Warning, SOME SPOLIERS AHEAD
Some of you know the Game Developers Conference is happening right now in GDC in San Francisco. I heard from a co-worker they had a demo of the Ghostbusters game for the PC running at the Intel booth. It was a no-brainer I HAD to go and play it. Just about a 10 minute walk from work, I borrowed my boss pass and set out shortly before lunch.
Once I entered the expo, I scouted for the Intel booth. Along the way, amazing booth babes at the N-gage booth tried to deter me from finding my true objective. For once I didnt care about hot women clothed in skin tight spacesuits. Nothing else mattered to me but to get my hands on Ghostbusters. Luckily, it did not take me long to find the Intel booth.
And there it was. Ghostbusters running on a blazing computer with an xbox-type controller. And to my surprise: no huge crowd surrounding the demo! I dont think anyone suspected Ghostbusters was running at the Intel booth and I only had to wait 3 minutes before I got to play. And play I did. I hogged the machine for the next 20 minutes. Back off man!
I got to start at the menu screen with that beautiful firehouse in plain view. I quickly checked out the options and extras screen. When I did this I was surprised to see the camera swing around to the right side of the firehouse where options such as video and controls could be selected. When I selected Extras it went to some grayblocked proxy screen of the firehouse that obviously wasnt finished yet. I went ahead and went to Load Level and the Intel guy told me to select the library. The other two selectable levels were just physics demos he told me.
It was the library level that we have all seen and heard about, with the Ghostbusters outside cheering at the crowd and lion statue exploding before they head in. I wont go into too much detail about the walkthrough since most of us have seen it in videos already so I will tell you my first reactions as a fan.
-The game is more scripted and linear than I thought. Think Call of Duty. Lots of events happen along the way with ghosts slamming doors on you, passing by you suddenly, books falling on you. I bet playing this game with the lights out will be creepy. I know the demo was meant to be linear so Im really looking forward to the other levels.
-The graphics are sweet and detailed. Lots of particles and special fx, moreso than I thought. Dan Aykroyd looks great, I got real close up to his face, it looks just like him. Nice wrinkles. Awesome job!
-The game controls feel a lot like Gears of War without the cover system. It controlled great. No real complaints.
-The PKE meter was fun to use, I felt like I was Egon. (*egon) Lots of green lights meant you were close, Red very close! Blue lights not close!
-I felt like I had to vent the pack quite often to cool it down. The boson dart fired with the left trigger overheated the pack quickly. But it was also quite powerful. It took about 4 shots with the shotgun weapon to overheat the pack.
-Venting the pack felt like reloading a gun. The rookie looked down at his neutrona wand each time you vented, and instantly reminded me of the movie when Ray turns on the wand to fire at Slimer at the food cart.
-The book golem monster was easy. Just keep moving and strafing. People went oooooooooo! when the golem exploded into a thousand books.
-The flying blue books were hard. They would swarm in a group and then bolted at me. I died a bunch of times in this room and constantly had to revive Ray or he had to revive me. I failed if both Ray and I were knocked out and restarted at a nearby checkpoint. I found out using the shotgun type weapon (selectable by pressing left on the control pad, up for for proton stream) worked well against the books. I got the hang of it finally. Im glad it was a challenge, I dont want to breeze through the game.
-Catching ghosts was fun as hell. I was surprised the right trigger for the proton stream did not wrangle the ghost. You had to fire the steam with RT and then press the left bumper in conjunction to turn on the capture beam. Not too big of a deal I guess but I was surprised it was done with two buttons and not just the right trigger.
-I thought it was cheap after I cleared the whole room of blue books, and finally started wrangling one of the two ghosts and a bunch of blue books came out again and attacked me again.
-The ghost would posess/control a table in the room and throw himself at me. A boson dart destroyed the table and the ghost would fly out of it.
-I tried slamming ghost around like I seen in the videos, but I couldnt quite figure it out. I made the ghost dizzy once using the boson dart.
-The ghost trap didnt have a wire. At least I didnt see it. hmmmm
-It did feel like a fishing game capturing the ghost in a trap. As long as you keep it within the cone of light coming out of the ghost trap, it was a breeze. He goes left, you press right. Vice versa. So much fun. It was really satisfying landing that ghost in the trap.
-The proton pack opens up and transforms when you select a different weapon. Very cool. That pack is just as detailed as the characters. People around me kept saying it looked awesome.
-The volume was low but there was lots of chatter, Dan was really in character from what I could tell.
-Playing the game made me want to play it even more. Were in for a real treat as fans.
-I felt eyes burning in the back of my skull so I finally gave up the controller. Lots of people walked by and would comment they were really looking forward to it. Most people were impressed by how good the characters looked and the proton pack especially.
-I knew more about the game and controls then the Intel guy did. He didnt even know the release date. Ha! Thanks Ghostbuster forums! :)
And thats my day playing Ghostbusters. Great stuff, i cannot wait to get this baby in my hands on June 16th! Great job so far TR!
