson, and Sam Raimi) all return to lend their voices to the cast. Vocal talents also include Annie Potts and William Atherton reprising their roles from the original movie. Too bad Sigourney Weaver was not available to lend her voice to this game. The events in this game take place after Ghostbusters 2. The game even references the first two movies and visits a lot of the "ghosts" from the movies. I only gave this game a "good" rating becuase I felt it was a little too short and when the game was finished, I felt like it left a lot of unanswered questions. The bottom line is, if you like the movies than you will like the game....especiallly if the movies hold a certain nostalgia for you.

LIKES:
1. Graphics are awesome. Especially when using your proton pack to trap ghosts.

2. The return of the original cast. They even have the same humor as the first movie.

3. The storyline. At times I felt like I was watching a third Ghostbusters movie.

4. Addictive gameplay. I found myself playing this game for eight hours and not realizing the time that had passed.

5. Addition of new weapons.

DISLIKES:
1. The game was too short. I felt like there should have been more.

2. I also found the game to be extremely easy. Sure, there were a couple of puzzles you had to solve....but, the solutions were pretty obvious.

3. Confusing graphics. The graphics were pretty awesome, but there are times when there are too many graphics and you can't see what is truly going on. At one point I thought there was a bug in the game and I couldn't continue, but it turned out the graphics of the ghost were being conflicted by a table.

Set in 1991, two years after the events of Ghostbusters 2, this title finds the boys in gray moving onto the next chapter in the world of paranormal investigations and eliminations -- namely, expanding the team. You'll join the squad as an experimental weapons technician with the sole purpose of testing Egon's latest Proton Pack modifications. Within moments of showing up on the job, a strange wave of ghostly energy emanates from a museum packing a Gozer exhibit and spreads across New York City. The spiritual spike gets every ghoul in the five boroughs riled up, the boys get to work and a devious master plan is set in motion.

This game is meant to be the third movie in the franchise, and with that in mind, we have to talk about presentation right off the bat. The game opens detailing the ghostly explosion in a beautiful cutscene -- all the computer-generated movies look great with lots of detail and animations -- and we're launched into the Ghostbusters theme just like when the Gray Lady scared the librarian in the first movie and when Dana caught up to Oscar's carriage in the second film. These nifty scenes will continue along with the soundtrack from the original movie throughout the game and setup the tale. There are dips in this presentation value -- which I'll get to in a bit -- but these touches are pulled right from the movie and drop you into this third-person shooter with a specific story to tell (i.e. don't expect to choose your next job GTA-style).

To immerse you in the experience, your noob Ghostbuster character doesn't speak and isn't given a name other than "rookie." In the game, it's explained that this nameless move is to keep the core four from getting attached in case a device goes haywire and puts the whippersnapper out of commission, but in reality, it's so you can just sit back and play your part as the real Ghostbusters banter with each other in the tech-heavy dialogue and comedic one-liners you'd expect.

by(IGN)

No shocker here, but Ghostbusters The Video Game is funny. The script was penned by original film scribes Harold Ramis and Dan Aykroyd, and while it doesn't quite reach the heights of the 1984 comedy classic, it rides the film's coattails quite comfortably. It's 1991, and you play an unnamed rookie joining the ghostbusting team, the members of which are voiced amiably by the stars of the movies: Dan Aykroyd, Bill Murray, Harold Ramis, and Ernie Hudson. There are some moments when the performances sound phoned in (Bill Murray sounds a bit too sleepy even for Bill Murray), but there's no doubting that these are the same characters that delighted us in the '80s. Sigourney Weaver and Rick Moranis don't reprise their roles, but you'll hardly miss them as the plot careens forward, reuniting you with old spectral friends and propelling you through a pleasant variety of earthly and otherworldly locales. Not every joke soars, but you'll find it difficult to stop grinning, and you'll probably let out a few guffaws from time to time. Venkman's laconic womanizing, Egon's deadpan pseudoscientific explanations--there's wit here for fans and newcomers alike.

I decided to buy this game because it was taunting me with its fun factor, it just looked like a good game. Boy was I not disappointed. The controls were tight. It has really good voice acting for a videogame and bad lip syncing for a movie. The cutscenes generally integrate into the gameplay so well that if you weren't paying attention, you might accidentally not notice it's time to play. The playful banter between all of the original ghostbusters is laugh out loud funny, and towards the end the game sucked me in so much that I started making quips back at them when they spoke to the new recruit. The end of the game is a bit anti-climactic, only because it's too easy. Story-wise it's fine though, except for the lack of a real cinematic ending. (At least it doesn't tell you "Conglaturation !!!") It took me two days to beat, but I'm a pretty seasoned gamer. A casual gamer will find it's long enough. The replay value is pretty good. There's an X-Box Live multiplayer I will be trying out soon. It's probably just as fun.

I had high expectations for this game before I played it that I was starting to believe I might become too critical of the I began playing and progressing through it. Fortunately for me, the game is very good but it is not flawless.
The gameplay is fun and to the point where you feel like you have really accomplished something in capturing a ghost. The creators of the game really do a great job of immersing you within the game making you feel your apart of the Ghostbusters. The graphics for the most part are top notch and the modeling of the characters really do look like their real-life counterparts. Some of the environmental figures like statues looked to be modeled with fewer polygons and and can look rather rough. The voice acting and sounds emanating from the game such as as the effects and musical scores are excellent. A lot of professional reviewers will say that the music can sometimes get annoying like the Ghostbusters theme song being played during load times, but it is not that bad. The only thing that really gives this game any tarnish is the length of the single player game. It is rather short when compared to others, around 12 hours. Again, the 12 hours you play is fun and you can go back to any level once the game is completed and try to find all the little trinkets hidden within the game. I did not mention the multiplayer because I have not tried that out yet, but that is within the game if I did not mention prior in this review.
In conclusion, if you are a fan of the movies you will enjoy this game and if you have never seen the movies I believe the game can hold its own even without the mystique of the movies that precede it.