Ghosthunter was a average game when it was released and it still barely retains that fact today.
After watching the Encyclopedia Bombastica on this game a while ago I wanted to play through it.Finally got around to it this past week. Ghosthunter follows the exploits of rookie cop Lazarus Jones as he accidentally releases a bunch of ghosts from a containment unit. Afterward, an AI computer decides that he must go out and catch all the ghosts he released. Although he only agrees to help so he can assist his partner who was kidnapped by a vile medieval ghost who seeks to use her for his evil plans. Although it takes a while the story does go a few cool directions but it is still rather basic and they leave a few questions unanswered by the time I saw the credits.
The silly tone of the story goes well with the premise. Yet the controls don’t withstand the test of time. This is mainly a third-person shooter and on that front it is okay. Running around shooting ghosts with one of the 8 weapons feels fine. The real issue with the first person mode which doesn’t let the player move around. Quite an issue when enemies can launch plasma/ghost bullets at you most of the time. At a few points, the game requires you to go into first person to locate invisible enemies thus making it required for you to get hit. Which is unfortunate but only occurs a few times throughout the game.
Other than vaporizing some ghosts and catching others with a grenade the main other gameplay element is using Jones's ghost friend K. She gets 5 skills as the story continues that are used to solve puzzles. For example, the first skill lets her become super heavy to break weak floors and interact with important buttons that open up a pathway. In a lot of these scenes, I had a big issue figuring out what I needed to interact with. Sometimes it was just me missing something obvious but since it kept happening I just don’t think they did a great job at laying out the puzzle sections.
Visually this is a PS2 game so it can’t really compete anymore but it looks fine for when it came out. This game is at it’s best when it uses some visual trickery to transport the player in a neat way. By the time this concluded I wish they had more dream-like areas since I quite liked those sections more than going through a generic prison. Another part that I wish was more consistent was the story scenes that don’t always come at a good pace.
In the end, this game doesn’t work as well today compared to when it was originally released in 2004. Which doesn’t mean I don’t think it is still an okay game. Bustin ghosts still makes me feel good. Sure some sections aren’t that great like I mentioned earlier but they weren’t a big enough issue to make me hate the game. If you're in the mood for a light-hearted romp through some spooky locations you might want to check out Ghosthunter.