I have just finished the PlayStation 3 version of Ghostbusters the videogame so I thought that now is as good a time to review the game as any.

Bear in mind though that I have not yet tried the multiplayer game so this review is purely of the campaign mode.

So on with my review. I am a huge fan of Ghostbusters. Huge. I had been waiting for this game since the beginning of 2007 which was when I first heard of its development. I had also been keeping a close eye on its development and all the time praying that Terminal Reality don’t mess it up.

So what do I think? Well, it’s definitely Ghostbusters! The characters are spot on, the Ecto 1, all the ghost catching equipment and firehouse are all recreated with love, care and attention to detail, Elmer Bernstein’s score is in there, the theme tune is back, the game just oozes Ghostbusters nostalgia from each and every pixel that it’s made out of. The thing is…well, it just isn’t a very good game.

It kills me to say this, being such a fan for so very long, but that’s my experience of playing Ghostbusters the videogame. Why don’t I think it’s very good? Various reasons. Mainly to do with the gameplay but first of all I want to get my gripes out of the way in relation to the technical aspects of the game.

The Playstation 3 version of the game has some pretty bad texture mapping, some of the detail more akin to the playstation 2 than the playstation 3! The frame rate is also quite poor to say the least. I found this quite off putting because when trying to follow ghosts around with my proton stream the movement appeared rough. A smooth frame rate would have really elevated the ghost catching element of the game. I also found once or twice that the game actually slowed down. When you take all of these things all into consideration it is very disappointing, especially if you remember the interview in which Terminal Reality announced that the ps3 version of the game would be the premier version.

Now I’ll talk about the really important reasons as to why I didn’t think the game was very good; the game play. There are parts of the game where you have to deal with many ghosts at the same time and there is simply no skilled way of defending yourself in getting through the bombardment. Ghosts attack in numbers at great speed via every angle possible. I found that when I was trying to concentrate my efforts on a particular ghost I was getting knocked off my feet by enemies which I couldn’t even see attacking me. Getting through these parts just seemed to be a matter of luck and trial and error.

This brings me to the revival system. Now I partly understand why they put the revival system in there. Dan Aykroyd said himself that this is one shooter where the characters don’t die but are instead simply rendered temporarily unconscious. I suppose that the revival system also gives the game a little originality with the fact that as the player you have the responsibility of looking after your team mates however it just doesn’t work well at all. The revival system is incredibly annoying. I found that when I was rendered unconscious it sometimes took my team mate a while to get to me to revive me and I was just left helpless on the ground. I also found on many occasions that just as my team mate was about to revive me he would get knocked out himself and Id have to start again. Not only that but on countless occasions I recall having to go over to my team mates in order to revive them and getting knocked out just before reaching them and again having to start over. The whole thing felt incredibly unfair and as though I was not in full control of the game. In general the combat is just a mess because there is absolutely no way of avoiding attacks from ghosts that aren’t in your field of view. Being repeatedly knocked down and having to save your team mates takes it’s toll and becomes more far more frustrating than it is fun.

I also noticed that this game is in dire need of a quick turn function which is something that I think would have come in very useful for the sections which you have to defeat a lot of ghosts. I’m surprised that a resident evil style 180 degree turn wasn’t included in this game. Perhaps a function whereby at the touch of a button your character automatically faces the nearest ghost to him would have worked better.

I also noticed that the game does not let you know when it is saving. I found this odd. It’s nice to know exactly where your last save point was. You can of course find out by getting a game over but I don’t think that you should have to find out that way. A simple “saving” icon in one of the corners of the screen wouldn’t have been that difficult to put in, would it? I’m not damning the game for this particular aspect because I don’t think it’s that important but it would have been a welcome addition.

Another thing I found slightly annoying was that whenever you get a game over the theme tune plays. I found myself muting my television on every game over because I was hearing the theme tune so often. I love the theme tune. It’s a great little song but, like just about anything, if you’re exposed to it so many times it can tend to get a little repetitive and annoying.

The levels are incredibly linear. Actually, the levels couldn’t be any more linear since there is only really one way of getting through each level of the game. There’s not really any exploration to do. No secret areas to find. No rooms to unlock. No diversions to take. No multiple routes to choose from. This linearity of the levels badly affect the replay value of the campaign mode and makes the game feel a little empty.

I think that one of the main concerns about making a Ghostbusters game was that the game play would become repetitive and I found that it was, but only a little. The ghost catching parts of the game are broken up with ghost seeking via use of the pke meter, collecting artefacts and various objectives such as finding the switch, taking the electrified cable out of the water, raising the sewer shaft etc. While these parts did require a little more thinking than the rest of the game they weren’t exactly difficult. I think that the addition of various brain challenging puzzles, collect and use elements and perhaps even some stealth game play could have elevated the game by adding more challenge and variation. Aside from the proton stream the proton pack now has the functionality of being able to fire six other projectiles. These projectiles all have their uses but I found that it was really only the slime blower/slime tether that was the real welcome addition. The shock blast/stasis stream and the meson collider/overload pulse felt unnecessary to the game and I only used each of them a few times during the whole adventure. As I said though, the slime tether is a very welcome addition and is used in a very inventive and clever way from moving objects to defeating enemies and it, along with the other additional equipment save the game from falling into a trap of feeling repetitive.

I do however think that the developers got the most important element of the game right. The look and feel of the proton beam is spot on and the wrangling and slamming is ever such good fun. It’s also incredibly satisfying directly pesky ghosts into the awaiting trap, watching them struggle as they descend into that pyramid of white light. The wrangling and trapping also sets the game apart from just about every other first person shooter out there which is a good thing. I certainly felt as though I was playing something truly original and fresh with Ghostbusters the videogame unlike a lot of shooters that are out there.

As I said at the beginning of my review, Ghostbusters is presented with real care and attention to detail in this game. The game really does look and sound like a truly genuine high quality Ghostbusters product and it also did make me feel as though I had entered the Ghostbusters world and was one of them. As a fan with this in mind it’s very difficult not to look at this game through rose tinted ecto goggles (couldn’t resist) but a good review is an honest one and an unbiased one. I found that this game had a lot of game play problems. Too many. Not just problems but there were a lot of things about the game that could have been improved on with a change here and a change there. With all said and done there are just too many things about the game that I found far too frustrating, annoying, unfair and unnecessary. I think that the developers actually prevailed with the most important aspect of the gameplay, (the wranging and trapping), however campaign mode of Ghostbusters the videogame just has too many niggles and the overall lack of variation makes the game feel too empty and too shallow.

6 out of 10.