Ghostbusters Game Review

It’s been 20 years since Ghostbusters 2, but when you pick up Ghostbusters the Video Game those 20 years seem to fade away as it takes place in 1991 and the Ghostbusters show that a timeless franchise can not lose when you bring back the people who made it a hit.

In the single player campaign you play as a new recruit. You team up with the other Ghostbusters and are basically a guinea pig to test their new equipment. You won’t just have new equipment at your disposal, you will have the classic stuff as well, such as the PKE meter, and the proton pack. The story has you going through classic Ghostbuster places, such as the Sedwig Hotel, the NYC Library, and the Museum of Art.

If you are like me, playing by yourself as a Ghostbuster you never heard of isn’t for you. This is where the online campaign comes in. You can choose from any five of the Ghostbusters (including the new one) and team up to take down ghosts and goblins in a number of separate game types. Finding a game can be a pain though, especially on XBox.

The game plays surprisingly well. Your health is based on yours and your teammates. If you go down, your teammate can pick you back up. Right trigger will fire your selected weapon and left trigger will fire a backup. For the default it is a boson dart, but throughout the game when you acquire different types of ammo, the secondary will change as well. The types of ammo you acquire is not far fetched, one will slow down ghosts, one is the pink slime from Ghostbusters 2 which will make ghosts nicer, one will neutralize black harmful slime.

Fans of the movies will notice nods around the game, for instance the painting of Vigo is in the firehouse and Walter Peck becomes what essentially is your new boss. Don’t get me wrong though, this is not a rehash of the movies, this is a whole new story, one that Dan Aykroyd is so proud of, that he said the video game is essentially Ghostbusters 3.

Any fan of the Ghostbusters movies or cartoons should pick up this game.

*Note: This is a review of the Ghostbusters Video Game for the Xbox 360 game console. Differences in versions may alter your experience.