The PKE meter offers a pair of night vision style goggles and puts the player in a first-person situation. These goggles are tinted and when you have them on they will detect paranormal activity in seemingly normal objects and bring slime manifestations to life. Your meter will glow with the goggles on to tell you if there is a paranormal spirit present (a red bar is present) if something is hidden in a location (a blue bar is present) or if you’ve discovered a game objective (a green bar is present). There are over 40 different hidden objects/artifacts for you to find.

In between each ghost hunting expedition, you return to the fire station for some downtime. Here, you can fool around. How many opportunities would you have liked to have where you get to hang out at the Ghostbusters fire station? Well now you have the chance to live out all those fantasies you’ve had. It seems as if the developers feared this game might become repetitious, too, so they opened this game up to a variety of locations.

Sometimes the story takes time before you’ll return to the action. You will have to wait before the characters stop talking to get going. This isn’t too bad. I’ve seen games where there is too much talking and not enough action, but this isn’t the case with “Ghostbusters: The Video Game.” I actually enjoyed the breaks as it gave me a chance to rest up between the action!

Something that is cool about the game is the ability to revive and be revived. Because you work as a team with the other Ghostbusters, you all have to die to be destroyed and restart at the last checkpoint. Your health meter is on your proton pack and if you have low health, you can step out of the action and have your health slowly return. If you happen to pass out, one of the other Ghostbusters can revive you and you can revive them. This isn’t a one strike and you’re dead kind of game, which I like!

You can make money from artifacts (hidden objects) and capturing ghosts. Your total damage will be added up, and you can win Xbox Achievements for having small amounts of damage and/or massive amounts of damage. The city is keeping track of the damage you do so you can ‘pay them back’ in the event you destroy various parts of New York.

While this primary version of play is all in single person, there is the ability to play a multiplayer version of the game. This is an online co-op style of play. You choose your character, as one of the original Ghostbusters or as the Rookie. You can play with up to three other players and go through multiple missions. For example, there is one game where you and your team must capture as many ghosts as you can within a timed period. Another game asks you to stay alive as long as you can. You can gain extra life time by capturing ghosts, which adds more time to your clock.

You can play online in multiplayer mode, but there isn’t a local multiplayer option. You can win rewards (earnings) from how well you do in multiplayer (you are competing against the others in your group), but this has no bearing on what you do in the single player game. What it does do is help you move up on the multiplayer leaderboards and ascend through the Ghostbuster ranks. You can move up 20 different levels.

Here is a list of all the features included in “Ghostbusters: The Video Game”:

Single Player Features

-Play as the Rookie – Brand new character
-Switch between Third-Person Shooter & First Person View with the PKE Meter
-Proton Pack includes upgrades – Weapons offered are the Proton Stream, Boson Dart, Stasis Stream, Meson Collider, Slime Blower/Tether and Shock Blast
-Over 40 different artifacts (hidden objects) to find
-A variety of environments to explore (many from the movies – including the fire station)
-Original cast has returned to voice characters
-Up to 55 paranormal entities to fight – some familiar (Slimer, Stay Puft Marshmallow Man) and plenty of never before seen spirits
-Make money from capturing spirits to purchase upgrades
-Proton Pack has manual vent option
-Proton Pack displays health/vent meters
-Special Goggles activate PKE meter which can help you find artifacts, objectives and spirits
-Earn Xbox Achievements for a variety of things

Multiplayer Mode Features

-Move up through 20 different levels on the leaderboards
-Use earnings to move up through the ranks
-Pick your own character (the original four Ghostbusters or the Rookie)
-Multiple Campaigns including Survival (survive as long as you can), Destruction (destroy evil relics), Slime Dunk (how many times can you trap Slimer in one game?), Capture (capture so many ghosts in a timed period), Protection (guard Egon’s equipment), and Thief (prevent ghosts from stealing artifacts)
-20 rare spirits appear throughout the various levels

Replayability:

Controls:
The controls aren’t too difficult to use, especially since Ray explains exactly how to use your Proton Pack and walks you through capturing your first ghost. As you progress, the other Ghostbusters tell you how to use your goggles/PKE Meter and other options as they become available to you.

The hardest part is holding down the trigger for as long as you have to when you are trying to shoot a ghost, tether and capture it. I have a muscle disease, so my hand muscles would get very tired by the end of capturing one ghost. If you have Fibromyalgia or any other disease that affects the hand muscles or bones, you might want to take frequent breaks between playing. Even my able-bodied girlfriend eventually grew tired of holding down the trigger too much. It fatigues your muscles over a long period of time, but they recommend you take breaks playing anyway.

The D-pad is going to come in handy, as it allows you to switch between dark matter functions on your Proton Pack. When you use the D-pad, you can use the upgrade add-ons like the Stasis Steam, the Slime Blower/Tether, the Shock Blast and the Meson Collider. This is something you’ll need to use extensively as you face harder to capture ghouls, and it mixes things up, so it’s not the same ol, same ol when it comes to trapping paranormal apparitions.

You’ll need to know what buttons to press to perform various functions like venting and accessing the PKE Meter. This is explained for you, so you’ll just have to remember what to press after the initial tutorial. On the Xbox 360 here are the standard controls you’ll use:

Y – Equip the PKE Meter
A – Pick up dropped trap/Revive Ghostbuster/Interact with others
X – Throw Trap
B – Jump/Run
L – Move
R – Turn/Aim
R-Click – Teammate Locations
Right Trigger – Fire Weapon
Left Trigger – Slam/Secondary Fire
RB – Vent
LB – Capture Stream

Ease of Use:

Visual Quality:
Though I’ve only played the Xbox 360 version of “Ghostbusters: The Video Game,” I’m told that this version is the best when it comes to visual quality. The PS3 version (which you’d think would be better, because PS3 excels when it comes to visual capabilities) seems to be lacking, especially when it comes to the minute details that enhance gameplay.

This game is actually pretty decent, visually speaking. The screenshots in this review don’t do it justice. It takes a lot to recreate such stunning likenesses to the original Ghostbusters. As expected, the proton streams aren’t nearly as perfect as they could look, but that doesn’t mean these scenes look bad. A lot of detail has gone into the capturing of ghostly apparitions. There are some obvious instances of pixelation, aliasing and some grain/dirt is present throughout certain scenes. The ghosts are all very intricately designed. Slimer looks better than he did in the movies and cartoons.

Overall, the visual quality isn’t perfect, but it’s a lot better than it could have been. The visual quality is, at times, stunning, and in other moments, leaves much to be desired. Still, this shouldn’t affect gameplay, too much.

Visual:

Audio Quality:
From the very first moment, you’ll be hearing the familiar voices of the actors who made ‘Ghostbusters’ into a multi-million dollar franchise. From the catchy theme music to the dialogue spoken throughout the game, you’ll be feeling a sense of nostalgia the whole time you play. Voice actors returning for this game soundtrack include Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, Harold Ramis, Ernie Hudson, Annie Potts, and William Atherton. Alyssa Milano also lends her voice as Peter’s potential love interest/museum curator Dr. Ilyssa Selwyn.

The sound, as a whole, is good. There are problems with synching the actors’ voices with their on screen personas. Some moments will stand out significantly, but overall, these moments are few and far between. I’ve heard some complaints about Bill Murray voicing Venkman as a dick at all moments. That’s where Venkman shines. We don’t have enough time to show his heart in this release! I like his cocky attitude. It’s how I always remember Venkman anyway.

The music for this soundtrack is recycled from the original movie. It gets a tad repetitious after a while, but would we, as Ghostbusters fans, really be satisfied had they made new and original music for this game? I don’t think so! The sound is level. No need to volume toggle. Music, dialogue and sound effects all remain steady and one doesn’t blare over the other. The sound effects come through loud and clear, making great use of the speakers.

Audio:

Bottom Line:
“Ghostbusters: The Video Game” may not be 100% what fans of the series have been waiting for…but it does come pretty close. I’m a fan of the series, and I really enjoyed playing this game. While this game might not appeal to the hardcore gamers with no vested interest in the Ghostbusters franchise (it’s not aiming to make new fans out of anyone), those who loved the original movies will find enough within this game to keep them satisfied…at least until Ghostbusters 3 is released!

Overall Rating:

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